Re: [Paddlewise] Hunting for New Boat

At 01:36 PM 1/7/02 -0800, Paul Murtaugh wrote:
>On Mon, 7 Jan 2002, Marinell wrote:
>
> > I saw a Viking made by Kajak Sport (Finland) that looks good and will test
> > drive it Thursday.
> >
> > Has anyone had any good/bad experiences with this boat?  Can you tell me a
> > little more about handling than I see in the internet ads?
>
>I have a Viking Expedition and love it.  My other boat is
>an Eddyline Nighthawk (also a great one), so that's all I
>can compare it to knowledgeably.  (I won't talk about the
>Necky Narpa that was the first boat I owned :).
>
>The Viking is sporty and manoeuverable, but not to the same
>extent as the Nighthawk.  The Viking has better initial
>stability and it tracks better than the Nighthawk.  It doesn't
>turn on a dime the way the Nighthawk does, but it carves
>beautifully when you put it on edge.  It's easy to roll (easier
>than the Nighthawk) and it surfs like a champ.  It's a
>beautiful boat to look at!  It weathercocks more than the
>Nighthawk, but the skeg solves the problem.

While it looks like Paul is recommending the Viking over the Eddyline 
Nighthawk I think that you (Marinell) should definitively give the 
Nighthawk a try as well.  I rented one when I was in Florida a few weeks 
ago and thought it was a real nice boat.  I too, thought it's initial 
stability was a bit low (less than I expected) but it was easy to get used 
to.  It had really nice secondary stability though.  It was a good boat for 
practicing sweep strokes with the hull edged aggressively since it was so 
responsive.  It's very light, though not as light as the advertised weight 
of the Viking (has anyone confirmed that it is actually only 41 
pounds?).  It's also under $2000.

Have you paddled Sandy's Seda Gypsy, Marinell?  If so, what did you think 
of it? 

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