Wilderness Cape Hatteras

[Chesley Sugg]

Local Store has Wilderness System Cape Hatteras Kayak for 1/2 price.
Store says boat is "commercial failure" and Wilderness is dumping to get
rid of them.I just a novice paddler but I took one out on calm water
with little wind and it handles just fine to me. Does anyone know why
these boats were "commercial failures".... To unstable intitally? The
boat is good looking (to me) not that unstable and seems to paddle fine.
There seems to be a lot of stories about the fact that the boat didn't
sell, but no one can tell me just why it didn't sell. Can any of you
enlighten me?

Thanks, CW

[Alder Creek]

If it looks OK to you, I think it is OK. 50% is a great buy.
Looks are probably most of the reason we had trouble selling the Hat. It paddles OK.

steve

--
Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe
250 NE Tomahawk Isle Dr
Portland, OR 97217

Phone: 503.285.0464
Fax: 503.285.0106
Web site: http://www.aldercreek.com
Email: ac...@teleport.com


______________________________________________
"Chesley Sugg" <cs...@mindspring.com> wrote in message news:390CE59F...@mindspring.com...

[Dale]

> There seems to be a lot of stories about the fact that the boat didn't
> sell, but no one can tell me just why it didn't sell.

I tried it a year or so ago, loved it. It felt fast & responsive, I was all
set to buy it.

What prevented me from doing so was Wilderness Systems' weight rating of the
Hatteras - just me with no gear put me at or over its rated capacity (I'm
250 lbs).

In retrospect, I'm not sure whether that would matter or not.

- Dale

[Chesley Sugg]

Funny, Dale,
I, too, am a "clydesdale" guy (over 200 lb) and my 1999 wilderness systems
catalog rates the max capacity of the Hatteras as 425 lbs. In fact that is one
of the reasons I liked it. It is a fairly large volume boat for it's lenght. As
a aside, I noticed that the 1999 Wilderness catalog rated the sames boats at a
considerable higher capacity than the 2000 catalog. (eg Sealution 1999 rating
375 lbs, 2000 rating 275 lbs. quite a difference. No difference in dimensions.)

Chesley

[Dale]

Hi Chesley -

My apologies - I am confusing the Hatteras with the Horn. All of these 'H'
words... The Horn was listed at 250 lbs, the Hatteras, as you point out,
does have much higher capacity.

FWIW, the 1999 catalog had a supplemental correction sheet which changed
(usually in a downward direction) many of the capacity listings. The dealer
said they were typos. The correction sheet value for the Sealution in 1999
shows 275 lbs.

Do you know what these numbers really mean, by the way? Would one be a fool
to put 300 lbs in a 250 lb rated boat, or would the boat just be 'sluggish'?

- Dale

> I, too, am a "clydesdale" guy (over 200 lb) and my 1999 wilderness systems
> catalog rates the max capacity of the Hatteras as 425 lbs. In fact that is
one
> of the reasons I liked it. It is a fairly large volume boat for it's
lenght. As
> a aside, I noticed that the 1999 Wilderness catalog rated the sames boats
at a
> considerable higher capacity than the 2000 catalog. (eg Sealution 1999
rating
> 375 lbs, 2000 rating 275 lbs. quite a difference. No difference in
dimensions

<snip,snip>

[John Fereira]

In article <A7DP4.140$Xo1....@news.uswest.net>, "Dale" <wlau...@uswest.net> wrote:
>Hi Chesley -
>

>Do you know what these numbers really mean, by the way? Would one be a fool
>to put 300 lbs in a 250 lb rated boat, or would the boat just be 'sluggish'?

That's what test/demo paddles are for.

John Fereira
Ithaca, NY
ja...@cornell.edu