Re: [Paddlewise] P&H, how do they compare?

At 12:27 PM 4/22/03 -0700, R N W wrote:
>I'm currently stuck away from home on "business" which is going to play in 
>my favor for once. Where I live you'd have to drive for a good eight hours 
>or better to find a store with any selection in glass kayaks. I'm out on 
>the East coast though doing things for Operation Noble Eagle and there are 
>a few kayak centers within a few hour's drive.  This week I should be able 
>to demo a few boats from Current Designs, VCP and Nigel Dennis. What I 
>can't find out here that I was interested in is P&H.

Where abouts are you going to be on the east coast?  The "New England Small 
Craft" store (www.newsmallcraft.com) indicates they carry P&H boats on 
their web site.  They're in Rowley, Mass.  Paint Island Canoe and Kayak 
(Bordentown, NJ) *used* to carry P&H boats but they're not listed on their 
website anymore.
It also appears that Shearwater Kayaks (Orcas Island, WA) sells P&H boats.


>I liked what I'd heard and seen online for the Capella and Quest. I think 
>these might be available for me to demo in the Seattle area in 
>July(vacation). Will I be missing out if I were to pick something else up 
>without waiting to see the P&H boats? Fit, build quality and all. What do 
>you think? Thanks as always.

I've generally been quite impressed with the P&H boats.  I've paddled the 
Capella, Sirius, Quest, Vela, and a model that I've only seen once, and Iona.
I demo'd the Quest and Vela about two months ago and liked both of them, 
though they're very different boats.  It's been awhile since I paddled the 
Capella and Sirius but I remember liking both models quite a bit.  They've 
got a new model called at Bahiya that looks really interesting too:

<http://www.kajak.dk/Havkajak/Bahiya.htm>http://www.kajak.dk/Havkajak/Bahiya.<http://www.kajak.dk/Havkajak/Bahiya.htm>htm 
(the site is in Dutch but there are pictures)

My major gripe with P&H is that they seem to have one of the most 
unreliable web sites of any vendor I've found.
The P&H company site (http://www.phcompany.co.uk/) seems to usually work 
but the sea kayak site (www.phseakayaks.com) the company site references 
doesn't appear to exist anymore (I know that it used to work).


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