Just remember there is no forward compartment. You might want to fill that area with an air bag. Your results are as expected otherwise. As I think I said its doable if you read the river well. Any basically straight keeled boat will be similar with tracking. Some you can lean or edge to get some more steering out of the hull but a Pungo 120 is a little wide for that. My 140 I can edge in slow water and gain a bit of maneuverability. I have not tried that with the wifes 120.
Turning in moving water Boats designed to turn well in moving water tend to be VERY turny - in other words they don’t go straight in flat water. They are usually also far slower, and designed to be, than a boat for different conditions. Having the hull be slow actually makes it easier to turn and control the boat in moving water. It gives you a little more time to handle the problem. The same boat that you would be cursing at over a distance paddle in open water will get you down a set of rapids far better than its sleek kin.
But the other issue is HOW to turn in moving water. To do that you need to edge, deeply, like the edge of the skirt could easily be under water. So in a big open cockpit boat like the Pungo, you are scr&*d. You will swamp the boat if you try. And with that big a cockpit, you might as buy a new boat for the cost it’d be for a neoprene skirt that would hold up against water pressure.
Similar considerations apply in ocean waves, just that the water isn’t pushy in the same way.
Agree with the recommendation above to get float bags up front. It’ll reduce the likelihood of the bow getting pinned under a tree if you and the boat get apart, and thus getting twisted and deformed beyond recovery. In a battle between decent water pressure and the unsupported bow of a rec boat, the boat loses.
Pungo edging I know that sounds like kind of an oxymoron but at least with my 140 if you get it to edge up to the W emblem below to the cockpit rim it will negotiate turns better. Again, maybe not a true edge job but helps. And sometimes a little help is enough. All the OP can do is try it in some flat area with his 120 and see what happens. If I’m not mistaken he is paddling class 1 water basically so he shouldn’t get into too much trouble. The 120 is an inch wider than the 140, so I don’t know how it will go.
OP: Class 1 or not you did good getting out of the boat to read that section of river. Better safe than sorry. Keep it up.
How much edging The Pungo will edge some if you are big enough to grab something solid under the sides - there is not a Pungo made that I can do that with. But as the water gets stronger you need a much deeper edge, more than the Pungo could so without acquiring water. In case the OPer decodes to get more adventurous on a hot day with cool inviting water…
True Celia I’m 6’2" 220 lb. Probably makes a difference. However, mild river use is still desirable, hopefully we have established that much with the OP if nothing else !
I think my rapid days are over with this pungo. I went down some class 2, rapids yesterday with shallow water. From what I was told about this river there wouldn't be much rapids. About 3 miles down I began to hear rushing water. We get there and I look to my friend and say "really man? This boat is not meant for this. Why did you bring me out here?" He acts like its no big deal. I then watched him go down a rapid and drop about 2 feet into the river. I got out of my kayak and drug it around the rapids. I wish that was the only rapid but it wasn't. About 3 hours later we are done and I'm beat. Every 20 feet I was getting stuck on rocks. The bottom of my boat looks like someone tied it to a trailer hitch and drug it across the road for 50 miles. I wasn't very happy. I didn't flip any and the boat did well as long when I wasn't getting stuck on rocks down the rapids. I got turned sideways and rushing water filled the boat. I will say this... I can now turn the kayak with ease after fighting it all day. Definitely need to know how to paddle to move this thing around.
Also I want it to be clear that I didn't buy a pungo for rapids. I enjoy flat calm rivers and creeks. What I did yesterday I will not be doing again. I just bought this boat and it looks like it has 20 years of scratches on it. I was afraid I was going to crack it or puncture it. Every rock I hit under my seat I could feel the boat flex
this is why … it is a good idea to wear a helmet when going out on ANY sort of river, especially with the types of people who tend to lead others into these sorts of sketchy situations.
Better dork than drowned, dead or concussed, 'cause if you get egg-whacked good on a rock you can be too addled and disoriented to recover enough to float in a safe position as the kayak takes off without you.
WW boats Are made like little tanks. Thicker, internal support pillars for all that kind of thing.
It is a lot of fun in the right boat. But if you want to have a good experience, I would suggest finding a friend who can put you into a more apt boat.
wrong paddle partner Or did he not know the river either? Well anyway, you know that stretch is not doable with a Pungo now ! Pungo’s were designed for lakes, flat water and slow deep moving water. V hulls don’t do well in rivers classified by numbers and certainly not shallow rocky class two for the Pungo. But I do believe we discussed this already ! Lesson learned, move on.
River I have been on that river before. Earlier in my posts I had posted a picture of a river, that’s the river, but all of it is not the same. I have not been on the whole thing but I have been on parts of it. There’s a huge lake where the water comes from down a big dam. That’s where the river starts and where we went in at. The water is very calm and slow moving. I have gone in there about 3-4 times but the water was so low that you could only paddle about a mile or so before you had to turn back because of another halfway tore down dam. That day the water level was much higher than it used to be and there was water flowing through the tore down dam. That was the first time I ever gone past that part. From there on out it was nothing but rapids, rocks, sharp bends in the river, etc. Then a few miles down it turns into flat calm water again(where I have been a lot of times) The section I went through that day is a place I have not been before and I was not expecting it to be so much different than the parts I have gone on.
Yesterday I went back out to another river I’ve been wanting to go out on. Very much better to my liking. Water was barely moving and was flat as ice. I paddled out about 3-4 miles to this bridge
In a couple of days I am going to paddle further past the bridge when I have more daylight. Apparently there’s a graveyard of old ships in the water. I want to check that out and get some pictures!