Hey Jeff,

Ask 100 people and you'll probably get a 100 different answers. With my young family I generally paddle in similar places as you. My primary boat is a Guillemot with a moderately-sized keyhole cockpit. I can do cowboy entries even in deep water with no problems. My decklines are still close by (around my knees). It also gives me room to stretch my legs when on the water. I've even taken my young daughter with me in it. In an ocean cockpit it would be a lot different. By design their supposed to be more intimate.

For the Njord I'm currently building I was asked to compare different cockpit shapes. I just updated it this AM for someone else. It has essentially 4 different sizes/shapes on it: an ocean size (not round), the Guillemot small-keyhole, a fairly standard larger keyhole and a 4th that is very different. The fourth is what I call a squared-oval. It's very symmetric in both the X and Y dimensions. Turner Wilson told me about the little Japenes Qaanaaq made by Water Field. Some really big guys can get in and out of that little boat. You have room for both knees. The others are egg shaped and you have no room for both your knees when entering/egressing. I've built two of them on Greenland Black Pearls. Both my customers have been thrilled with the shape.

The dimensions on the chart are in Metric units (cm). Here are some rounded conversions to Imperial.

Njord Ocean: 51x38 = 20"x15"
Guillemot: 75x43 = 29.5"x17"
Keyhole: 78x40 = 30.7"x15.7"
Qaanaaq: 56x41 = 20"x15"

The original Guillemot was plotted about 3" farther back because it was designed with a backband. The others assume a foam bumper was used on a sloping rear bulkhead. Sorry if it causes any confusion.

My 2 cents (how many Euro's is that now a days?!?). Others on the board have way more paddling experience than me and should give a more direct answer.

Dan