Jason said: > and it's time for me to complete my kayak shopping experience. > > > glass (kevlar?) around 16', will be used primarily for gunkholing, maybe > surfing the occasional windwave or powerboat wake, perhaps the occasional > overnighter (gear load not essential, come from a backpacking background), > interested in nimbleness and quickness (think sports car), no rudder, > retractable skeg ok, good tracking but not too stiff, good construction The Avocet IS available in glass! And it's a very nice boat! But I chose the ND Romany over it. The Romany has no rudder, but edges so beautifully you don't need one anyway. You can get it with or without a skeg. It is extraordinarily nimble--I describe it as "lively"--but nimble and straight-tracking are somewhat contradictory concepts. It's fast for a 16, but not as fast as the longer Romany Explorer, and certainly not a Mariner 2, which is probably too big for you, and definitely for me, at 5'5", 125. The hull is so well-designed that I feel very stable in the boat, and also feel confident that if I remain loose, the boat will take me through anything! It's a very easy roller, and also just plain beautiful! To date, I have slammed my boat, attached to my car, into my house (bodywork for car: $1,800, racks torn off, damage to house, boat fine), dropped it off the top of my car (large dent in rear quarter-panel of car, minor repair of small crunch in boat's fiberglass where it hit the mirror going down) and routinely drag it up and down a pebble beach, across concrete and over rocks (rocks in skeg-box, but I never use it anyway.) The only drawbacks are, for me, the weight of the boat (54 lbs.?) and the cord-operated skeg control. I cannot imagine paddling anything else! You can buy something like the Eddyline, but in my opinion, you will pay nearly as much and not get a boat that comes close to approaching the Romany. It is a classic design! I bought mine as a rank beginner and have never regretted it. Jolie *************************************************************************** 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 May 23 2002 - 09:10:45 PDT
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