make you own
Very interesting stuff.
Of course not only do I have to pick out a boat but may need to research the dimensions to fit me as well as well as how I would use it.
But still an intriguing idea.
The hard chined boats are supposedly not as fast as a more rounded boat due to the greater wetted surface. But then I don’t plan to race. But I like a fairly efficient boat.
sea rider by Tom Yost
I picked the sea rider for two reasons. The first is that it seems to have a fair amount of rocker and as such I hope it will be a good turning, play / day boat that I can use in swells without playing submarine as I do in the SOF I currently have, which is somewhat of a dedicated rolling boat even though it performed admirably in the ocean. With a bit more volume, I hope to be able to carry a sandwich or two in the boat instead of having to rely on everything being on or in my pfd as I do in the rolling SOF. Also it has some good reviews.
The second reason, much to Greyaks amusement, is that I have no skills whatsoever, and am “challenged” to say the least with building anything. It probably is (as he tells me anyway)easier to build a more traditional one but the simplicity of the forms appeal to me.
If you think about it, without the forms in place, it is identical to making a traditional boat except instead of forms you are making deck beams and adding ribs and pegging and lashing them to the keel etc. So after the first one is done and I feel a bit more confident, I may make a traditional one if I can figure out dimensions for setting the rocker and other attributes Iwould want.
Paul
At 180
You are the target weight for a lot of boats.
Among the ‘day boats’ that are popular amongst dedicated paddlers there is a range of responsiveness and speed. Among the fastest of day boats is the Kajak-Sport Viking (as mentioned above), among the most playful is the NDK Romany. The Valley Avocet falls in between.
You may be too heavy for some boats targeted towards smaller paddlers, such as the P&H Vela and Nigel Foster Rumour (now being made by Current Designs).
Dagger Meridian SKS is a nice boat that turns up used - Dagger stopped making them. Many like the Necky Chatham 16 which is very playful.
Mariner XL???
– Last Updated: May-31-06 11:06 PM EST –
wow,,you're in a big boat,,getting the right sized boat would feel low volume.
Start with a Caribou, T-165, and all the other ones mentioned. The XL is a big boat. Nearly 15cubic feet, the Caribou is 11.4
The Impex Force 4 fits the idea of a straight tracking as does the OI
another LV sink
the Arctic Hawk Pro…mine truly weighs only 39 pounds, is very very fast, like all handling components except the weathercocking which can be handled with ballast and/or gear, just wish they had made the effort to make the hatches flush and the cockpit wither larger or surf.
thanks
Thanks for the replies.
I have lots of boats to think about.
The P& H Quest LV may be worth a look too.