As it happens, I am in the market for a canoe. I've been told that I don't want a big 18' canoe if all I'm going to do is carry minimal gear and paddle around on a lake or river. How dreadful are aluminum canoes? How durable is polyethylene? Can polyethylene canoes be repaired? (I'm guessing not) Is the Old Town Guide 147 big enough for two adults?
Currently looking at used, preferably under $500.
Seems there was a thread about this very subject a while back, but I couldn't find it.
If you are covering distances, longer is usually faster. If you are in tight areas, longer is harder to maneuver.
I have a 14' fiberglass, and a 18' plastic. Both are decent, both were under $150 off of Craigslist.
Some of the plastics can be welded back together.
I don't have any experience owning an aluminum, but they are durable. They do not like rocks, but my glass canoe doesn't either.
For flat water I like aluminum. They are offered in lengths and widths to do whatever you want, square stern if a motor is in your future, hell, you can get a sailing rig for them. Use the boat, set it wherever you want when you're done and it will outlive you and your children.
They don't like to slide over rocks, so if rivers are in your future then maybe look elsewhere.
Used ones are easy to find though lots of them are big and smaller is better unless you're taking 3+ people or 1000lbs of dead moose across a lake or something. They're loud if you're clumsy. They're cold in the cold and hot in the hot.
My previous aluminum canoe was found in the woods full of water after a flood. I emptied it out and used it for five years and then sold it for $150. My current canoe was a rental before my inlaws bought it when my wife was young. It sat outside in Michigan for 20 years and was used in the summer. They gave it to us and it still sits outside at my cottage and gets pushed into the water a couple times a summer.
Aluminum canoes aren't pretty or fast or any real technological marvel, but they're very good and being durable boats.
I have an aluminum 18' ex-rental canoe. I paid $200 for it 7 years ago and could probably get $250 for it today. It's heavy (I cannot lift the whole thing overhead to put it atop the suburban by myself) but it's durable. I'll most likely leave it to my kids when I die in another 40 years.
Well, I didn't want to buy new, and I couldn't find anyone with anything nice to say about aluminum, except that it lasts forever and I wasn't looking to include the canoe in my will. So I contacted a couple sellers of plastic canoes on Craigslist.
Guy has an Old Town Guide 147, asking $450, which seemed a little steep. I told him I'd come look at it. He calls me back and says while he's cleaning it up, he finds a HOLE in it. Said he was going to Dick's Sporting Goods, buying a patch kit, and fixing it up. If I still wanted it, he'd knock some money off. I told him I was looking at another canoe, but I'd let him know.
Few hours later, he calls back and leaves a message on my machine. Dicks is sold out of repair kits and if I want the canoe I can have it for free. Called him back and told him I was on my way.
So I get there and he's a nice chap. We both happen to be wearing Notre Dame T-shirts and he thinks that's cool. We talk, we load up the canoe. It comes with some nice paddles. I give the guy 50 bucks because I thought free was too good a deal and he could probably take his wife to dinner or something.
Plastic welded the hole today. I think it will keep the water out. The hole was maybe the size of a nickel, and the piece was still there. This canoe is like a poly sandwich, with a skin inside and outside, with a dense foam in between. I used a woodburning iron with a flat tip to mend the inside, then melted some green #2 poly from a Cascade dishwashing detergent bottle onto the outside with a heat gun and let that cool. Cut a small piece of aluminum screen bigger than the hole and worked that into the surface with the heat gun, then topped the whole shebang with another layer of plastic over the screen.
Doesn't look too bad. Didn't get to try it out. Had a friend stop by and the kids had stuff going on. Maybe one day this week it will see the water. The canoe looks great overall. I doubt it was ever used more than a couple times. For 50 bucks, I'm pretty stoked! 
You could make one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyGyLf4Ltf4
In reply to alstevens:
That is a wonderful thing, but I don't need another project of that scope. I was quite happy to invest no more than a few hours in this one.
Nice.
A few years ago I helped a friend move and his roommate gave me an old canoe. 12' sprayed 'glass. I kept it on my pond for a few years. After the last time I used it I flipped it over onto a sapling stump from a beaver and put a hole in it. Fast forward to two months ago a friend was looking for a used boat with a $200 budget. I told him what I had and I would trade it for a knife. I got a SOG Seal Pup out of 12' of junk fiberglass. He got a boat out of one(of many) knives and he fixed it with a beer can and a bottle of gorilla glue.
alstevens wrote: You could make one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyGyLf4Ltf4
Or you could make this one 8lb canoe
Late to the convo, congratulations on your deal, hope the repair holds. I went with plastic and was happy. Aluminum gets hot AF and it's glare-y, plus if you are paddling quietly and enjoying the wildlife, a careless glance off the gunwhale with your paddle bangs the canoe like a drum and is guaranteed to be loud enough to spook game up to a mile away. Fiberglass is darn heavy. That is all.
Well, it's official. The canoe floats. My son and I were out for about three hours today on a tributary of the James River near Deep Bottom. It's a nice size, skims along pretty well. My son complained that there was no place for him to stretch his legs up front, so we might need to switch halfway through, since I was quite comfortable. I fished a little, but didn't catch a darn thing. There were fish jumping all around the boat, taunting us. Also saw a Great Blue Heron standing on a submerged log, looking for lunch. We got a little too close and he (she?) took flight. We see these birds frequently, but they are truly amazing every time. Huge six-foot wingspan, and so effortless and graceful in flight. We passed presumably the same bird, in the same place on our return, but slid past without bothering him this time.
My polyethylene weld job appears to hold water. It didn't leak a drop. Beautiful day for a canoe ride.
Sounds like you found the perfect deal for you!. Cool!
I was going to post and echo Masdeuce's sentiments about storage. My wife and I each came to the marriage with a canoe. Hers plastic and mine aluminum. The plastic (we-no-nah, I believe) is great for when it's just the two of us. If we have another person of if the kids are along, we take an aluminum one (usually in addition to the plastic). What I love about the aluminum is that it can sit out in the sun or the snow and I don't feel like I'm mistreating it. The plastic one I feel should be stored out of the UV. So I cover it or put it in the barn.
I did some bartering for a 3rd canoe a while back. We find having 2 or 3 canoes is handy because we have plenty of friends who want to go canoeing but don't have their own. So we end up outfitting our own fleet ;).
Don't be afraid to use a bit of silicone on the canoe's damage.
Also, you can easily move the seats if required.
303 Aerospace protectant and a tarp should keep a plastic good in storage. I'm not sure about Royalex, if that is what it is made of, though.
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