Rob,

I have paddled two Westside Boats; the Thunderbolt and Exel?

Here in Boston we have a group that races every Wed night throughout the spring and summer on the Charles river. A friend lent me the Thunderbolt before one of the races. Having never paddled it before I immediatly took 2 min off my best 5 mile race time of 47 min. It is a 21' long 18" wide boat that you see in a lot of flatwater and ocean races. It's perfect for a 6'3" 230lbs guy like me. I found it a bit tippy even on the flatwater but by the end of the race I could see how people take them out on the ocean. The one thing I didn't like about it was that it had no gel coat just raw epoxy, carbon and epoxy hence you had to keep it in a cover to protect it from ultra violet sun light

A few weeks later I borrowed the smaller WestSide Excel (not sure if that is the name it might be Exceed) I was too big for the Excel so it didn't give me the immediate performance boost of the thunderbolt but it is also a very fast boat.

West Side is a small boat shop that is one of the few businesses left that doesn't have a web site but you can contact them at 716-434-5755 for a catalog

Regards,

Jack