Why not?
The plastic Tempest is very heavy at 60+ lb. What else?
Plus I just saw a related archived topic: http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=advice&tid=660022 , which I suppose I could not bring back to life, but perhaps we can discuss here?
Rollability of Fathom
In my experience, the Fathom is an exceptionally easy boat to roll. I’m 5’4" and the boat is way too big for me, but I had no trouble at all rolling it. The high rounded foredeck is probably a big part of that.
I’ve paddled all three
and think they’re all good boats. I demo’d the Fathom and LOVED everything about it, most of which has been covered in this thread. The Fathom is really a beautiful boat, and I passed on it because I was looking for my first boat and didn’t want to lay out that much cash until I had a little more experience. My wife has a poly Tempest 170 that I like. It’s a tight fit and I feel that I’m at or above the optimum size. I’m 6’-3", 265, 40" waist, 52 inch chest with size 13 feet. The foot room was no problem for me. I’ve been paddling a CD Sirocco. It fits a little better than the Tempest 170, but I don’t care for the lack of initial stability. I just demo’d and bought a Tempest 180 Pro. It fits, is stable, has more capacity than I currently need, and is gorgeous! Perhaps my lack of experience and skill lessens the impact of my opinions, but maybe they’ll be helpful.
you need to paddle each
These are empirical questions. The only way to answer whether such and such a boat will be comfortable for 2-3 hours is to get in the boat and paddle it.
I started out with a Nighthawk 17.5, then went to a Chatham 17 (comparable to a Tempest). The change was dramatic--from super wide to super skinny; from a high deck to low. But, as Dostoevsky points out, man, the scoundrel, will grow accustomed to anything. And sure enough, after only a few times out, the small skinny boat felt fine.
I currently own two boats--a wide, rockered Sirocco, and a skinny, hard-tracking Chatham 18--and the difference in handling is night and day.
Sometimes you've got to date around before you settle on the right girl. Don't we calls boats "she" too? For $800-1,000 each, why don't you pick up a used model of Tempest and Tsunami and get to know them. Some questions we can't answer for you here. You've got to get in the boat and do the time.
(Edit: for what it's worth, I'm 6'00 and #230.)
Zephyr & Tempest
Paddled the WS Zephyr 16 yesterday and the Tempest 170 at a demo day. They also had the 15.5 Zephyr but it was a very tight fit for me in terms of foot and leg room.
The Zephyr 16 had better foot room (wider) than the Tempest 170. The Zephyr has a lot more rocker and turns easier than the tempest. As others have noted - turns from the bow easy. It has also somewhat lower initial stability than the Tempest as well. It can’t track straight without the skeg deployed at least a little. Very nice play boat IMO but not a good touring boat - I think it is not very fast and to go straight you would need to use the skeg or you lose too much energy to keep straight. The Tempest & Zephyr are quite different IMO and one can have both for different reasons… That said, neither would work for me - there is not enough leg and foot room for long paddle comfort, mainly due to my size 15 feet. The Tempest handled very nice IMO - goes relatively straight without the skeg, yet is maneuverable enough and reasonably fast though not strikingly so, and seems stable enough without being a bath tub.
I also paddled two boats with skegs (Perception Carolina 14 or 15 - forgot - and Necky Locksha IV). Both were roomier and wider than the other two above, a little faster than my Tsunamy 145 but not by much. The rudder felt like a very good thing to have, but I can see where the implementation matters and it does slow the boat down somewhat.
I also saw why the Tsunami 145 is so slow - one of the “guards” was paddling it and sped-up to catch-up wiht a stray demo boater, and the Tsunami made such a huge wake - like a motor boat - and the paddler was not huge, may be 200 lb or less. Moving so much water takes effort -