----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Broze" <mkayaks_at_oz.net> > > Are you talking about the 14' Puffin II? I paddled the 10'4" Puffin about a > year ago. The owner really liked it but it was sure not my "cup of tea". The > advertising said it weighed 19 lbs., My scale said 21 lbs., still a pretty > impressive weight. It might be nicer on a river as tracking was minimal. It > took me 52 seconds to sprint it the length of my test course. No, it was the smaller Puffin. I have not seen the longer one yet. Your figures for pretty much fit what I thought they might be. Remember regarding the Mini-Raid that I felt it might be in the same range but was working from memory since it was very long ago that I looked at the latter. I don't know if you paddled the Folbot Aleut. My guess, if the Puffin was 52, that the Aleut would be about 51 or 50, i.e. real close. > That all said, unless you are pushing at top speed my sprint numbers don't > mean much. Of course, if your kayak's top speed is less than the average > touring speed of your paddling partners you won't keep up with them no > matter how strong you are. The Puffin is not a boat to paddle in mixed company with people in much sleeker boats. Same with Folbot Aleut. Other boats however will do nicely. For example, while you have the K-Light at 44 sprint and the average sprint of a range of hardshells at 38, I have found that the K-Light could more than keep up in mixed company unless it were really fast mixed company. It seems to cruise well, and not just for me, but for others as well. Around here in mixed groups, the K-Lights seem to do just fine. As for the other Feathercrafts (you have them at Khats 37 seconds; K-1 38 sec.; Kahuna 40; K-Light at 44 sec), I felt that the K-1 was only a smidgen slower than the Khats and it seems to hold true in your sprint test. I felt that the Kahuna would be exactly half way between the K-1 and the K-Light. I guess I was conservative by a few seconds. It makes the Kahuna all the more attractive. ralph diaz *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Mar 01 2001 - 22:03:11 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:38 PDT