I thought some of you might be interested in my experiences with the Aleutesque I built last year.

I just spent ten days in the Sporades Islands in Greece with my son and two kayaks, a Petrel and the Aleutesque.

We had mixed weather, several clear, windless days, a couple of force 4-5 days and one force 6-7 day.

On calm water and wavelets up to about a foot, the Aleutesque is very fast, reasonably stable (not much primary stability but plenty of secondary), and visually stunningly beautiful. She kicks up a rooster tail wake over about 4 knots, but actually leaves very little wake, and can cruise with remarkably little effort at about 5-6 knots.

On waves up to about 3 foot, she is transformed into a slow, tiring, irritating pig-headed boat, sticking her long nose deep into every wave and crashing to a halt, with a pistol-like report as the wider upper part of the bow hits the water and submerges, and feels like paddling in syrup.

Attempts to surf were defeated by the bow going deeper and deeper and stopping the boat. Stability however was no problem.

On the day with the strongest wind, and around 4-6 foot waves, we went out to play, and she was wonderful! Much faster upwind than the Petrel, almost unaffected by the wind, and she surfs like a dream, catching the waves easily and staying on them beautifully. She does have a skeg, and this proved to be necessary downwind.

I think the Aleutesque is a much-neglected design, she was not so hard to build as I had feared, and so long as you are not in short, choppy waves she is a fast, forgiving and very "stand-out" boat.

Build one!

Justin

(After you have built a Petrel, for which there are not enough superlatives)