Any experience or knowledge about how it performs, is it fast, stable, ok for light tripping? Thanks.
Diller’s Savage River Otegon
Talk to c2g as he and I went for a little paddle in Diller’s boats one cold day with thin sheet ice on the lake in places. He liked the Otegan best and I liked the Savage. The Savage I paddled most of the time was Diller’s personal down river racer and speced out just a little different than the normal Savage. It was a little longer and a couple of inched deeper if memory serves. The Otegan tracked a little harder and was a little harder to turn. It was suppose to be a little faster, but switching off and paddling hard we thought them to be the same. If they were not so thin I would have a Savage in my rack right now, but I am just too hard on boats for such a thin one.
Both are great boats, but you need to know these are just barely recreation boats derived directly from and only a small ways from being a racing hull. They are extremely light, fast, and thin. They remind you of that, flexing getting in and out when you push yourself up on the gunwales. Diller has made the fastest racing C-1s for years I am told by the racers.
Happy Paddl’n!
:^)
Mick
paddled one a few years ago
– Last Updated: Dec-05-04 5:52 PM EST –
before the 70 miler. John Diller had som demos and I took a spin. the river was up and there was an area with obvious roils and one very visible sharp eddy line. Of course I had to try and see what would happen since I was coming off of trying to race Jboats. The otegan handled beautifully. I had half expected to be rolled going through the roils or crossing the eddyline. The Otegan turned well and handled much better then expected.
I have to agree with Mick that the Otegan is a light boat as are all the boats John builds. They are only strong enough for their designed purposes. I love his JD2 comp cruiser and suspect in few years I might buy one of his proboats. They are THEY ARE VERY WELL BUILT for their purpose. Canunut and I put a hurt on his Cruiser, but I have never heard of any one else getting back in a swamped Comp cruiser in under a minute. We did it by practice. Most people swim there boats to the shallows.
I feel the Otegan is a quality flat water boat and would love to have one.