I built a wood strip and canvas canoe with fiberglass when I was about 13 or 14 (with my Dad's help).

And I used it REGULARLY in the Piscataway Bay and the Potomac River near my home.

I loaned it to one of the older scouts in my Scout troop to take on a canoe trip down the Patuxent River which I could not attend. This is what I got back. I managed to repair it with another coat of fiberglass - which added A LOT of weight but I could still use it.

After repairing it I continued to use it for years afterward. That is until some of my neighbors "loving children" decided to "borrow" it (without my knowledge I might add).

And kids being the way they are they figured they could just drag it with a motocycle down that mile long dirt road to the water. Needless to say when they got there they DID NOT go canoeing.

While they were required by their parents to return the canoe you can imagine that it was done for by then.

Now I own a Coleman 13 foot plastic canoe. It doesn't look as nice as mine and I didn't "make" it but I can at least take it thru rapids. I never chanced it with the one I built I just used it on the flatwater near home. MY Coleman canoe was crushed under the load of my hoophouse collapse during Snowgedden in February of 2010.

After I retired i finally got to buy a used Old Town, much like the ones I used at: The Shenandoah River Outfitters
Only now I am not strong enough to load and unload it by myself, it's a bit awkward at 16feet long.