I have been looking for a kit kayak in the 16’ length just because I love the look and feel of a wood boat. The only one I have paddled is a Coho…fast and a snug fit for my 6/2 frame.
Would appreciate your thoughts one this one listed on Craigslist:
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/spo/1097283908.html
Deal or no deal?
Looks like a nice boat
Will be substantially less stable than the Coho you paddled.
A very good deal if there are no problems with it. I’d check it over very carefully. LeeG will likely jump in here and tell you exactly what to look for.
Not 100% a Pax20
From the pictures in the craigslist link this doesn’t look like a Pax20. The bow is raked back, there doesn’t appear to be king planks and the dimensions 21" beam vs CLC site’s 19" beam for the Pax20 suggest the builder made some alterations to the plans, not necessarily a bad thing.
Search for LeeG’s critiques of the Pax20 on p-net and other forums.
However, it looks like a well done clean construction and the weight suggests that this isn’t the first boat the seller has built. The price is right, about the cost of the kit and finishing. If there isn’t any extreme damage it might be a deal. But this likely wasn’t built from a kit but modified plans and you should also make sure quality ingredients were used, primarily marine grade okoume ply (no voids).
The Pax’s 18 and 20 are straight trackers and I can’t tell from the pictures if there is a skeg (part of the original CLC design) or a rudder. Without either this boat would be a handful in wind and you should plan on adding.
Stephen
Pax18
Guillemot mini-Mystery
Huki s1-a
Are there any scratches?
That is about the price of the kit.
If it fits you, it is a deal.
looks like a Patuxent 19
and the seller is confusing that discontinued model for the Pax20. The patuxent does have rocker,the Paxs don’t. The Pax 20 has slightly vertical side panels and the Patuxents are more flared. The Patuxent has a lower arched deck than Chesapeaks,and much lower than the Paxs. The hatches on the Craigslist boat look like the older Patuxent hatches. The Paxs were meant to be a replacement for the Patuxents but they were kind of a one step forward, two steps sideways.
a slight problem
it could be a worthwhile purchase except for a couple things. You say you’re looking for a 16’ kayak and this one is 3 1/2’ longer, the kayak you’ve paddled and liked is a 17’6" Coho that you call “snug” for your 6’ 2" frame. The 23" wide Coho is generally recognized as voluminous,so if you’re snug in the Coho you’d be VERY snug in the Patuxent 19 as the front edge of the deck beam is low compared to the Coho. If the Patuxent featured on Craigslist is finished according to instructions the deck is unglassed and not that strong and the hatches might or might not leak.
I could be totally wrong and the hull is a redone Pax 20 with a Patuxent deck and Chesapeake coaming (the coaming looks more like the Chesapeake than the Patuxent coaming)but the wooden backband, low deck arch, and exact deck rigging of the Patuxent makes me think that’s what it is.
It’s a simple design, it could be worth $850 but your comment about feeling snug in a Coho would lead me to think you’d feel very cramped in the Patuxent19. I made a Patuxent 17 in '94. You might consider looking around for a specific wood kayak than any wood kayak.
http://www.clcboats.com/shopnotes/fall1995.html
the advertising copy for the Patuxent 19 has similar extravagant prose as the Craigslist ad.
Looks like a Patuxent 19.5
It sure looks like thats what it is. I built one in 95’.
It is not what I would call a general purpose kayak.
It is a flat water go fast boat (what I wanted). I am a fairly wide person and fit in mine, but it’s a squeeze.
You don’t say how you want to use the boat, but it is a bit more of a specialty kayak than most people are looking for.
It is also not a good kayak for beginners. It has pretty low initial stability and is the only kayak I have ever tipped over in when I wasn’t trying to (it happened one time, I think the second time I paddled it. It was very amusing to the people who were fishing nearby).
A good deal if it’s right for you ? Yes, probably.
Is it right for you? I would DEFINITELY paddle it before buying.
Mine has no hatches or bulkheads and has a single layer of glass on the hull, none on the deck, and has only some bungee on the rear deck to facilitate using a paddle float and is 25 lbs or so.
I built the Patuxent 17.5 in ‘94
without a power sander,oh lord. Except I overbuilt it.
It was very slippery in the water, weathercocked easily and the low volume bow buried heinously in waves above 12’. It was my learning experience on making kayak seats as I crumbled to the beach when getting out and my left leg totally buckled from a numb nerve. In the S.F. Bay the bow buried right up to the coaming in 18" waves. I mean NO resistance to burying. After looking at it I realized there was more volume at the waterline in the stern than the bow. The whole thing about “high volume bows” was purely deceptive marketing to counter the obvious fact the bows were LOW VOLUME. Which is why a lot of out of water photos were shot at a close angle giving a distorted impression of the bow. Given the construction technique the bows could not be anything other than low volume. It’s easier to write advertising copy than it is to change a construction technique the entire kayak line was based on. Both Pax kayaks started out being marketed as “racing sea kayaks” which was changed to “flat water racer/trainers”. The early ad copy for the Pax20 talks about it riding over waves instead of through them. Anyone who has paddled those kayaks in waves would say otherwise,but like the Patuxents they were never paddled in waves before the design was committed to production.
CLCs kayaks prior to the introduction of A.Hawk and the Schade brothers were based on flat water paddling experience of the protected inlets on the Chesapeake. West River, South River, Severn, etc.
The building experience is great fun and the sense of accomplishment creates a very happy customer. When 80% of the customers are primarily there for the building experience,that’s good enough.