That seems to be a pretty reasonable argument. I went to a CLC demo evening this summer (one of their regular Wednesdays on the South R), and what I witnessed may help to explain the issue somewhat--please note that I am a novice paddler.

The folks who came to demo the CLC boats had varying degrees of experience in kayaks, and most of them had/have been paddling plastic boats. The plastic boat folks really thought that the wood composite CLCs were a lot faster, easier to turn, etc. That was the general opinion, and most of these folks seem to be owners of boats from the larger manufacturers, especially Perception/Dagger and Wilderness Systems. I'd have to agree with them, from my limited experience (I demoed a C17--it was a lot nicer than a comparably sized Perception Eclipse I had rented).

At the same time that the CLC demo was happening, the Chesapeake Bay Paddlers were having their weekly get together at the same place. These folks all seemed to be be in Romanys and Avocets--which obviously are a lot different from your run-of-the-mill Perception craft--and which stood out to me because I had never seen anything like them before. A couple Romany owners ending up demoing CLCs--but none of them had any comments, other than to say thanks, or very nice boat or something.

My only point in all this is that as we learn and experience we change our conceptions of the world, and where one tool used to seem perfectly adequate--it no longer does when we find a better tool. To some of the plastic boat owners the CLC boats (at least some of them) are a step (or 2) ahead for them. I feel that I am lucky in that I'm starting at this step (or maybe a little beyond), with the advice of experienced folks like you, who are willing to share what they have learned.

But the nice folks at CLC (they are very, very nice folks) just keep hearing how much better their boats are than the plastic boats that people demoing CLCs have made plans to get rid of. It sounds like they've decided that they don't need to do anymore because they are getting so much positive feedback from folks who may not know any better (those who are inexperienced, like me). That being said, there is no real excuse for not actually testing a product before releasing it (although there is a precedent--Microsoft) especially one that can have lethal consequences if it fails at the wrong time.

For the record, and for anybody who cares, my first S&G boat, which will hopefully hit the water in the next week or so, is a Pygmy Arctic Tern.

-Mike

: Mike, I think the fundamental problem is that the leadership at CLC can't
: distinguish between "try it out" with "tested". The
: first one is what someone does when demoing a kayak with the goal being
: whether the kayak meets your criteria as a customer. The second one is
: what one does to determine if the design meets the criteria of the
: manufacturer. With the two confused the company relys on the customer to
: test the design,,after it's marketed. Which is a little like Burger king
: putting curry and raisins on their hamburgers one day to see what the
: customer thinks then analyzing the sales figures at that store, but never
: eating it yourself.