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Kayak's recomended!
"Michael Daly" wrote in news:6-
:
On 3-Apr-2004, "Alan Smith" wrote:
I notice that no one mentions Wilderness Systems. Any reason?
"Michael Daly" wrote in
:
... WS Tempest,...
You can add the Arctic Hawk too. And Sparrow Hawk.
Except that the criteria was "Moderate cockpit for a 5'10" 175 lb paddler
and 16' with a skeg." The Hawks don't come equipped with a skeg, have a
smallish cockpit, and it would be quite a squeeze in the Sparrow Hawk for
someone 5'10", 175#. If something longer than 16'is acceptable a Seaward
Endeavor would fit all the other criteria.
Someone mentioned sticking with the Lincoln boats. The Isle a Haut and
Eggemoggin look like very nice boats but I've never paddled either so can't
really make an recommendation.
There are a lot of kayaks in that class.
BTW - I'd downplay the "twitchy" part. While some kayaks are
excessively low in initial stability without noticable benefits*,
others are easy to get used to and you quickly find them to be
quite stable. My Ellesmere felt that way at first and now it
feels rock solid.
That sounds like something that I would write except that the FR Rumour and
CD Slipstream do, IMHO, have excessively low initial stability. In the
Rumour especially I never felt comfortable sitting still unless I had a
paddle ready for a brace. Once it was moving it was a sweet boat to paddle
though.
*like CD Slipstream [w/ big paddler - seems fine for smaller folk]
and Andromeda.
"John Fereira" wrote in message
.. .
Good list but you forgot to mention...
Yeah, but I don't have your encyclopedic knowledge of specific
kayaks :-)
Okay, but IMHO, the VCP Avocet belongs on just about anyones list if they're
looking for a 16' sea kayak.
John mentioned the Vela - it's tippy for a big paddler too. The
OP isn't much different in size than me and probably wouldn't like
it. At 14' or so (IIRC) it ain't speedy either.
It's actually 15'8" and I didn't find it particulary tippy, at least not as
tippy as a Slipstream or Rumour. Perhaps it was because the secondary was
so good that I didn't feel the initial twitchiness was much of an issue.
It's certainly not speedy compared to a Hawk or your Ellesmere but for a
shorter boat I thought it was pretty quick. It's more of a play boat than a
touring boat.
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