One of the boats I’d been considering is the Old Town Next canoe.
I couldn’t find one in stock anywhere and I’d kind of ruled it out anyway, because it was too small to carry what I typically carry on a five day trip down the Green or Colorado rivers in Utah.
I was just at the REI web sight and see they have them back in stock, along with other Old Towns.
Kind of expensive, for a 13’ plastic canoe, but far cheaper than the North Star, North Wind I’ve chosen as my next boat.
Tempting, but I think I’ll let it pass.
I have the 119 solo sportsman, which is shorter than that and 3" wider. I really like it but it does need some flotation in it that it doesn’t have.
This is one I’ll use for camping most of the time. It’s small and light enough to make any portages pretty easy if the land is reasonable.
I had been thinking similar to you and was also looking at the OT next liking the concept but thinking it was a little small also. Some of the longer pack boats look perfect but a little out of my price range. To suit my needs I didn’t need a light boat I didn’t mind the extra width of a tandem seated in the center and liked the stability of that width. I went and found a used OT Guide 147 and thought I could keep it a tandem and still move one seat close enough to center to work, and that is possible if you plan on always having some gear or ballast in the bow or only using the boat on calm water. Empty except with me in it I figured I needed my weight pretty close to center to be happy.
I tore into the tandem and reconfigured it as a true solo with two float bags 3’ long on each end then two storage areas and then a center cockpit area with a low but not too low stadium type seat mounted. I’m using a long kayak paddle now but looking for one even a little longer.
I’m taking it out setup like this for the first time on Monday and will be reporting back on my OT 147 thread as to the results. I feel this pack boat like configuration is going to be the answer for me for open flat inland lakes fishing and doing mild river floats. I took out quite a bit more weight than I put back in even with adding some flotation. Was fairly heavy to start with compared to the real pack boats but manageable.
Here is a picture showing my “oversized Next”. 
