P&H Custom Sea Kayaks Blog

I am hoping to get out to play in the Scorpio LV again over the next three or four days, and decided to remind myself of my first-impressions of the boat last November:

The LV is very much a LOW Volume version of the Scorpio, looking at them side by side the LV is much lower volume, the back deck is a whole 7cm lower, the front deck 3cm lower, 2cm narrower…. and 7cm shorter. After testing the Scorpio, I really have been looking forward to this LV version.

The conditions I tested in were around force 5 building to a light 6, with confused waves of between 1 – 1.5m of coldish 9c water….. winter is on the way !

Well, the LV is rather a different beast than the standard Scorpio in my opinion. You are still getting a reletivly high initial stability, although as soon as you start to edge the LV you can really feel the difference that the 2cm reduction in width, it is not unstable, just rather more lively. Edging still produces carved turns, it only requires a few sweep strokes to turn a full 360. If anything bow rudders are more effective than the already great Scorpio, cross-bow rudders are extremely quick and aggressive, you just have to be a bit more careful to allow for the little livlier attributes of the narrower hull. Low brace turns are very quick whilst it is possible to lean the boat more or less completly on its side, this produces a radical turn of well over 90 without feeling unduly unstable. In the waves it is very easy to manouver into any position with ease. In short steep waves the bow has a more relaxed feel to it than in the full size boat, a considerable amount of volume has been taken out of the bow area. Windage has been greatly reduced, but then again, so has space to load up for extended trips… After extensive play with the skeg up, I lowered the blade into the sea, not because it was necesary, just to see how the LV would react. it seemed to bring a calming influence to the whole experience, I could now without much discomfort stow the paddle & eat a bannana whilst just watching the horizon disapear only to show-up again a few seconds later.
The only area that did suprise me was that it did not seem any quicker at catching waves, to be fair, trying to surf short steep waves is not easy so….. I will be looking forward to a surf session in the next few weeks.

Well I never did get out for the surf session, and the forecast is for light winds over the next few days, so I will be experimenting with the boats edging & turning performance…… and finally enjoying a little spring sunshine 🙂

Mike

Fast and fun, the Bahiya is a modern classic.

I’ve been paddling a Bahiya off and on since 2004, and thought I would share my observations on the boat. The full review is at BigWaterSmallBoat.com.

Ahhhh… last week, a friend of mine (Mathew Wendell), and myself got out to the west coast of Washington for some surf in sea kayaks. I was excited to get the Capella 161 out in some decent surf, and to try some moves on waves using the foampile.

Day one was spent at Crescent Beach where the surf was small, so we occupied ourselves with a short coastal paddle in the Straits of Juan De Fuca. Day two dawned with 15-18 foot Westerly swell on the outer coast, and we drove to Makah Bay thinking we might find something manageable in the straits near Neah Bay which is a popular surfer destination.

We ended up putting in at a river mouth (Sooes River) which empties right into the Pacific. The swell was quite big in most of Makah Bay (probably 12-15 feet) but at the river mouth it was anywhere from 4 to 6 feet and pretty spilly. No sooner had we got on the water when a raging hailstorm deposited a half-inch of hail on the land and it was hard to keep our eyes open. The current of the river, though minimal, assisted us in paddling out, and we had to keep track of our position so we didn’t get carried out farther where big nasty, dumpers raged.

To be out there, in that zone, witnessing huge seas further out with the spray blowing off the crests, while the sunlight disappeared then reappeared was incredibly enrgizing. We kept catching waves, ending our surfs near the river, keeping track of each other via the occasional glimpse of a paddle blade, then paddling back out for “one more wave”.

I was quite pleased with the 161 and found that one can change direction quite quickly, due to the top view profile (no straight sections along the tapeline) and the paddler being positioned a bit forward of the maximum beam (where there is a lot of buoyancy).

I’m quite psyched that more coastal trips are on the calender, as well as a Skookumchuck trip in early May.

–Matt Nelson

The Scorpio awaits.

The ice is finally off the lakes in Madison, Wisconsin and I got to take my new demo Scorpio for a shakedown cruise. I recorded some initial impressions on my Big Water, Small Boat site. Click here for the whole post.

The Canoecopia lineup from Capella to Scorpio.

For paddlers in the Midwest, Canoecopia is the big season kickoff. We had the full P&H crew on hand to show off the newest boats and catch a little bit of early season excitement. For an update on the shenanigans, click here.

bryan shooting in outer banks