My friend just got a 11’10" Pat Moore Reverie. She’s small, 120 lbs. The pedestal is the smallest size. This boat seems to be fitting her fine.
It’s 24" wide with a pretty-much “U” cross section. I’d heard of these boats forever. Had never paddled or seen one. It has no initial stability and no secondary stability.
The bow has a flare for fending off 2-foot waves. Rear half of the boat seems to have pretty much a U-shape. A bit more round of a profile for the front half.
I tried it. I’m 180 lbs. I could be calm in it. I’ve paddled a lot of boats. But this had zero stability. Maybe I totally overwhelmed it. I don’t see how you could do freestyle moves in it. Well, I guess I could see how I could play around in it on very calm water. I’m hoping that she has improving luck and stability! She’s athletic, flexible, etc. She’s new to paddling. She’s optimistic at this point but I’m sure is a bit big eyed right now. She fell out 3 times trying to get in and out of it. She could paddle along, though! I’m sure her view is to try it a half dozen times, spend some hours in it, in shallow water, see what develops.
I’m looking at it from the outside and wondering about the boat and the shape. …That’s quite a “U” right there at the pedestal!
I have various racing canoes and performance sea kayaks – Pintail at 23" wide, Glider at 21.5" – i’m stable in those, no problem, big waves easy – methinks due to the doublepaddle perhaps!
The pedestal is permanently custom mounted on rails in this little cockleshell. It made me wonder if removing it and using a doublepaddle might be something people have done with these boats. …But I’m thinking she’d never alter it. As it is, it is supremely beautiful, if highly unstable.
She seems to be the right weight for that model. I think just more seat time will help, especially since you mentioned she’s new to canoeing. This page has some interesting information if you haven’t seen it yet:
The U-shape of the hull at the pedestal seems wild! Like sitting on a chair in a kayak w a singleblade! …I don’t get it! I thought freestyle boats were designed to be leaned over and to still have stability at a wide range of lean angles. This boat seems to have flattish hull bottom and straight sidewalls – not allowing lean for any weight of user. I might not be seeing it right, though.
I saw a bit of that Crossroads website. Most info on Moore boats seems written by Moore so… (I’ll check again.)
You can heel
it to the rail as it has all that flare and it will hold.
It is a boat for the paddler willing to advance but at the start it can seem intimidating
I have done a to the rail heel but frankly I hate the pedestal
Water time. Just water time and stick time
By rail do you mean gunnel? If so, wow! Well, my friend will persist I’m thinking. …I’ve leaned many boats way over, and sat in the sides of boats, stood in the sides of boats, stand in race boats, do SUP paddling in race boats… this one I don’t think I can lean it, but we’ll see how she does!
Fun post. It sounds like one of those time warp boats. Pat was on a pretty wide orbit so it makes sense that it might take a little while to tune in to the vibe of the boat.
Really, the hull has no flare. …A bit up at the top of the bow. Useless.
Well, she’s gonna work at it.
I suppose it’s also true that this boat was designed very early in the freestyle era and my hunch is that adaptations away from it were likely made post haste… But we’ll see how my friend’s on the water adapting goes!
We were well aware that it would be an “expressive” experience to paddle. But I’m guessing she’d really like to be able to reach for a sandwich someday…