: Has anyone here built one, or able to comment on the design, etc? 18'7"
: x 20" but the hard chines should give it some stability and low
: volume plus L vs B should mean high speed. Seems to be a precursor to the
: Arctic Hawk or Pax 18 of CLC.

You should go to the Qajaq USA web site and read the article by Brooks Martyn in the Summer 2006 edition of The Masik newsletter called "North Bay Redemption." He details changes he made to the North Bay design and why he made them. I've paddled one of these altered-design boats (Actually, Cheri Perry's boat, that he talks about in the article) and they're nice. A nice amount of leg room for traditional performance-oriented paddling (Greenland-type performance), and it rolls and does static braces very well, better than my Night Heron, which I reduced the deck height on. I've never paddled one in any sort of bumpy water or wind.

Here are my thoughts- If you're a dedicated do-it-yourselfer and want to work from plans and don't mind taking a bit of extra time to make it exactly how you want, then do it, but fiddling with plans can be a lot of work that can make it frustrating if you just want to build and start paddling. If you DO want to build and start paddling and you're not totally in love with the North Bay, maybe you should look at a plan that doesn't need any alteration. Arctic Hawks are very nice, and one of the designs you mentioned, but they're far from the only boat available.

m

Brooks Martyn
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