knafelc Finding the right boat for you shouldn't be too hard.  The stickiest point may be the bow/stern rise.  Wenonah 15' Prospector has slightly different rises, but I don't notice that much.

Any decent tandem shouldn't have any problems with your weight & size.

I made one modification to make solo easier.  I moved the bow seat towards center about a foot.  Makes it easier to heel and trim.  Makes tandem a little more trouble, but only my elitist paddler friends have mentioned that.

For a good, all-purpose solo, I like my Wenonah Wilderness quite a bit.  Picked it up as a demo boat from Midwest Mountaineering a few years ago for a third the price of a Prism or Q16.  On a 16-day trip down the Bloodvein it handled most class I and II rapids, blasted through big waves, tracked well on the calm flatwater and had plenty of capacity for all my gear (100 lbs of gear, 180 lbs of me).  I have the 49 lbs royalex layup which, to me, is a nice compromise between weight on the portage, and utility on the water.  My paddling mate had a Bell Wildfire solo (also in royalex) and spent most of the trip out in front of me.  His boat seemed faster and more maneuverable in rapids, but my Wenonah seemed to have more carrying capacity and tracked straighter out on the big lakes.  I don't mind the heavier royalex canoe over a kevlar because the smaller solo royalex boats are light enough for me, and then I don't have to stress as much about hidden rocks damaging my hull.

Thanks guys. I haven't taken a tape measure to it,but I've got the royalex 17' penobscot (17'4"?,Ithink). It did pretty well in rough seas in the past,but then my little guy was only maybe 100lbs. He is growing fast! A couple of topics down ,they're discussing the backwards tandem issue and I've been following it. Seems that I ought to put a bunch of time in it going backwards down here (in Illinois) to get through any learning curve,before I 'jump ship'. I can still carry it,and sometimes 'making do' gives it's own satisfaction. Not getting needlesly bullied by the wind is something I'll try to work on down here. A slightly smaller affordable boat that I can customize is appealing. Thanks. I'll look to the backwards tandem topic-site for more info and let this one focus on solos.