: I'm hoping to build Erics (Shearwater) Blue Fin, and maybe the Merganser 17,
: or 17W for a friend.

: I paddled the Patuxent 17 in the S.F. Bay and ocean,,for four panels it had a
: low wetted area but that was about it. The nearly symmetrical hull
: shape/rocker and fore/aft windage lent to moderate weathercocking but the
: low volume bow made for bow burying to the coaming in 18" waves. I
: know from owning an Express I couldn't have had a more extreme comparison
: but I worked in two paddle shops and while not a hot paddler with a bomb
: proof roll with a homemade baidarka, whitewater boat or skinny Nordkapp I
: could tell "something's not right" when a 17' "sea
: kayak" buries to the coaming with no resistance in the first 4' then
: slowing down as the bow looks like it wants to keep going. Seeing green
: water up to the coaming and the kayak come to a near standstill ain't what
: I'm familiar with and these weren't short choppy waves where my momentum
: was pushing the boat against a wave , it was simply going a tad faster
: than the 18" wave and diving DOWN into the trough with no resistance.
: The experience of building was great.
Whew,sounds extreme but I've never had the Pax bury it's nose up to the coaming,
maybe a third or half at most.The Patuxent must have a really low volume front end.I was curious about Eric's Blue Fin but I didn't see it on his website,is it a prototype or experimental model?