Re: [Paddlewise] Perfect Boat is Plastic!

At 11:34 AM 12/3/99 EST, Strosaker_at_aol.com wrote:
>Shatterglass Paddlers,
>
>When people on this list have been talking about the perfect kayak, I am 
>surprised no one has brought up plastic kayaks.  I own plastic and 
>shatterglass kayaks, and when it comes to really using (having fun) with a 
>kayak, it is almost always plastic for me.  Sure, shatterglass is
prettier, a 
>bit lighter, and holds its shape better.  But I'll take a little plastic oil 
>canning so that I can bounce off and slide over rocks without having a
second 
>thought about it.

I know of a lot of fiberglass paddlers that cringe at my normal landing
technique in my Old Town Heron -- which is to get it going full bore and
then ram it up onto the beach -- gravel, rocks, sand, I don't concern
myself about it too much. I don't like getting my feet wet, and rarely do
with this technique. It was the realization that I'd have to give up this
little trick that caused me to put the money I'd saved up for a fiberglass
kayak into a fiberglass sailboat.

The thread going on about tenting on a kayak is sort of an extension of
this idea. I kept thinking it'd be nice to have a two-person kayak that
could be sailed, and tented on -- at least for solo, and I was looking at a
plastic double with a big cockpit. Then, I realized that it's really not
going to be that good a sailor, nor that comfortable, so I started to
revise my thinking. The sailboat isn't any longer than a kayak, but it is a
little beamier. Quite a little, in fact.

-- Wes

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