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I love my Stowe 13 foot Riversedge! The previous owner stored it upside down on the ground and all the wood rotted. I got it for free, and replaced the gunwales, thwarts, and seats, and repainted it. I think I spent about $100, and I have a canoe that I value at far more than that.

Other reviewers said there is one fault. There are actually two, but they are easily corrected. The flexing of the bottom is what they call "oil-canning" (for those who remember the old fashioned oil can where you pressed on the bottom to dispense a drop of oil onto the part you were trying to lubricate). This flexing is only a problem when there is not a third person or load of gear to weight down the middle of the boat. As mentioned by another reviewer, the fix is a small vertical brace between the center cross-thwart and the bottom of the boat.

The second fault is more serious. One previous owner of my canoe (I learned later) gave it up for this reason, and that is instability. The problem is that the seats are too high (mounted directly under the inwales) and also too far to the ends of the boat. Moving each seat 6 inches towards the center of the canoe, and dropping them down 2 inches (using hard to find 4 inch stainless steel screws) makes a world of difference.

They say that canoes with a shallow vee bottom, like this one, are more stable in rough water, and my experience bears that out. This little 13 foot canoe can handle windy Adirondack lakes just as well as some larger boats.