I paddled the Caribou when CD brought it out on the market and I, too, thought it weathercocked to a point that made it completely unenjoyable off the wind. I have heard that that the original Caribou, designed and built by Barry Buchanan, did not have such a radical weatherhelm but CD introduced more rocker into the aft sections. I don't know if this is true or not, but I have placeed the Caribou on a flat slab, squared it up and eyeballed the rocker. It does seem to have more than it needs aft of the cockpit.My Arctic Hawk weathercocked, though not as badly as the Caribou, and I pretty much tuned this out by placing a small, permanent skeg just aft of the cockpit. However, the Caribou with its wider bottom, seems to surf wind waves and boat wakes much better than the Hawk and is a bit more comfortable. I think the addition of a permanent skeg might solve its problems without affecting maneuverability much. Now if you can just look past that ugly cam buckle forward hatch...... John *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue May 16 2000 - 06:42:32 PDT
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