A pretty good overview BoT. But every construction has some advantages depending on intended use.
Even the old aluminum beaters that are everywhere and usually cheap. They are downright handy in that a guy can toss them on sawhorses in the back yard and let them sit for extended periods with no protection or maintenance needed. Almost all of them have some sort of built-in floatation bulkheads. And it is not hard to do repairs if damage is anything short of wrapping it around a rock and squishing it flat. Even then, it is worth it's weight in recycled aluminum. One should note that there are about three different thicknesses of aluminum used over the years, from lightweight to heavyweight. As weight goes up, so does durability (dent and puncture resistance). I would not be opposed to adding a beater aluminum to my fleet as a loaner, or just something to play rocky river "dodgem-car" in. "Bing-bang-boom"!
I like my Old Town "barge", the Guide 169. It is three layers of crosslink poly, pretty resistant to abrasion, quiet, not cold or hot to the touch, long wide and stable. Even Jake (45#) jumping side to side hardly rocks it. Heavy? Yes.
I like my fiberglass composite Bell Morningstar. It's gelcoat finish is not very abrasion resistant, but I keep that in mind as to where and how I use it. It is quite maneuverable, lightweight and fun to paddle.
I like my old Royalex Blue Hole Sunburst II that I recently refurbished. Heavier than aluminum or fiberglass, but not as heavy as poly. And the Royalex lamination is fairly abrasion and impact resistant. The whitewater hull shape makes it a PITA on flat water and in wind. And it isn't stable enough to allow for a randomly moving ballast like Jake. If one wants a ROyalex canoe, he should buy it sooner rather than later. Royalex is slated to be discontinued next spring by the material manufacturer and prices for good used canoes will only increase. FYI, the Royalex lamination sheets have evolved over the years. The earlier ones are heavier with more reenforcement layers. Later ones are thinned out with fewer layers, small reinforcement panels added to the sheets specific to manufacturer and model. Dates of manufacture are generally noted in the "HIN" number stamped into the hull or on an attached plate. The last two digits denote the year.
Blown fiberglass "chopper gun" canoes? Yeah, heavy. But cheap. I had one that I got many miles out of. It was a marine salvage from Hurrican Andrew, and sat sunken in a bayou with grass growing out of it. I got it for a c-note and refurbished it for another c-note. It endured trips on bays and the gulf, and two more hurricanes before I moved back inland and brought it with me. I eventually wore the bottom to leakyness on my rocky fishing streams and was getting ready to do a fiberglass bottom patch when it was stolen. So it worked well for what it was.
Single layer poly? I paddled an early Coleman Ram-X 17 for years, both tandem and solo. It, like the Guide, was heavy and stable, abrasion and dent resistant. Poly is too floppy for a canoe unless it has some structural reenforcement, an aluminum inner frame. And even then it tends to "oil can". But again, for the price and my use, it was a good deal.
The poly box store canoes? Good entry level canoes for casual users. Like the Colemans before them, they need interior structure. Almost all of them have seats which either contact the bottom completely, or have a pedistal of seat plastic contacting the floor. Old Town Sarnac, Bass Pro, Pelican... a lot of entry level canoes are like this nowdays. Obvious cues on CL ads for these are mention of great features like built in cup holders and seat compartments (dry box/ice chest/live well). These are the most frequently listed canoes since they are cheap to buy, and a lot of first timers buy them, only to sell them because of non-use. I actually bought one and brought it home and assembled it some years back. After looking it over closely and considering it, I took it back for a refund and used the money to buy a different canoe elsewhere.
