James wrote (in part):

The most important thing to me in a paddle boat is stability. The
second
most important thing is flotation. Will it float when it is full of
water
and let me get back into it? When it is full of water my 12 ft Old
Town
will go under, if you just put the weight of your hand on it. I know
because it tried it. The third important thing is, how hard is it to
paddle?


Do they make any canoes that will do all three? Stable, easy to
paddle and
will not sink on me if I do turn it over.

**

I'll offer a couple of suggestions, and a couple of questions.

Flotation - Most canoes depend either on float cells in the stems
(composite boats) or on a foam inner layer (Royalex boats). Additional
flotation is added by the paddler as necessary. If flotation is one of
your top criteria you can add flotation (end bags or center bag) to
nearly any canoe. That one was easy.

Although, when you say "Will it float when it is full of water
and let me get back into it?" what exactly do you mean? If you mean
self-rescue by pulling yourself back into the boat from deepwater that
may be a diccerent story. I cxan self-rescue with a lot of tandem
models (not all) and with few solos. If the waterline width is under
30" or 32" I find it increasingly difficult to pull myself back aboard.

Stability - I presume that you mean primary stability, as opposed to
secomdary stability. If you are unfamiliar with those terms get a
Wenonah catelog and do a little reading. In fact, before you decide
that what you want is a canoe with gogs and gobs of primary stability,
yeah, do a little research reading on primary and secondary stability.

Easy to paddle - That can also be tricky, and need some aditional
definition. No one canoe will be "easy to paddle" in all conditions. A
long, lean canoe with a stright keel line will be a joy on fla****er
and a beast on a fast twisty stream. A short canoe with ample rocker
will manuever beautifully on that fast twisty stretch of river and will
be a handful on fla****er.

The easiest boat to paddle is the right boat for conditions. Perhaps
the best advice I've heard yet about buying a new canoe is to be honest
about where and how you intend to use it. If you figure to spend 90% of
your paddling time on a local lake and maybe (maybe) 10% of your time
on class II it doesn't make sense to buy a river runner that will suck
on the flats just for that maybe 10%.