From: "John Fereira" <jaf30_at_cornell.edu> > How many of his other designs have you paddled. Have you paddle an Ice > Floe, Reiver, Naiad, or Baidarka explorer? No, but I have tried the Sirius and Orion. I found them all to have a similar feel that I didn't like, one that the Gulfstream didn't share. I didn't like the first generation Gulfstream due to its rear deck and coaming arrangement making layback rolls a spine breaking trial. I'm willing to compromise on the design of kayaks, trading off one feature to gain another. Hutchinson's designs that I've tried (Gulfstream excepted) gave up on stability without adding anything. Other kayaks offer the same or better handling with better, usable (i.e. not excessive) stability. If anything, the Gulfstream has a tad too much stability, making it just a wee bit hard to bring up on edge and requires balance on edge - more like some other CD kayaks (e.g. my Solstice). One reason I preferred the Ellesmere was lower initial and solid, easy-to-lean-on secondary stability. If the loss of useful stability meant gaining some substantial other feature that I could discover easily, I'd find something to praise. Some could say this is all about preference or tastes, but that's true of all kayaking. Mike *************************************************************************** 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 Jan 17 2002 - 08:36:04 PST
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