rocker
and speed and cargo and
http://www.epickayaks.com/product/product/epic-18x
P&H Cetus
Very sweet boat, can play and tour. Enough space to tour handles well enough to play.
If you’re a rock star paddler check out a Nigel Foster Legend.
If you want reassuring get a NDK Explorer.
If you want a tanker get a big ruddered west coast boat.
thank you
Some great suggestions everyone
Solstice series
Very well loaded with cargo space for each boat size. Also very west coast style in handling and things like how it rolls. My first sea kayak was a Squall. If you really like the feeling of your SOF, I am not sure you’d like the feeling of something like the Titan.
Outside the box
Since you said that you would consider putting a sail on your kayak, how about getting one that was made for it? I did a 4 day trip in my Hobie Adventure Island and it was easy. There are a lot of folks using them in the WaterTribe races. http://www.hobiecat.com/mirage/mirage-adventure-island/
Have one built
I know it’s clear across the country from you, but if you want a fast, stable, comfortable touring kayak that needs no rudder, nor skeg and loves rough water, take a look at what Novus Composites Kayaks can build for you. nckayaks.com
I have paddled just about every touring type kayak on the market and wouldn’t trade my NC Expedition for any of them. The Expedition is 19’-2" of pure paddling joy, but NC also builds 17’-2" models. Don’t let the length of the Expedition scare you off. Any questions–feel free to email me.
more “outside the box”
– Last Updated: Mar-01-15 10:00 AM EST –
Since you already are accustomed to the feel and lightness of skin on frame boats, you might want to consider a good folding kayak. With your budget you could get a Feathercraft K-1 Expedition or Heron, both of which are very seaworthy and have good carrying capacity.
Quite a bit cheaper is the Pakboat XT-17, which has several traits to recommend it. One is that it is probably the easiest sit inside kayak to pack gear in -- the entire deck can be peeled back, enabling complete access to inside the hull. It can also be converted to a tandem by moving the very comfortable inflatable seat, adding another and swapping spray decks. It also weighs only 44 lbs and can be packed into a duffel to check as luggage for airline travel. They (and the Feathercrafts) can be rigged with sails as well.
I've owned 3 Feathercrafts (including a K-1) and love the boats (I also have a West Greenland Sisimuit replica SOF, similar to your Disko Bay). If I was only to own one kayak, it would be a Feathercraft. I also have a small Pakboat and my ex-boyfriend had a Pakboat XT-15, a slightly shorter version of the XT-17.
There are videos on YOuTube of both makes of kayak in action. Here's a great one showing Pakboats Xt-15's with sailing rigs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpDexKHf0LQ
QCC cargo
Cargo room for QCC 700x I just bought a used one and test fit it just yesterday. The QCC is the kayak replacing my NDK Greenlander Pro which is rated for 151 liters of hatch volume that’s with the day hatch included. After test packing I would guess that the QCC 700 is about 200 liters, maybe a little more. I can now bring my HUGE Thermarest self inflating sleeping pad and my inflatable one for super comfy sleeping.
Oh forget the CD Titan as that for huge people, 200 pounder and up. . If your going to the Kayak Center in Rhode Island the Valley Etain 17.5 would work for you.http://store.kayakcentre.com/browse.cfm/valley-sea-kayaks-etain-17.5/4,2077.html it also comes in plastic too. Etain is a skeg boat were the QCC can be either. I would say the etain is closer to a SOF in feel. Rolls nice, haven’t yet rolled my QCC but will soon in a pool.
Test paddle if possible but at least sit in them to make sure they will fit. Needing to ad some closed cell foam for best fit is normal at least for me it is.
53 gallons for the QCC !
and maybe 60 for the Titan including cockpit…so we have horse race leaving hull shape, layup as variables.
A per gallons list of 17’+ touring hulls is in odor !
between QCC and CD, guessing that at least 53 qualifies for a standard.
The Titan has a complex hull shape. My testimoney is having zero sea kayak experience then paddling small craft warnings, the Titan’s hull wit a 5-6mph speed by a weakling, qualifies. The hull is agile going downstream, edgy going up into the wind. I’m 6’4"/170
SK tested the Titan Mark 2 with V hull as faster, M1 is round
The QCC always has good rep. You read where QCC branched out ?
wanted: synthetic down.
west coast style
is CD termed: North American Touring.
which I styled…Great Lakes hull
during the pre selection investigation, uh 2005…where the other guys were Brits/Swedes and West Coast hulls with rocker and plastic hulls.
There was a modicum of mud throwing off the west coast on Great Lakes Hulls (GLH) has too stiff tooo fragile not but for rocks but for the highly abrasive west coast shorelines !?
As with bicycling frames, stumpjumpers are stumpjumpers as mostly we travel in straight lines, at least from the Rockies eastward.
Coming around the bend onto a group of West Coast Hulls (WCH) zigzagging up the slew is always a hoot.
Suggestions on what goes on in Maine (MCH) as a NORM…are welcome off course.
Celia,
yes but the SOF and Solstice are not equable. I took courses from Horodowich who paddles Solsticae as a life long curse. Wayne had a SOF in the shed.
wayne dragged me over to eyeball the beastie like he was showing off his first born. Really animated. Babble babble wow gee whiz…OK Wayne calm down…
titan is huge
JUst want to be clear the titan is way larger than a Qcc 700. Titan is 24.25 wide were qcc is 21. I sat in a titan once I was swimming in it. Cockpit is way larger in. Titan, not even close.
awwww
you are pulling my leggo,
https://www.cdkayak.com/Kayaks.aspx?id=34
the idea I put forth is a Formula for touring…
the designer gets 56 gallons to work ‘around’
The designer cannot ‘slim down’ he can only shape
Pretty much what I said
The SOF and the Solstice are two very different ethics. So I don’t understand why two replies to my post. Also, if you met Horodowitch you know the guy is beyond a taller person, he is huge. A boat that fits him could be a barge on the OPer. People have camped for a week or more on the Maine Island Trail with boats having a good bit less storage space than the Titan, and that including having to carry all your water.
On of my favorite comments sortof on Wayne H… some years ago there was a Downeast symposium held in Castine. Wayne had come to teach but had flown in so needed to borrow a boat for demos and lessons. My husband overheard a number of the coaches talking about whose boat Wayne would use. Most of them were reluctant because they figured he might break their boat, just on size and strength. 
Titan is too big
– Last Updated: Mar-02-15 10:31 AM EST –
And I can't make sense of your not getting that, since you say you met Horodowitch in person. He is a helluva lot bigger than 5'10" and 160 pounds, the size the OPer stated for himself. And OPer said he liked a tighter fit.
Even carrying water for a week, many a person has found a expedition length kayak, 17 and a half feet or thereabouts, sized for the average paddler has been plenty big to do the Maine Island trails for a week. The worst that happens is you have to pull up in a harbor to replenish water and get some fresh food - and little harbors are to be found in ready supply along the coast of Maine because of how many sheltered spots the irregular coastline provides.
Perhaps I am misreading what you are saying because of your strange relationship with English... but I think I have it correct that you are recommending the Titan for a paddler that is average size. That is literally not a good fit. And I have done decent time island hopping in Maine in a boat that was on the big side for me. It works but the end of the paddle is a drudge.
you’re forgetting about extra space
for all the insects
QCC 400X
Good seaworthy boat with lots of storage plus good speed. It will easily hold 5 30 packs!
Unclear what datakoll is saying
– Last Updated: Mar-02-15 2:48 PM EST –
Titan is a big fat kayak at 24.25 wide. The Qcc is 21 inches wide with 20.5 width waterline. How these two kayaks are even close is beyond reason. The OP is not some huge guy, he is 5'11" 160lbs. Maybe Datakoll is joking around?? I missed the joke though. I would say if your 225 lbs or LARGER then Titan might fit the paddler, the OP isn't even close to that weight.
two
well, post works are for general reading and specificity for the OP.
The SOF is not going touring.
So the problem the OP is working thru is ‘developing’ an acceptance of a composite hull with 55 gallons of storage close to the SOF feel…if this is possible.
For the general reader, participants should define their recommendations as a SOF substitute.
I can tell you the Solstice Titan tours tops but is no SOF yet the the 58 gallon formula does tour. Going downstream thru eddies and whirlpools, a Solstice is maneuverable…with the current…design.
Choosing to go with current/tide ? then a Solstice may please the OP.
I read thru looking for a sense of tour hull in the SOF direction like reading thru ‘HOW ANY BOATS DO YOU OWN’ ? maybe I’ll read thru again. The question is of interest yet maybe unanswered.
56 gallons
and hull design. Wrap your mind around 56 gallons. 5’ 11" -6’ 4" ? Touring is defined by carrying capacity.
Would this be true ? In the touring category, are all 56 gallon hulls fittable for both 5’11" and 6’4" ?
you know what ? So take the Solstice at one end…the fat end if you will…then place the other hulls in order down toward the SOF ideal.
Try that.