September 4, 1999

Trying new Kayaks

Trip #47

5 Miles

Well, it was probably more than 5 miles over all. I didn't have the GPS with me and I was more interested in how the boat handled than how far I went.

I had picked up a rental Seaward Ascente the day before and I hoped it would be a boat that would be to my liking. As I put in at Leesylvania State Park I found it to have good primary stability and excellent secondary stability. I could put this thing almost 90 degrees on edge while sculling (drastic improvement over my current kayak).

As I headed around to Powells Creek and calm water I noticed the back end wallowed around a bit in the following waves. Inside of Powells Creek the boat behaved perfectly. A little stiff in turning, but it could be leaned and turned with little problems. It stayed on track where you pointed it.

As I brought it out of the creek, and started to head across the Potomac, the boat handling changed quite a bit. She liked heading into the wind. I could do a decent job holding her in any direction off of directly into the wind, but any further than that and it became much more difficult. So difficult that I could *not* paddle the boat perpendicular to the wind without using a rudder stroke about every 3-5 paddle strokes. (Wind was 10-15 Mph). Broad sweeps were needed just to slow down the rate of turn into the wind.

I gave up on the idea of heading across the river and instead decided I needed to explore this handling characteristic a little more. I *really* wanted to like this boat. It was light (kevlar), and carried well on my portage to the water. It had a rudder (which I did test a little later) with Seawards famous rudder pedals (I have the same pedals in my Guillemot), which I also really like. Lot's of deck lines, a mesh bag under the deck (seemed to get in my way), clip on compass, and a bow painter all as standard equipment.

I used the rudder to see if I could then hold the boat on a course perpendicular to the wind (I could). After paddling around for about an hour and a half to make sure I couldn't make myself get used to how it handled in the wind without the rudder, I gave up.

As much as I wanted to like this kayak I loaded it back on the truck for the trip back to Ski Chalet. On the way there, I stopped off at Atlantic Kayak to order my dry suit. After tugging and pulling and choking I managed to get on a size large which fit well. I placed my order and added in a relief zipper and booties.

After that I started chatting with Judy about the Seaward. She took me out to her kayak warehouse as I described what I was looking for in handling. I tried several on for size that she thought might be like what I wanted. I really liked a British kayak (P&G?) but it was heavy. Since I often paddle alone I want something easy to portage.

She showed me several others but I liked the skeg on the British boat so she showed me a Current Designs Gulfstream. This kayak had plain deck rigging and for being 16' 10" it carried a bit heavy. We loaded it up on a set of wheels and Ralph (One of Judy's employees) walked down to the river to put it in. On the water it handled great in the choppy water. It turned well, had surprisingly little wallow in following seas, and held course with little effort regardless of how I had it pointed. With the skeg down for less corrective strokes, she still responded to sweep strokes to turn well. The boat had good primary and secondary stability.

I rolled it twice: The first a pawlatta and the second the same roll without the paddle extended. She rolled up easily but the spray skirt I was wearing dumped in a good amount of water.

So the big question: Did I buy it? Well, no actually. As much as I liked it, I decided I wanted to rent it for a weekend and try it on an extended day trip before buying. With this weekend looking like it will be dominated by the tropical storm, I reluctantly left Atlantic Kayak empty handed, but with the promise to return when the weather was better. If I do decide to buy one, I'll get the kevlar version though and shave off a few pounds. CD's web site lists the fiberglass version as 52 lbs, which I think is being generously light. It carried more like 60. I'd like a few more bells and whistles also, but I guess I could add them myself.

Anyone have any good/bad things to say about the CD Gulfstream that I should know about? Other boats that you would recommend in that type of kayak?