I paddled the Quarajaq today and it reminded me in some ways of the Greenlander Pro. The Quarajaq was: Edgy, turny, very lively in following seas and surf, pretty darn fast. I wonder though how confident it would be in rough water. The Pro gave me confidence in rough although seemed to have a mind of its own until I figured out how the edges work. The Quarajaq could be the same, but what have you all found?
Evan
Can you add a bit…
… on what you mean when you say “very lively in following seas”? Other wise that could be interpreted a lot of ways.
lively in following seas
It slides around quite allot more than say the explorer. Not unpredictable, but very loose feeling, quick transition, and if one is in control of one’s edges and degree of edge, it still seems to amplify that input rather than being more linear as my experience is of the explorer.
This is not necessarilly negative, just very very different. The Greenlander pro was similar but did not seem to amplify the edge like this boat imo with only one demo.
Quarajaq
I found the Quarajaq to be one of the most unresponsive kayaks that I have paddled. I was very disapointed at how the kayak handled when I test paddled it. It amazes me at how some new kayak models handle. You almost wonder if anyone at Valley has tried paddling it.
different perspective
That’s odd. I found it responsive and had a hard time believing it was an 18 foot kayak.
two side of a hard chine long boat
Perhaps you are both correct in your own ways. Not to be Zen about it, literally. The boat can be very aggressive in both resisting input and amplifying input. the hard chine, the rocker, and the length give it allot of surface area. It is as Tom B. says, “edgier” either great fun or unresponsive once moving a certain way. It does not feel like a bad design to me, just not my current cup of tea. Wait till two months from now, who knows. This is the magic of kayaing, it changes each time we are out there.
One man’s meat and all that!
I suppose this reply is aimed most at DonG, Your post sums up how one man’s meat can be another’s poison. By the fact you were “very disappointed” does this mean you approached trying it some preconceptions of what you thought it would be like. Clearly it didn’t match with some or all of these but I can promise you that at Valley we have tried the Qajariaq
I suppose as a designer I try to approach each new kayak I try with an empty mind trying to determine who the designer was thinking of when they designed it and what use they envisioned it excelling at. When I design a kayak the approach is the reversed, yes there are (the lucky) occasions when I am selfish and can design something solely with me and my intended use in mind. More often than not it is some other group of people and their uses that govern what I do.
The Qajariaq is not one of my designs and before I tried it I had been told it was effectively a larger Anas Acuta hence the description on the Valley website. I think people trying it with that preconception would (and are) be surprised at best and disappointed at worsted. The Qajariaq is a kayak in its own right, related to the Anas only in that it is of Greenland form (ie. Hard chined) but with its own distinct character. In paddling style it is probably more similar to the NDK Greenlander pro but as one or two have already stated a little more lively. The website will shortly (2-3 weeks) be updated to reflect this description.
Some kayaks are
manuverable and responsive to paddle strokes and some track well, but I found the Qajariaq to have a mind of It’s own. It seems to take many correction strokes to adjust direction and then it seems to come to far around when it does start to correct It’s course and I found myself constantly wondering were the kayak was going to go. It just isn’t my cup of tea. It sounds like other people have had a different experience and it will probably work for them.
varied impressions
There are (at least) two ways to look at things every time we perceive a “problem”
The first is to assume that the problem is external and hence someone else’s responsibility, divorcing ourselves of ownership and eliminating the possibility to our being able to overcome the challenge.
The second is to assume that the problem is a manifestation of an internal fault. If we take this approach we allow to uncover weaknesses, to root out assumptions, to grow as paddlers.
Over the years there have been boats that I didn’t like, mainly because they seem to have a mind of their own. The fact is that I just didn’t know how to handle them and could not control them at the time. I believed that these were external “problems” until I was encouraged to look within my own technique to determine why other people so loved boats that I hated.
These days a candidate for the fleet must be significantly different from anything else in the fleet (becoming more and more difficult as the fleet grows). This normally means “challenging to control” since I will have had limited experience with that particular blend of design compromises.
Boats are like dance partners, each is different and unique. Each brings a slightly different dimension to the experience. Some are easy to understand and move easily with us, others are more complex and quirky. But for me the quirky ones are the more exciting, the more rewarding to learn to understand and the most fun to play with.
I look forward to learning the lessons that the Qajariaq has to teach me.
Cheers,
Jed
Thoughts
I tried one at the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium and quite liked it. But that was flat water and I was getting a bit tired of testing.
I found that once I got it on edge I didn’t have as much extra secondary as say in a Legend or a Looksha IV. What I mean is that there was less difference between being on edge and being over. That isn’t necessarily bad, but you have to be more alert or maybe just a better paddler. YMMV.
I’m curious what the boat is designed for. Is it for people who want to go pretty fast in rough water, for longer tours, for mostly day trips, or just for people who like hard chines but find the other options too short for some reason? All boats are compromises but is there something this one excells at?
Still have to try the Greenlander.