Another lurker unveiled! After my first season of sea kayaking I purchased a plastic Seda Gypsy about 2&1/2 years ago. I've been pretty happy with it - its a fun little boat (14'8" by slightly over 23" beam). Its quite maneuverable, and surprisingly fast for a sub-15" foot boat. Initially, it felt a little tippy, as the boats I was previously renting had higher initial stability (Necky Kyook & Narpa), but I adapted to it over a short while. Love the low-maintainance of a plastic boat, but have also been thinking about getting a FG boat for sometime now. I'm mostly interested in a short boat (15-16 foot)for play in the bay and on the coast, and designed for performance without a rudder. Boats on my short-list are: 1. the FG version of the Gypsy Paddled this a few times as a rental. It paddles and maneuvers quite well for a relatively wide boat (24"). Price is great, and due to its stability it can always become a spare boat for introducing friends to paddling. 2. Eddyline Falcon - 16 I've only had one short opportunity to paddle the Falcon, but was favorably impressed. I expected it to be tippy due to the deep V hull and narrower beam, but found it quite comfortable. I look foward to other opportunities to paddle this, but none of the dealers seem to have this in their rental fleet, or in stock in the sales fleet for demo. Would love to hear from people paddling this or the new Falcon-18. Other than the increased length are there new design characteristics and changes in paddling performance? 3. Mariner Express (16' x 22 1/2") or the new lower volume Elan (16'1" x 21 1/2") Never paddled either, but I've heard very good things about Mariner kayaks, and these are in my desired length range. Unfortunately, without local dealers, its hard to get a chance to demo these without going up to Seattle (maybe this summer or the TASK symposium in Sept). (I know I should also consider the Coaster, but for some reason I don't really feel drawn to it. Maybe its just aesthetics, it's likely I'd grow to love it.) For beginner whitewater classes last summer purchased a Prijon Cyclone. Tracks well and good speed for a river boat (10'6"). Probably will be a good river running boat as my skills develop, but certain not a "hot" playboat (and that probably will suit my needs for a while). Whenever I mention interest in a new kayak, my wife says "but, you already have two", and I have to explain the difference between sea and river kayaks, and that there is a REAL need for a FG sea kayak. Happy paddling, Norm Strutin Oakland, CA *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Feb 24 1998 - 23:31:32 PST
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