What type and what is it good for

[Chauncy]

Hello, I saw this for sale, its a old 13 ft fiberglass kayak. It is 24 in wide. Does have any opinions on what would be the best use for this kayak? I want to use it for 10-14 mile forest preserve river paddling.. Would this be a slow kayak? Thanks, Jim

[keith]

Assuming that the river is flatwater, the length of the boat is reasonable. A width of 24" is pretty narrow, so I doubt you'd find it to be a slow kayak. From the picture, it obviously has quite a bit of rocker (bottom of hull is turned up on the ends, rather than being straight on the bottom), which will increase maneuverability but decrease tracking (ease of continuing in a straight line). At just 24" wide, with what appears to be a classic rounded hull (as far as I can tell from the picture, which isn't very far), it may not seem very stable at first. Initial or primary stability is how tippy a kayak is when tilted from the normal flat position and secondary stability refers to the stability as the kayak is put onto one of its edges. Stability is largely a matter of hull design and the placement of edges (or chines) in the hull. So if it is a classic rounded hull (with very subtle or soft chines) it may have only a small amount of initial stability, so it may feel pretty tippy until you get used to it (especially if you are new to kayaking). If it's in decent shape (inspect it thoroughly both inside and out for cracks) and you're sure it's a good value, it could be a fine boat. Good luck and happy paddling!

[Chauncy]

Thanks for the info. I have a 16.8 ft QCC 600 sea kayak now, and have used it on slow flowing river, flatwater lakes for about 7 yrs. When the river rises in the Spring, or after heavy rains a lot of debris can block the river which at times makes it dangerous since it is esay to get caught up in it. I used to use a 12 ft fiberglass swift adarondic recreational kayak 27.5 in wide and it was easy to manuver.. it was also easy to turn it around if I got into a jam. I was going to use it in these instances to scout the river untill it was clear to use the bigger kayak. The old Swift was very stable for this so I was wondering how this would compare to this one. How would it be on flatwater lakes? Thanks, Chauncy

[keith]

Considering the significant rocker shown in the picture, I would expect that it would probably be just as maneuverable as the 12' recreational Swift and possibly more so. And at just 24" wide and 1' longer than the Swift, I expect that it would be slightly quicker. Regarding stability, it's almost certainly not going to be as stable as the Swift but, since you're a pretty experienced paddler, I wouldn't expect that the decreased stability would take much getting used to.

[Chauncy]

I guess for 250.00 I can't go wrong.