My first real canoe was an Alan Bridges pattern Malamut - 4mm ply!
It lasted for several years as an instructor/guide boat and many more as a pleasure boat on up to grade 2 white water. Eventually I sold it on to help fund the purchase of other kit.
At one point I had 8 canoes, mainly Old Town 158s and Scouts plus the Malamut a Mad River of some sort, a Pyranha Prospector and an Alan Bridges Birch Creek 16.
All I have left are the AB Birch Creek and the Pyranha Prospector...
I've had 7 since 2008 but never more than two at any one time.
Started with a Discovery 158-okay for the first few months but dreadful once I got the hang of things. Then got a Pack (royalex), to "compliment" the Disco-okay as far as it went, easy to pick up and go and it made a good learning tool, as you had to get your paddle strokes right or you just nodded from side to side. Awfully slow to get anywhere due to its short length.
Next,I'd wanted a decent royalex boat when those two were sold but a dead washing machine put paid to those ambitions, so I bought a Nova Craft SP3. Another polythene boat like the Disco but apart from being made of the same material, the same length and about the same weight, it bore no comparison at all to the Disco! The SP3 was and still is, by far the best polythene canoe you can buy for
my money anyway but it's
seriously heavy, like all polythene boats.
I then moved on to a Nova Craft Prospector 15 in RX Lite. I bought this, in the
belief that it was a light weight SP3

I couldn't have been further from the truth! It was light enough, weighing about 60lbs or so but it paddled
worse than the Discovery 158 ever did! It looked totally out of proportion too, as if they had taken a 16ft mould and cut the middle 12" out, then joined it back together without considering the freeboard (The height of the sides of the boat) very good quality as are all Nova Craft boats but a big disappointment.
I sold that within about 4 months or so and bought a sot and went fishing for a few months.
Then I got rid of the sot and bought a Mad River Explorer 14, again in polythene or "triple tough". This was bought as a stop gap but proved to be an excellent little boat, if a bit slow due to its lack of length. I learned how to sail a canoe with this boat and actually considered buying a 16ft Royalex version but found the Reflection before an Explorer, so went with my current boat.
Thing is, I've only ever lost money on the sot! (about £100) all the others, either didn't lose any money or actually sold for a
little bit more than I'd paid for them!
I've been off canoeing for a while this year, with only a couple of trips to Hexham since April, until last Sunday when me and Shewie paddled Ullswater.
I've got the "bite" again now and will be paddling again a few times over the winter and then we'll just have to see how things pan out next spring
thanks for the replies so far, keep em coming!
cheers
Steve