I am an advanced beginner paddler with a decent amount of varied experience in both kayaks and canoes, as I used to work as an outdoor guide. My husband (predominantly a land sport guy) and I both have kayaks (13’ Old Town Cayuga 130 and 12’ Wilderness Systems Pamlico 120, respectively), but I’ve wanted to get a canoe for family outings. We have a 3yo human child, and will likely have a dog in the future. The Pamlico 120 is super stable and has a very large and open cockpit area, so I’ve used that to paddle with either our late dog or our kid, but it would be nice to have a bigger boat we can all sit in together and use for short trips. I imagine we’d primarily paddle flat water, maybe some rivers and larger lakes, up to Class II rapids but probably not more than that.

I’d really like something that has a yoke for portaging but also a third seat for a third person. Do they make a boat like that? Are there other options for comfortably seating three people while still being able to do a single person portage?