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  ;D ;D ;D. 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.... 8-)