I have been some what biased to bell canoes but when they are gone there is still plenty of good solos around.  Some of the other boats have come up with new methods of building canoes.   Savage River has some fascinating solo boats and they are lighter than bells.   Or check out Placidbaots.com or grbnewmandesigns.com/classicxl.htm.  In short I am not sure I would tell them to run out and buy a boat that they are not going to trip in this year because there will not be as good of boat on the market next year.
MagicPaddler