MM,

Good suggestions and thanks! I'll take a deeper dive into this during the week. I just got back from a short trip with my daughter up in Ely. LOTS of people up there but that's to be expected. I'd agree that I'm looking at something like the river tripper that you suggested -- just something with more rocker than my current flat water boats and some toughness to the layup. Weight's a consideration as well.

I thought she married a dishwasher!

"So, I'm probably NOT looking for a whitewater canoe per se but a reasonably sturdy, versatile flatwater canoe that provides some of the necessary traits to cover whitewater stretches and still paddle the flat and slow current stuff with relative ease."

a little late to the party, but thought I'd add a bit.

H&D, for sure you do not want a white water boat - what you want is a boat generally described as a "river tripper" - something you can do Class II in, and still be reasonable in slow current and lakes.  No river tripper will be "fast" on the lakes, but will be much faster than a true white water boat, and a whole lot more comfortable (WW boats have "saddles" that you sit on in a kneeling position - after about an hour of that, I can barely walk!)   

granted that you aren't buying now, you still ought to be looking at Craig's List and any other classifieds for a decent used boat:  Look for Mad River "Guide" or "Freedom Solo", Maybe a Swift Keewaydin 15', NorthStar Phoenix or NorthStar Solo, or Nova Craft Supernova..  Wenonah has the Wilderness (15'4"), which isn't really a river tripper, but has a bit of rocker; Their Argosy (14'6")  and Rendezvous (15'8")  are better --- you may get lucky and find any of these in royalex or sturdy composite.  These boats all have moderate rocker 2 - 2.5 inches, so aren't too hared to keep straight on flatwater, but are maneuverable on rivers.

I have a rendezvous in royalex - weighs about 58# - kind of a pig on flat water, but it is the fastest of the solo river trippers in my opinion - I've done a lot of Class II rapids, and a little bit of CIII in this boat - for CII and above, you most likely want to have a boat rigged for floatation bags, though dry bags will give some floatation.  Wenonah never showed the rendezvous as a composite boat in their website, but they still do make them for the local dealer here in Denver (likely because he was the designer)  - you can check out his website to get a perspective on what solo boats are out there and what they cost (canoecolorado.net)   - If I were to buy a new boat for river tripping up to Class II, it would be another rendezvous in tuffweave layup - there are at least a half dozen of them in my club, and they all hold up quite well - it is a bit cheaper than some of the more exotic layups and about a half mph faster than the rx version.

Of all the crazy ideas that I've had, that thought definitely crossed my mind.

We've had to break out my camp dishwashing tub to get the dinner dishes clean. So, some of our camping gear IS double-purposing.

HND - Get the model with the Kevlar tub....then you can paddle THAT when not washing dishes. 

pd

Boats are on hold. Gotta go buy a new dishwasher for our kitchen. The order came down from on high....

Some notes on potential boats:

Prospector 16 or 17 in Aramid Lite

Swift Prospector 16 (Kevlar Fusion or Expedition)

Northwinds B17

I'll add my overall impressions from the research....

Whitewater canoes can be designed to specialize in whitewater canoeing, i.e. maneuverability, protection against swamping, rugged hulls, etc but they may tough for novice to intermediate paddlers to control on flat water and may be slower crossing big lakes.

So, I'm probably NOT looking for a whitewater canoe per se but a reasonably sturdy, versatile flatwater canoe that provides some of the necessary traits to cover whitewater stretches and still paddle the flat and slow current stuff with relative ease.

The Prospector is popular in Canada for that reason but Swift makes a decent version of this and Dagger has a few options. Northwinds apparently is churning out a canoe to compete in this category and you could probably do all right with a royaliex or facsimile with a litter  up-skilling (e.g. whitewater training classes) to be safe out there...

Just my two cents. I'll keep reading. I've got plenty of time on my hands these days...

Cleaning out my notebook on whitewater canoes.....

At least four choices for hulls:
1) Hevlar...is light - I call it the birch bark option because you'll likely only run a good set of rapids once with this hull....and never again....or regret that you did it in the first place! I'll save my two boats for the easier, flatter stuff out there.

2) Composite hulls - This option covers the Aramid, Armid lite, and blue steel options. It's lighter than other classic hulls such as royalex and t-formax but the durability of it would have to be monitored. Better to portage though than those below. That B17 Northwinds is a good example of this although Nova Craft makes a good Prospector  16 out of this too.

3) Royalex - Is this a composite too? It seems like it to me but probably deserves its own category. Its variously described as a coating of vinyl with a hard acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic outer layer and ABS foam inner layer. My old Penobscot 16 was made of this and weighed every bit of the 75 pounds advertised! I miss that boat's durability but I'm glad that I really never had to portage it anywhere or for any substantial length of time. 

4) Fiberglass, i.e. concrete. If you portage this you will save enough on potential canoe repairs from running rapids to afford that back surgery, hip replacement and a lifetime supply of extra strength Tylenol  . I'd like to take one of these and plop it on a lake to see if it sinks.....just sayin'

5) Grumman Airplane Aluminum - I'm starting to like this canoe more even though it's the heaviest. On my first group trip into WCPP, we came out at Johnson after crossing paths with a group of four Canadienne women on Telescope, two were from Red Lake, one was Oji-Cree and the fourth was from further south. They were all friends who had grown up together in the area. They portaged two tried-and-true silver Grummans during a five day trip like champs and met us in the Johnson parking lot...and they never flinched once about carrying those heavy boats. That is just they way it's done, they said. P.S. The did not give a ride to town...but delivered our message that we needed one....

[quote author=nadagikendan link=1586641336/22#22 date=1586886994]Novacraft also has a hybrid material that they use called Blue Steel. I kid you not.

I looked at the Nova Craft "Blue Steel" boats at Canoecopia a couple of years ago.  I liked what I saw and heard at the time.

I'm kicking the tires on a trip out west this year to do some float trips and trout fishing but I'd probably take my royalex "tugboat"
if I go.

Stay safe.......