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If there was a boat that I wanted to display in my house, this is the one! Awesome craftsmanship with great attention to detail. The wooden gunnels are 3 pieces of wood laminated together that transition into beautiful wood bow and stern decks. The carbon fiber finish is excellent - even where I requested some extra carbon cloth. OK, so I didn't buy it to put in my house, I bought it for the primary purpose of using it in a 340 mile race on the Missouri River. I weigh about 70 pounds more than most 5'10" people and wanted a boat that would be very stable and forgiving for me, even after spending about 75 hours - almost continuously and with very little sleep - in it.

A buddy tried talking me into the Classic XL but that was even narrower than a Bell Wildfire I had owned, which, again because of my weight, had problems adjusting to its stability. That might have been because of the higher seat in the Bell. So I ordered the boat and because of timing issues, I only had about a half hour in the boat before the start of the 340 mile race. Because of the big winds that could happen on the wide open Missouri River, I ordered the boat with the Smartrudder option. That was a very good choice and held me straight as needed. Because the boat was designed as a whitewater boat (but has minimal rocker) with greater volume, its a bit taller and catches the wind pretty easy. I added temporary, cloth deck covers to help keep the wind out.

I think it would be a great BW boat for a bigger person.. and you could still haul a lot of gear with no problems. Oh ya, at only 28 pounds - with rudder - its very easy to move around and load. I only gave it a 9 because of my lack of time in the boat and because the carbon 'tractor' seat could be a little bit bigger or my butt a little smaller (as if that's gonna happen!).

As I don't have much good canoeing days left this year, I'll try to update this review after I have more time in the boat which will probably be sometime next year.

I bought one of these in Sept. 2010 and used if for 3 short trips, down some Class 3 and 2 rapids and one day on a small lake. For me being a beginner, I thought I did really good with it in the rapids. It is very stable and easy to maneuver. I would recommend it for any beginning recreational user.