At 01:26 PM 12/29/99 -0500, Glenn Stauffer wrote: >All this talk of the Romany Explorer has me thinking I should budget for a >new boat this year. I currently have a Prijon Expedition and a whitewater >boat each of which have their uses and which I'd keep for those 'uses', but >there's this wad of money burning a hole in my pocket and nothing I can >spend it on really generates the excitement that the thought of a new boat >does. I am 5'8" and around 150# and I'd have to say that after many demo days, two trips to the LL Bean Sea Kayaking symposium where I've demoed about 30 boats, and trying a whole bunch of boats belonging to friends that the Romany Explorer and P&H Sirius are right at the top of my favorites so far. I much prefer the Explorer over the Romany 16. The 16 just seems a little cramped to me and it's considerably slower. I also had very little trouble turning the Explorer. Last year at LL Bean I demoed the Sirius M and Sirius S (medium and small volume). I liked the way the "M" handled a little better (and it had better initial stability) but the Sirius S fit me better. If I were to choose I'd go with the Sirius M and pad it a bit. There are so many good boats out there that the obvious advice is to try out as many as possible and decide what's just right for you. Other boats that *I* really like are the Necky Looksha, Dagger Meridian, Current Designs Caribou, and Seaward Endeavor. There are many, many more that are better for certain types of paddling (ie. VCP Pintail vs Seaward Quest or Wilderness Systems Arctic Hawk) but for all around paddling those are my favorites so far. There are also many boats that I have yet to try (ie Mariner). I would also be seriously considering a new boat for next season but I'm building one this winter (a CLC Northbay). *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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