<<I am looking for a new, small kayak for my wife. She is a novice kayaker who will use the boat mostly for calm saltwater and lake kayaking. She wants to have the capability to go out on a weekend trip, so it will be necessary to have some storage space. We have looked at the Wilderness Systems Tchaika and the Eddyline Merlin LT. Weight of boat is very important, less than 50 lbs.>> The Tchaika is a very nice small boat. It is also very light, and if you got a kevlar version even lighter (but not worth the extra $500 IMHO). I have one for my son and paddle with several people who use them on both clam water and rough water paddles. On the negative side, they do not have much storage space in the read bulkhead but probably enough for a weekend paddle. I highly recommend putting floatation bags in both the bow and stern areas. There is not forward bulkhead. With a bulkhead doing an assisted rescue is much easier, without one a lot of water get s in the cockpit. If you go with this option you should spend some time practicing rescues. One m odification I would recommend to the Tchaika is to add decklines. They will make doing rescues a little easier as you have more lines to grab to help maneuver the kayak. I am about to add these to my son's boat. sid *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jul 06 2000 - 03:09:59 PDT
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