I've owned ME's for 40 years, one in Kevlar from Millbrook and one in Royalex from Mad River. The ME has about five inches of rocker on each end and is exclusively a whitewater canoe. It was designed by John Berry specifically for whitewater slalom competitions, but became a hugely popular whitewater cruising canoe in the 80's.
You would not be happy paddling an ME on flat water, if that is your primary usage. The only time I've ever been completely out of control on a lake was in an ME in a stiff wind on a lake in Maine. No matter that I was a highly experienced paddler, with 15 years of experience in ME's, I could not make that boat go straight in that stern wind. I just had to blow down the entire length of the lake sideways, trying to stay upright in the waves with braces.
I also learned that day that none of the paddlers by then way in front of me could hear any of my emergency whistle blasts. Later on, I blasted them for never looking back to see if I was in some sort of trouble, which they never did because I was thought to be the strongest paddler in the group. Well, maybe I was when we were in moving water, but not in a highly rockered banana boat in a Maine afternoon wind blast.
Still, $100 or even $300 would be a steal for a Royalex ME in good condition, if a highly spinnable whitewater solo/tandem canoe is what you want. My tandem partner and I literally used to get applause from the crowds on the river bank when we surgically dissected, often paddling backwards, the eddies, wave and holes on Poplar Falls Rapid on the Dead River in Maine on Labor Day weekend in the 80's and early 90's. The ME is my favorite whitewater canoe of all time.
