: Those of you who have built and/or paddled baidarkas such as the Shearwater,
: Fire Star, Shooting Star, or others, could you give me some idea of how
: they paddle? I would expect them to be pretty fast and track well and
: handle surf pretty well. But are they lively and at all maneuverable? What
: do they offer that a regular hard chined design doesn't other than a
: unique look? Just curious.

Patsy-
I built Rob Mack's Shooting Star. My other boat is a CD Extreme (19+ ft). The baidarkas supposedly have legendary speed but the truth is they still obey the laws of hydrodynamics. The thing that made them legendary were the Aleuts who paddled them. My 16' Star has a much slower cruising speed and slower top speed than my Extreme - no surprises there. The Star tracks as well as my Extreme (surprise), is very maneuverable, and behaves itself in moderate wind and small (2') waves. I don't have experience with surf. I am 140 lb, and the SS is a wet ride in 2' seas. The Star handles following and quartering seas competently, but this is compared to the performance of the Extreme so the bar for comparison is pretty low. I like the secondary stability of the Star. In a hard chine boat I like Bobby Curtis' Sea Spirit - but for much different reasons having to do with technique.

If you are going to spend all that time building a stripper then why not go for a unique look? The Shooting Star is definitely unique.

Wes Tanaka