first paddle.....
boat did not sink. boat floated.
....on the water pics will come later today. i had a friend along for the first paddle and all the pics from the water are on his camera.
that said, first paddle worked out perfectly....10 miles round trip covered in a leisurely 2 1/2 hours. light current and winds working against us most of the trip.
in quiet waters we lopped along at about 4.5 mph were able to hit 6.2 in a sprint. boat accelerated very easily.
so far, everything i asked for in this build got delivered. this boat is fast, and very nimble. turns easily but tracked straight as an arrow with a bit of skeg down. lots of nice comments on the build.
my other main boat is a west river 180.....and i felt i had all the speed of the 180 with a lot more maneuvarability and all the room where i needed it without all the extra volume to just haul around. actually felt more roomy that the west river 180 because of the focus on space where it matters and taking volume out where it doesn't.
in addition to the wonderful handling, the nicest feature is the weight of the boat. the night heron came in at about 39 lbs fully rigged. i was very careful with the build and the hardware-free rigging approach saved a couple lbs in steel.