Has anyone actually paddled this boat? Or, at least eyeballed it in person. No reviews, discussions, etc… I can find exactly one photo on the whole web of someone in the water with one. I’m intrigued by the idea of using thermoformed ABS on a Greenland boat. Don’t know if it’s a photo/perspective thing but it seems to lack any hull rocker and any up-sweep in the shear line - even for a Greenland boat. In other words, it looks kind of cool but a little weird at the same time.
I’ve always liked their kayaks - I’ve tried a few of them at one of my favourite tour operator’s in Canada - but has anyone seen a new Boreal Design boat since Kayak Distribution bought them and off shored manufacturing to Shanghai?
The two shops I talked to in Nova Scotia last year both simply said they’d gone belly up! Which is a shame as I rather fancied a hard-chined Baffin.
I bought a Thermoform Baffin in May. I absolutely love it, it is a lot more rigid then a HDPE boat. The biggest complaint that I have with it is that some of the rigging could just be done to a bit of a higher quality.
I have seen a Boreal Greenland once and it looked like a solid boat but you are right it does not have a lot of rocker.
I really like the Thermo forming Boreal is doing compared to say Delta. It is a bit heavier but also feels a lot more durable and I would definitely recommend checking out their thermo boats.
The only picture I could find of it, it appears to have some rocker. Fairly significant actually, although I wouldn’t trust camera angles without seeing it in person. https://frontenac-outfitters.com/kayaks/kayaks/greenland-expedition/
The keel vs. the shear line. So a low-exposure shear line is possible while maintaining rocker. Might be why it appears a little different to your eye.
Leaving out the upswept shear line would be a way to reduce free board, or exposure to the wind. The Current Designs Caribou seems to have used a little of this philosophy.
I know a couple of people who have bought new Baffins recently, and an outfitter who got a few of a different design this spring.