The Prelude is a great boat. Very responsive — it leans very quick to either side and has excellent secondary. It accelerates fast for a canoe its size. The boat's narrowness (26" at the top of the gunwhales) makes for good vertical forward strokes. Hard chines enable precise carving for eddy catching and peel outs. On waves, it's a surf machine. It's reasonably stable when full of water.
This boat is rotomolded and made of polyethylene, the same plastic they use for whitewater kayaks. This makes it tougher than Royalex boats and allows it to slide more easily on rocks. It comes with an already installed foam bulkhead saddle. The seat is 10" high, too high for such a short, narrow canoe. I carved the seat down to less than 8" high.
I'd give the boat a 10 if they could find some way to offer it with adjustable thigh straps instead of the foam bulkhead. Overall, I'm very happy with the Prelude.
