Mayhem with Maynard
Steve is a great coach. One of the best IMHO. I had him three of my four days at the Downeast Symposium - Canoe Safety Test, Rock Gardening (actually Rocks and Ledges) which also included John Carmody and on the last day Tidal Currents (Mayhem with Maynard).
Everyone rolled who capsized during the tidal currents class. I rolled in the haystacks, many rolled kicking out of edies or holes. The rock gardening class was demanding and only about half of us who capsized managed to roll. I had blood on my foredeck from a paddler blown out of his boat caught on a ledge. Some pretty impressive stuff…
I don’t.
Doug’s has a unique operation, and he makes a range of boats in different classes.
If I had to come up with a categoy - maybe: Specialty builder/designer.
My point was the categories commonly used here are outdated and often little more than inaccurate/limited stereotypes.
Sounds like a fund day
Wish I’d been there. I’m green with envy.
I’d call QCC
a Midwest design, hardworking, efficient and kind of bland looking.
Owned Both
Started with an Explorer, then moved to a QCC700 carbon/kevlar when my interests turned to fast fitness paddling and racing.
The Explorer is a superb and benign rough water boat. It scoffs at conditions, and is a known quantity; it’s no coincidence that many instructors paddle them. They’re easy to edge, roll effortlessly, and give solid feedback at every turn. Mine was built like a tank-you could stand on its deck, but this came about from a ‘slather it on’ philosophy of build quality. Even though it never leaked a drop, I got the impression the lads who built my boat couldn’t wait to bolt out the door to the local pub for a pint when the whistle blew.
The Q-Ship: Quality, quality, quality. Had trouble at first getting used to the different feel of the boat. It felt loose compared to the Explorer, wanting to turn and keep turning. The edging limits of the rounder hull seemed vague and imprecise. But what’s taking those other boats so long? Where the Explorer would hit a very definite wall speed-wise, the QCC le aves it for dead, in all but the gnarliest conditions. It goes like stink into the wind once you grow accustomed to the bow slap over wave crests, and surfs like crazy. The only sea kayak that maybe surfs better is the Epic. I can never understand why people are bent on typecasting this boat into a flatwater racer. It handles conditions extremely well. I’ve had it in 4-5 foot waves and raced it in a downriver race where the rapids were class 3, and they ended up shutting down the river due to so many capsizes and rescues. It not only brought me through safe and sound, but dropped most of the other boats like proverbial hot potatoes.
If speed’s not your thing, you like to play with strokes and rolls, when the weatherband announces ‘small craft advisory’ you involuntarily twitch and reach for your paddle, and maybe like to drink your beer on the tepid side, Explorer all the way.
If however, you have the need for speed, think you might like to try a little bit of everything but don’t want to limit yourself to one type of paddling, or maybe you’d just like to carry the entire contents of your garage in its cavernous hatches, then QCC.
Both very good boats, just different.
Very ,very well stated!
Kayaks are a blend of variables targeted at a design intent. Few really understand what makes their kayak do what it does. A lot of marketing is just BS…but people buy it. No one would choose a classic Greenland Brit design to “race” even in rough seas! That’s not their design intent. There are better hull designs for speed even in the rough.