-- Last Updated: Jun-21-12 10:22 PM EST --
... the Yellowstone hull shape would have been more attractive to the marketplace than the true Wildfire hull shape in Royalex. I agree with TC1 and probably a lot of others: the Wildfire is a much better paddling hull shape than the skegged and re-shouldered Yellowstone.
If there was problem with marketplace acceptance for the true Wildfire, it was probably due to the high price of the composite layup. Bell's changing of the true Wildfire hull shape when they went Royalex was a mistake, in my opinion.
Worse, Bell basically lied to the marketplace by calling the very different asymmetrical Royalex hull shape by the same Wildfire name. This name game shame pollutes many of the Pnet review of the Bell "Wildfire". Readers have no way of knowing whether the reviewer is talking about the real Wildfire or the faux Wildfire (later renamed Yellowstone) unless the review reveals whether the boat under discussion is composite or Royalex.
To break the code you have to know two things. There was never any true Wildfire made in Royalex by Bell (or any other company). There was never a composite faux Wildfire marketed by Bell under the Wildfire name; all the composites were made after the name was changed to Yellowstone.
As to the Esquif Echo, I've never paddled it but it looks like a nice day paddling boat, though skewed by a shallow depth design to facilitate easy heeling for interpretive ACA Freestyle stuff. I don't consider an 11.5" center depth to be a serious tripping, river or even big lake canoe, except possibly for very small and lightweight paddlers in easy waters.