Re: [Paddlewise] requested review of the Avocet

....review..... hmmm,  lemma see he'eah son.
                Right at 16 feet ....highly rockered.....VCP hatches
(big plus)......low back deck (for layback roll enthusiast)
......retractable skeg ...... day hatch..... all of this you could see
from a promo picture.

            Nuts and bolts:    Surfs well.....possibly exceptionally
well.   Heavy-as-hell.  (I don't care).   Needs thighbraces desperately
for a manhole made for a butt that no terrestrial on this planet
possesses.  I jury rigged a set of perception white water kayak
thighbraces to fit nicely.   Back surfs supremely.   Stays in and comes
in close to the wall....got tubed at one point and made it out..   In
short, it was all that I had hoped it would be as far as a compromise
between a boat that I could stuff a raft of camping gear into, and yet
take out to the riverbreaks on these barrier islands (JAW-juh) to surf
once I got there, without dragging a whitewater boat behind to fend off
camping boredom, and maintain stoke quotient.   It seems fairly fast as
well, although I realize that this is a highly subjective comment.   My
first impression of the boat was (I never really like any boat first
time out), that it was a yawed a bit much.   I've never owned a boat
with that much initial stability....it really seemed reluctant to go
over.   Rolling it, once I managed to get it over was no problemo.
Haven't tried any hand rolls yet.
        Anyone know any method of gluing an eyestrap to the underside of
the rubber VCP hatch to attach a cord from there to the bulkhead?   I
found a way to adhere an eyestrap to the bulkhead already, as
polyethylene only likes polyethylene, I shaved a sliver of plastic from
underneath the lip of one of the hatches and affixed the eyestrap to the
bulkhead with a mini propane torch.  It's holding!  The adhesive that
will adhere to the rubber is the bugger.



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