@canoeswithduckheads said:
Looks like you had one of those Brit boats, a SilverBirch, amongst your flock. That keen green banana, n’er past ? Young lady named Mel I met this past December is quite pleased with her’s, a Covert in the 9-footish realm, I believe.
Yes - it’s a Covert.
Dan offered to let me hop in, but it didn’t happen Saturday. Maybe other time. I’ve paddled an Option (it was OK) and an Octane (wasn’t big on it).
What is the Outrage sized out as? Mr. John doesn’t list the Outrage’s sizes on his Millbrook site, and I remember that Mad River took the original Berry mold and beefed it up into an XL mod for we larger, 6-foot-plus/220-pound-plus specimens. I always was led to believe that the original Outrage sizing would be too tender for my beefy 6-foot/225-pounder frame. I’m an XL dude, I suppose. No offense, but I surmised you might be, too.
12" composite Outrage - boy did it paddle nice. Plenty big for me and I am 5’10", 225 lbs. I often see guys bigger than us in the 9’ Octane, so I think those rules about big guys in big boats are long gone. The Outrage is the blue boat here, and Rick (about our size) sure paddles it well:
The Outrage is not listed on the solo canoes page, but is is mentioned here:
http://www.millbrookboats.com/what's_new.htm
The red boat that Kaz is paddling is a Blink.
My last hurrah canoe purchases, lingering on the backburner these past 4 years whilst I await the impending economic doom of sputtering, 15+ year old automotive transports, and young daughters’ college bills and pending wedding soirees, are focused towards a Savage Blackwater, and one of Mr Kazmierczek’s 16-footers for poling/general use, being either an AC/DC or a Coho.
I’m in the same boat (pun intended). My daughter is getting married this year, and that takes a bite out of the boat-buying budget. Maybe next year for me. I don’t pole enough to justify and AC/DC or a Coho, but those are beautiful boats.
But I still entertain notions of torturing my knees down the Middle and Upper Yough nestled in a lithe hull. Subliminal fears resonate with aramid/s-glass crunching sounds, so the polyethylene thumps of a Silver Birch seem to outdrum any considerations towards Shachos and 20/20’s and the ilk.
I hear you, but I am leaning toward something a little bigger, so that takes out the polyethylene boats. Every once in a while you can find a royalex boat in decent condition, but they are getting rare and expensive. So that leaves a new Millbrook. I do tend to gravitate towards rocks, but with that crazy paint job you don’t see the scratches. 
