Save your money! Lugging those monster rubber batwings around for the duration of the trip is unnecessary. For $144 you could buy 2 or 3 bottles of whiskey , 2 or 3 pairs of excellent wool socks, and 1 or 2 extra pairs of thrift store running shoes, all items that can be very useful on canoe trips. Like you, we were worried about the 3 Mothers. For sure they have their challenges, but if you're not carrying too much stuff and not in too big a hurry, are in good physical shape OR have some solid canoe tripping experience, you should be fine. Up until the last minute I'd hesitated between using a 54-lb. kevlar Novacraft Tripper which I'd bought years previously and never really paddled and my trusty, Old Town Penobscot 16 in royalex at 62 lbs. bare naked (and boats are rarely carried "bare naked", but get weighted down with painter lines, lashed-in paddles, etc.) The Penobscot has been on many epic trips, etc. and has long been a go-to tripping boat for us. ) At the last minute , we opted to take the NC Tripper( whose hull design is nothing like an OT Tripper's and doesn't claim to be!) I sure appreciated the lighter boat on the carries, but once the Mothers were out of the way, would have preferred the Penobscot. The NC boat paddles the flats wonderfully and is fast, but is wet in all but the lightest class 1 runs. Our route down the Gammon and Bloodvein Rivers, though, certainly did not require a "whitewater" boat. The NC Tripper was fine. Speaking about boat choice may be irrelevant in your case. If you only have access to that one boat, don't waste time and money looking for another for this trip. An OT Tripper will be great once you've gotten through the Mothers. Remember that countless others have made it through before you. They weren't all experts and Olympic athletes. We're certainly not, though my son reminds me that he's a pretty good skier...