I got this canoe at a deep discount from my local REI due to it not selling after a year or more. I've taken it out about a half dozen times now on various Massachusetts lakes and rivers. It handles really well, certainly more comfortable than soloing my friends Royalex OT Camper. It still gets caught by wind a lot worse than a kayak but also not as bad as any full size canoe. Not as fast or nimble as my wife's OT loon 120 kayak but not slow by any means. Tracks wonderfully for me, and feels quick and nimble, I can get up to 5 mph and maintain it pretty comfortably. I typically use a 260 cm BB kayak paddle, but keep a cheaper canoe paddle on hand as a backup and sometimes like to use the canoe paddle for a change of pace although it feels a lot less effective, especially when fighting wind or current. It would be great if it was 10 or 15 pounds lighter but Royalex being off the table it's hard to argue with what you get for the price with this boat.
The seat does pop out of the brackets under my weight (220 pounds), but I drilled holes through the plastic seat mounts and through the metal seat bars and just insert the retaining pins through the seat mount and mounting bars so the plastic mounts can't separate and drop the seat out. Honestly kind of blown away by the number of people that give this boat a bad review over such an easily fixable problem. It is a bit of an annoyance that it's up the owner to resolve this on a new boat, but it also took me 10 minutes with a power drill to fix, and now the boat performs perfectly.
If you're looking for a solo canoe but can't afford the premium price of a higher end solo boat this is perfect, while also being tough as nails.
