Current Design Expedition Kayak:Opinions?
Barb Campbell / Richard Ehrlich
paddled similar boats, but not this one. The specs make it sound like a very
long, very narrow, fast boat. Anyone have any experience with this?
It is actually a conversion I'm looking at. Called the Kawak, it has a
daggerboard-type trunk cut into the cockpit, and a drive unit drops in. The
unit looks like a little outboard motor, with pedals above and a prop below.
I tried a similar boat, and they cruise at 5 knots. I could sprint at 8kts!
Current Designs makes the conversion out of their Expedition boat, and I think
it would act like a regular kayak with the drive removed.
Please e-mail me directly if you have any input.
Thanks in advance
Richard
Michele D. Rose
>I'm thinking about buying a Current Designs Expedition glass kayak. I've
>paddled similar boats, but not this one. The specs make it sound like a very
>long, very narrow, fast boat. Anyone have any experience with this?
I paddled one this spring and really didn't like it. Too much boat for me.
I mean that in the sense that there's too much of it above the waterline.
A high deck that just continues high all the way to the bow. For folks that
like to take along too much stuff, this one's got the space. I didn't like
the way it paddled, either. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to paddle
it with a load. Maybe that's when things improve. For most paddlers,
however, the majority of time in the boat is without all the gear.
Kevin Rose
Mitch McKinnon
/ Richard Ehrlich, barb...@inforamp.net writes:
>I'm thinking about buying a Current Designs Expedition glass
kayak.
As for the Expedition, I've owned one for four years and love
it. No boat is perfect for all things, so you have to tailor
your selection for the intended use. I chose the boat, after
test driving dozens of boats, because it carries a LOT of gear
( I do multi-week solo [or with one other person] expeditions
each summer), it fits my body better than any other boat I've
ever paddled (I find the seat VERY confortable), it rides
waves and turbulent water very well (due to the round hull and
high volume), provides a comparitively dry ride (because of
that peaked deck and flush forward hatch), handles large
swells very well, and rolls quite easily. It's also
comparitively quite fast, though speed is as much a function
of the paddler as the boat; a more appropriate way to put this
would be to say it moves through the water easier than most
boats I've tried. It is also easy to maintain a higher
cruising speed than many other boats (relatively lower drag
than many other boats at higher speed - I think it's a
function of water line-to-something ratio).
The drawbacks I've found are:
It rolls quite easily - both ways! Unloaded, there is very
little secondary stability, which is unsettling to anyone not
used to it. Leaning the boat to turn (it's LONG!), allows a
quick pivot, but also occassionally leads to unexpected
inversions if you loose your balance. I've "tripped" over
my paddle a few times while farting around or spacing out, and
found myself hanging upside down in a jiffy! But rolling back
up is always easy.
Fully loaded, the boat settles into the water down to the
seam, and acquires significant secondary stability. But even
loaded, it still rolls up very easily.
The high fore deck, which is what gives the boat much of it's
amaizing cargo capacity, also give the boat a tendency to
weather cock moderatlely. Good paddling technique and/or load
distribution adjustments can compensate, but to conserve
energy, I've occassionally resorted to using the rudder. The
large bow volume also gives the boat fairly good surfing
characteristics.
It is light for its size, due to a thinner hull than many
boats I've seen. So I treat it gently. But the thinner hull
also lives it an amaizingly low weight for such a big boat -
55 LBS, as I recall.
If it were two inches longer, it wouldn't fit in my garage.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The name of the Expedition is a good clue as to the intended
use for this boat. I have found no better boat for my serious
travel needs. If you don't need the cargo space, or you're
uncomfortable in a boat without any primary and very little
secondary stability, this is not the boat for you. I have
been shopping for a "play" boat, something a bit more
maneuverable for surfing and current play, for two years, but
haven't found anything I love so much as my Expedition.
As for this pedal-power business - it's an intriguing idea,
but I can't imagine the Expedition is the best boat for it
(see stability characteristics, above). I would think
something a little wider, with more primary stability, like
the Solstice GT would be appropriate. I'll have to stop by
the factory next time I'm in Sidney BC and investigate this.
It's just my opinion.
Mitchell McKinnon
Vancouver Washington
Barbrich@inforamp.net (barb Campbell / Richard Ehrlich)
inforamp.net!ts16-12.inforamp.net!barbrich
From: barb...@inforamp.net (Barb Campbell / Richard Ehrlich)
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle
Lines: 36
References: <barbrich.1...@inforamp.net> <449esv$o...@news.vcd.hp.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ts16-12.inforamp.net
X-Newsreader: Trumpet for Windows [Version 1.0 Rev A]
In article <449esv$o...@news.vcd.hp.com> Mitch McKinnon <mit...@vcd.hp.com>
writes:
>From: Mitch McKinnon <mit...@vcd.hp.com>
>Subject: Re: Current Design Expedition Kayak
>Date: 26 Sep 1995 17:56:47 GMT
>The name of the Expedition is a good clue as to the intended
>use for this boat. I have found no better boat for my serious
>travel needs. If you don't need the cargo space, or you're
>uncomfortable in a boat without any primary and very little
>secondary stability, this is not the boat for you. I have
>been shopping for a "play" boat, something a bit more
>maneuverable for surfing and current play, for two years, but
>haven't found anything I love so much as my Expedition.
>As for this pedal-power business - it's an intriguing idea,
>but I can't imagine the Expedition is the best boat for it
>(see stability characteristics, above). I would think
>something a little wider, with more primary stability, like
>the Solstice GT would be appropriate. I'll have to stop by
>the factory next time I'm in Sidney BC and investigate this.
The Expedition was chosen for the pedal-powered kayak configuration because
it's the fastest boat they make. Stability isn't a problem because the
Kawak
version has 2 small outriggers called Flying Amas. Normally out of the
water,
they only touch when tilting way out. Being small, they probably wouldn't
totally prevent a roll, but would make uprighting fairly easy if you fell
out. So I'm told. They enable sailing as well.
BTW, the boat is so fast that it can be
equipped with a self-bailer, which would drain the cockpit quickly as soon
as
you got moving.
Personally, I wonder why they didn't pick the Solstice GT also.
I asked them about adding the pedal modification, but apparently it would
require all new molds for the deck.
Richard Ehrlich
Bolton, Ont.