: Lee
: I have paddled a few other kayaks and canoes, but no other sea kayaks and I
: guess some of the model names won't mean much outside Australia.
: The Night Heron is much more stable, but not quite as fast as a TK1 Sabre,
: even though the Sabre is wider (for the very small part of its length
: needed to meet the international specs for a TK1).
: It feels about as stable and fast as an old Touring kayak I built in 1974
: called a French Tourer. It is the sort of touring kayak that is big enough
: to take a weekend's camping gear.
: It is not as fast as a C2, but is more stable. It doesn't have the stability
: of an old Canadian canoe I made in 1977, but is faster. It would probably
: be similar in speed and stability to the modern TC2s built for
: competition.
: As an indication of my level of skill, I have been paddling since 1974,
: usually competing in marathon events in a TK1, TC2 or C2, including twice
: completing a 100 mile race, 4 times completing a 111km overnight race and
: dozens of others between 14 and 90km.
: In spite of all that experience, my attempt a couple of years ago to master a
: K1 sprint kayak ended with me admitting that I just wasn't good enough. I
: seldom managed more than an hour paddling without tipping out. So I am not
: some hotshot paddler who would feel safe in any kayak in any conditions.
: I hope this helps put my earlier comments about the handling of the Night
: Heron into perspective. I know that I would have felt much less nervous
: during the bulding process when I saw how narrow the Night Heron was if I
: could have read comments from someone who had paddled it and some other
: craft that I could compare it to.
: Allan

Hi Allan,

The 111km overnight race, wouldn't be the Hawkesbury Classic by any chance? I live in Sydney and have been toying with the idea of entering. Do you have any advice for someone who's thinking of participating? How much training before hand etc...?

Nice kayak by the way.

Cheers,

Paul