So, the original plan was that I'd buy a used recreational kayak, learn how to use it and see if I enjoyed kayaking enough to buy a bigger/better/longer boat at the end of the 2007 season. But watching the longer sea kayaks pull away from me in CPA Race 1 on the Potomac threw a monkey wrench in the works - size definitely matters. I started looking around, paddled a bunch of boats and narrowed it down to a Wilderness Systems Tempest 170 or a P&H Capella RM 166.
I searched the web and found a CPA member selling a used Capella and we arranged to meet at Rocky Point park for a test paddle. The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli! There were 1-2 foot waves, 15-20 mph winds and lots of boat wakes - perfect conditions for me to try a longer, narrower, tippier boat... I fit pretty well inside the Capella, I managed not to capsize, and even in the rough conditions I could feel it was much faster than my 13 foot Ookipik. I bought it on the spot.
So, the fleet expanded a bit earlier than I had planned but on the way home I tried it out on Rocky Gorge Reservoir. On my usual 4 mile out and back from Brown Bridge to Schnell's bridge, instead of it taking 45 minutes it took just over 35 minutes. I was able to push to 6.5 mph for short bursts - the boat is definitely faster and the paddler is now definitely the limiting factor. It is definitely also tippier but I got used to that pretty quickly and have been practicing putting in on edge to make direction corrections - pretty fun.
I tried it on my 8 mile loop from Browns Bridge to the Rt. 29 Bridge (and back) on Rocky Gorge and cut 1 hour and 50 minutes down to 1 hour and 35 minutes. It basically looks like I am 10-15% faster - which would have cut at least 6 minutes off of my time in the CPA race and had me up with the sea kayak leaders' times. The next CPA race is a 10 mile towards the end of June, so that will be the test. In between I want to try the boat out on some rougher water and see how I do. Toys are fun! New toys are more fun!
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