Everyone has seen them at the back of the club store lurking and refusing to die and of course they're too practical to dump as they still have that annual novice distance race use, they must have been really popular here at some stage! Made form serious HTP plastic these are the strongest boats on the market. The fact they need no structural pillar means that you have enough room in the back for all the rescue gear and everyone's sandwiches (a great incentive to rescue your boat first should you happen to swim!)
When did we fall out of love with them then? Especially in Ireland I've seen no recent models other than my own imported ones and generally we tend to stick with the popular models we've been exposed to by our instructors etc. The time has come to admit they get a lot right. I agree that yes, generally they're not always as pretty as the other boats (with tears in my eyes) and having a hatch in the front of your river boat for your mittens can be seen as far short of hard core cool but if I'm on a river I don't know then that's the boat that I want to be in! All those alpine paddlers can't be wrong, the boats seem to be breeding on popular runs out there and as far as rental centers go having a pretty much indestructible straightforward boat has got to be a major asset.
Footnote by Kevin
Any boat that can pull off a 4 ender cartwheel, into a double pirouette phonics monkey-mcnasty combo ..... at 60mph on a country road and still be perfect to paddle - is alright in my book.
Thanks to the handling of my prijon cross, I have changed my style completely and now go into a calm, relaxing trance on grade 4 instead of the fitting stick insect of the past.