: Hi,

: Sorry this is so late, but I just got back from our trip to the
: coast. No, we were not in the Slocan area, we were sailing out
: of Prince Rupert. The trip went well, although the weather was a
: tad on the cool and wet side.

: The Cape Ann Storm SLT proved to be a nice boat to paddle, although
: it would be uncomfortable for a beginner. The initial tenderness
: is sufficient that in choppy water, I found myself reluctant to
: put down my paddle to take a photo. When actually underway
: paddling, it feels great in chop, but orienting ones self with
: no paddle in hand and eyes not on the horizon seems tricky to
: me. Perhaps more time in the boat will train my backside to read
: the boat better.

: Another characteristic that surprised me a bit is the eagerness of
: the boat to surf. In larger following seas, it takes off
: regularly and, in combination with the initial tenderness, often
: requires bracing strokes to maintain control. Again, perhaps a
: matter of my limited ocean experience, but the behaviour was
: surprising to me. More weight in the boat might moderate the
: eagerness to surf - I weigh only 155lbs, the boat only 30 lbs,
: and it was empty.

: My wife tried the SLT and found it considerably more tender than
: her Necky Eliza which coincidentally is almost identical in
: overall dimensions. The Eliza has a shallow vee bottom with
: almost vertical sides from the sheer to a fairly sharp chine,
: especially from the cockpit area aft. The odd thing is that this
: hull configuration on the Eliza did not seem to slow the boat
: down much if at all. My wife had no difficulty keeping up with
: me, and she is a much weaker, albeit lighter, paddler. I may try
: Kayak Foundry to do a second boat for my wife more along the
: lines of the Eliza design.

: I'll post more later about the skeg I built and the hatch latches,
: both of which worked out very well.

: Best regards,

: Allan Edie

Light paddlers don't sink a boat much so have much less resistance to overcome, can be really hard to keep up with a skilled light weight woman paddler :)

Bill H.