Came across what was advertised as a fiberglass Necky Looksha for what turned out to be $350. I was pretty sure it wasn’t a Looksha but bought it anyway. It’s 15’9" long and fairly narrow. Good chance it’s going to be too small for me (6’1"-175 lbs). Anyone know what model it is?
Am l seeing correctly that it is not ruddered? Has a skeg?
Or, looking closer, is it ruddered but rudder itself is missing?
A side view showing whether it has the dolphin nose might help. Hard to tell from this shotm
Hard to tell without seeing the stern, but it looks like an Elaho to me.
The Elaho looks like a good candidate. It was 15’10", available in fiberglass with a skeg. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like there could be a skeg control to the right of the cockpit, per the Elaho specs.
Didn’t even think of the Elaho, actually had a plastic one a few years back. Now that I think about it there are a number of similarities. Thanks.
My first thought was Elaho. But they messed bigly with how the boat was fitted out between year 2 and year 3, hence my skeg or rudder question. I have a first year.
It’s got a rather large metal skeg. What does that mean? Earlier model or later? Thanks.
One of the first two years of the Elaho. Hull is very playful, like in sloppy mess lots of correction. But great for surf aside from concerns about the metal skeg.
Rolls great thanks to the diamond chine. Was originally marketed for smaller paddlers and granted the cockpit worked w the aggressive thigh braces. But they got the weight a little wrong. Worked better for my husband than me in terms of hitting the waterline
Big cleaver of metal skeg? Definitely an Elaho DS. Performance is as previously stated. Oufitting is going to be a close whitewater fit as the seating was taken from the Necky whitewater boats. (also long gone)
One further comment. The playfulness of the drop skeg Elaho was different from the subsequent ruddered versions. They somewhat tamed what was a really interesting but also a niche kind of boat. I can’t tell you how much for certain, but the later versions were kinder to new paddlers in terms of directional control.
Jim and l kinda wondered why they didn’t tweak the name a bit. Granted Elaho-Goes-Straight is too long to fit well. But Elaho R would have worked and made things clearer.
I almost have to shimmy into the cockpit. Compared to my CD Gulfstream, this feels more like I’m wearing the boat as opposed to sitting in it. That’s what I was looking for. I’m in Pensacola so a lot of my paddles are bays, bayous and the Gulf of Mexico. Hoping it fits the bill as my fast, cover miles work out boat and the Gulfstream will be my multi-day expedition boat.
Um. Workout yes, fast no. More rocker means slower hull speed. But you will get work…
My husband was 6 ft 1 in and about 180. He found it a tight fit but not awful, and the responsiveness of that hull argues for it. Wonderful boat in surf as long as you are wearing gloves lest you need to grab it at the skeg.
Funny story, one time in our first season w sea kayaks we had to come in thru unusually big swell at the mouth of our cove where we rent. Haven’t seen it exactly that way out there since. He was in the Elaho and l was in my CD Squall, and it was before we hooked up w training. Rollers big enough that in the trough l could not see him.
So he was spinning in circles in the Elaho for about 10 minutes while he got it to point in one direction long enough to surf in. At the same time l was trying to figure out how to get my Squall to turn and get back to him. The Squall had found a surf line she liked and was damned if she was going to change it.
We got kudos from other renters when we landed, who had been watching and thought this was all intentional sea kayaking mojo. Anyone who knew what they were doing would have been laughing their head off.
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