Sounds like we're birds of a feather. I don't enter races, but I like hanging out with them and learning their ways. I like spirited, high performance boats, and love to go fast. If pressed, I'd call myself a fitness paddler.

The C-1 with wings isn't hard to strip at all, just gotta know how. Basically, you strip it in quarters, then join 'em. Looks to me like it'd actually be considerably easier than a more typical canoe. I figure I'm going to find out someday, because....

....paddling a 25-lb 18'-6" C-1 is great fun! It's a little tippier than I care to fish out of, and it takes forever to get a turn out of it, but for chuggin' on down the bayou? Hoo boy, the miles fly past. I believe I can paddle it over twice as far as the Advantage or Merlin for the same effort. However the science of it works out, I just know that at the end of a really long paddle I feel all antsy to get right back out there and do it again, just like after a long day in a really nice kayak.

: The racing canoes are seriously odd looking :)

: Would be a really interesting shape to strip.

: My racing days are long gone, assuming I was ever good enough to do
: that, not. I just like to go fast, not alot of point in paddling
: hard and going slow.

: Bill H.