Anyone paddle a TAHE MARINE REVAL HV?

I saw one in a kayak shop and it looks to be a well designed kayak and made of high quality materials. I’m 6-2/220 lbs and wondering if this might be a good choice to do a test paddle. Advice appreciated, especially from those who have paddled it.

Can anyone comment on their experience with Tahe Marine kayaks in general? Seems like this site is definitely not as busy as it was a few years ago. Thanks

@jimx200 said:
Can anyone comment on their experience with Tahe Marine kayaks in general?
I have a Zegul Arrow Play MV in composite. Zegul is Tahe’s top line as far as I have understood. I have had the kayak for a little less than 2 years.

It is a good kayak at the price. I paid 50-60% of what I should have paid for a top brand like Tiderace, Valley, Current Design or Nigel Dennis (SKUK).

But do not expect that you get something similar to those top top brands. Examples when I compare it to my two other kayaks, Tiderace Xplore and Valley Qajariaq:

  • The small plastic crosses which hold the deck lines are considerably thinner and weaker. One has broken, and on several occasions the deck lines have slipped beneath the fingers in the cross. I have now replaced them with the same type as Tiderace uses. The original crosses actually looked better because they had a plastic cover over the screw head which the Tiderace ones haven’t.
  • The nuts below deck, holding those crosses, are not cast into the composite in the deck. So whenever I losen a cross to rearrange deck lines (or replace the cross itself), I have to put a spanner on the nut inside the kayak, some of them in almost unreachable places. In the Tiderace they are cast into the deck. I can’t remember what they are in the Valley.
  • The footrests feel more spongy than the SmartTrack footrests in my Tiderace or the aluminium footrests in my Valley. And the finger nuts have on several occasions unscrewed themselves so one end of the footrest rail became lose, and the footrest slided all the way to the far end. Not funny in the ocean. I have now replaced those nuts with self-locking nuts. I haven’t yet figured out how to replace the footrests since they are attached to bolts which are cast into the hull (meaning that no screws are visible from the outside, which is actually rather nice).
  • The storage compartment lids are Kajaksport which is ok, probably even better than Valleys. But the anchoring points for the bungees which prevent those lids from getting lost are actually made of carbon steel. A few weeks ago, I suddenly had an unsecured lid in my hand, including bungee and whatever was left of the carbon steel anchoring point. I made a new anchoring point in stainless steel and glued it inside the hull with epoxy and some glass fibre sheet for reinforcement. I will probably have to do that to the remaining 3 anchoring points for the other lids too.

I own a Tahe Wind 535 (reviewed on this site). I love the design and performance of my boat, but quality is ‘meh’. I’ve done quite a bit of glasswork to deal with issues. That said, I’m hard on my boats and expect them to take a bit of abuse on landings.

Given the low price of these boats, it’s a bit of a case of getting what you pay for. If you like the design and are prepared to patch where needed (an easy job), then they are worth a look.

Looked at them at a show few years back and they glass work was rough inside.

I’m not a fan. Two friends have Zeguls carbon layup with stainless steel mesh. Both boats have severe oxidation/ UV damage. Manufactures response; this layup doesn’t have any UV inhibiters to help to keep the weight down. They won’t do anything for them. I can’t understand that a manufacture that builds a product for outside use would have not have UV protection. They don’t disclose this in there layup discription either.
Another paddler in our club had a Tahe, last spring he paddled over a floating limb of a tree and cracked his boat (fibreglass)
under the seat. The manufacture covered his repair cost.