I don’t disagree, but you’re assuming the person asking for advice wants a tight fitting boat. How that boat fits is less important than cargo volume. The next post mentions camping, which requires volume. A 168 lb paddler could pack an 80 pound load and still have acceptable freeboard, while I was already overloading the boat. The 125 Tsunami is 12’9" by 26" wide with a 300 lb maximum capacity.
On the other hand, the Eddyline Rio is 11’9" by 24" wide, with a maximum capacity of 270 lbs. The major advantage of the Eddyline is the 37 lb carry weight compared to the 51 lb Tsunami, a 14 lb difference. On a positive note, the Eddyline weight savings helps with load capacity. The question is whether the Eddyline will handle conditions like the Tsunami. For that you better look at the deck height of 12 inches for the Eddyline and compare it to 15 inch deck of the Tsunami. Three inches is significant.
So the user has to ask a question: do I want to play rolly-polly in the surf, do I want a roomy cockpit or tight for better control, do I want to carry cargo, do I want light weight, or would I prefer a comfortable roomy cockpit with great primary stability to stretch and not have to worry about ending up looking at upside down fish.
I’ve never paddled an Eddyline, but I believe it would sink with me under the conditions I typically paddle. Faster doesn’t just mean hull speed. When encountering waves head on, the deck height and safe capacity go together, as does the hull form. Symmetric hulls like the Tsunami are more barge like and will rise on a wave peak, then plunge into the trough. That plunging action increases with speed, so the answer to handling such conditions is to slow down and bob over waves rather than rise and plunge which ultimately washes the cockpit with a sheet of water. It isn’t that the 125 Tsunami can’t handle 12 to 16 inch or even 18 inch waves. It just means you have to slow down. So if the 125 Tsunami can average 4.1 mph over a 21.5 mile trip across open water, you just have to understand the conditions of waves, wind, tide and current. With all thing going in your favor, a 10 mph wind at your back, a falling tide with a river outflow, and 9 inch waves, you can cook along at 5.4 mph. Then you have to pay the piper on the 10.75 mile leg home. If the wind is from the same direction and the speed increases to 15 mph (happens in the afternoon), then the tide reverses direction and is contrary to the wind, you will probably fight 18 inch waves which aren’t so bad from the rear, but your speed will cut in half to avoid plunging into the troughs. Then if you face even a standing .6 mph outflow from the river, that slows progress from 2.7 mph to 2.1 mph. So the average trip in a 125 Tsunami might take 5 hrs 15 min on a calm day with a fortuitous slack or favorable reversing tides, or 10 hrs 30 mins under less favorable conditions. In a 145 Tsunami under similar conditions, the trip take about 4 hrs 45 minutes to 5 hrs, and in a 175 Tsunami, it could be done in 4 hrs 15 to 30 min, because those conditions would impact the 175 even less than the 145.
As a side note, I know I get hate mail for not using a spray skirt. The reason I don’t use one is that I select my kayak for the conditions, and monitor by radio the forecasted conditions and expected changes. I don’t hesitate to change course when conditions are marginal.
The 125 Tsunami might be roomy, but I promise it is very seaworthy, as well as reasonably fast under the right conditions. For the OP, i hope this helps to understand the difference between a snug fit and a cavernous cockpit when paddling open water. Speed isn’t always about hull speed formulas. You need to factor in deck height, hull form, carrying capacity, and stability. A boat with excellent primary stability will bob like a cork as long as you are in waves without a curl (for lack of a better term). Even if I were only 167 lbs, I don’t think I’d take the Eddyline out under the same conditions that I easily face in the 125 Tsunami.
Incidentally, my 15 year old grandaughter who is around 100 lbs has used my 125 Tsunami in open Bay without complaint. She now has a 140 Tsunami and handles it well. My older sister used a 140 Pungo (14’ by 28" wide for years before she bought her own 140 Tsunami, with rudder, which has NEVER been deployed. She faced the same conditions with me. It isn’t that most boats are not suited; it mostly depends on whether some are mores suited for the conditions and your expectation. Test the boat and anticipate your needs. Buy more than one if you have the storage space, and select the one for the task at hand. You don’t haul wood in a sedan, or use the sedan to travel rugged mountain trails. Dont expect one boat to excel in everything, and don’t buy a boat because someone said they like it.
By the way, I’m not saying the 125 Tsunami is right for the OP. Just that I believe there are more parameters in selecting a boat than how your ass fits a seat. I paddled a 140 Duralite Pungo for a while. The speed, roominess, light weight and stability was very appealing. I added a forward bulkhead and deck ropes. However, it pounded in waves and the excessive width for my height was undesirable. Most of all, it couldn’t handle harsh conditions, which are frequent. In the closed deck Tsunamis, I always have the option of diverting to a different course for the day, if an open crossing looks demanding. I’m never more than an hour from landfall, even if it isn’t my launch point. That way, changing weather doesn’t present a challenge, unless I call on them to pick me up in the other side of the bay, but that has never happened.
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so I am looking exclusively used. No sitkas near me, but I did find 2 Merlin’s, which if I understand correctly is the older, discontinued brother of the Sitka. I found both the LT and XT models, but my guess is the LT would work best for my 5’7 168 size.
