I am in the apparent minority who prefer fiberglass to aluminum. My first boat was a Fish-Rite aluminum. I put Coat-It on the bottom and thought I was set. Unfortunately, after the first couple of trips down the upper Sky in summer, much of the Coat-It had chipped off.

That fall, I had a very scary incident whereby we hit a submerged rock (that couldn't be seen) in some relatively easy water while I was rowing forward downstream. One of my buddies had just stood up to reach for something. The rock stopped the boat instantly, and he came real close to going over the bow. He didn't get wet, but he did get hurt pretty bad, and we were all shaken up to say the least. The lesson we learned was that even with Coat-It, a sharp rock can grab a bare spot in the aluminum and stop an alum boat VERY fast.

I kept fishing the boat for awhile and had addtional incidents of getting "stuck" on rocks. I eventually got tired of hauling it in low water, and the noise, so I traded it for a Clackacraft, and haven't regretted it once since. The figerglass boats may not track perfectly, but you get used to handling it real quick, and it becomes a non-issue. To me, it's now a safety thing primarily, but I also love the quietness that a fiberglass boat gives you.

Regarding durability, I've hit a lot of rocks pretty hard in my Clack, and they do indeed tend to bounce off without any damage. It's now scratched and has some minor chunks missing on the chines, but it doesn't have the dents that an aluminum can incur, so the bottom is still as flat as the day it was bought.

Just my .02 worth.

PS. It's a lot easier to sneek up on people in a silent fiberglass. You can hear someone drop a chunk of lead in an aluminum from a mile away. )