NDK Poseidon

[Guest]

At 5'9", and 16 stone with big thighs (ex-rugby player and beer monster) I'm looking for a sea kayak.

This has been suggested as a suitable boat, I'm goint to try an demo one at the symposium, but am interested to hear of other peoples experiences!

Cheers

[kaspian]

Have a look at our HV17LC at www.shorehamseakayaks.co.uk . It's an otherwise standard boat, but with a larger cockpit opening and wider seat. Specially designed for ex-rugby players?! A demo boat is here waiting.

[Douglas Wilcox]

Hello guest,

I am almost (nearly) the same dimensions as you and a lot of my weight is in my thighs which does make it difficult getting a comfortable fit. The beautiful and responsive Rockpool Alaw I have out on test from Explore4 at the moment was spoiled for me only becase of lack of room for the thighs/knees.

My family have had 4 Quests, currently we have 3. You should definitely try one of these. With the old glassfibre seat pan it's superbly comfortable and unlike other big botes like the Explorer HV it still paddles well in wind, using the skeg, for unladen trips and lighter paddlers. I have just spent 3 days paddling the summer isles in complete comfort!

Avoid the new style seat like the plague and even on the old seat the back band will break the first time you do a reentry. I have replaced it with a dagger backband.

P&H do seem to be having some quality control problems at the moment, the finish on my 2004 and 2005 boats was not as good as my 2002 boats and the 2004 boat had to be exchanged because the custom bulkhead was fitted 3" further back than ordered AND it had been fitted with Yakima foot peg rails that came right back to the seat!!.

Another example: I could not understand how my 2005 boat gave me a pain in my right hip when my 2002 boats did not. Well on the eve of my summer isles trip I found out. the seat had been mounted squint and was 2cm further forward than on the right. I had to get the drill out in the dark! I wonder how many people try boats and do not like them, not because of the design but because of the way they are put together?

Lastly, I ordered a white boat with Anchusa blue trim and got one with mid blue! Just as well I also like mid blue!

At the end of the day I am completly satisfied with my three Quests.

As regulars here know, I love the Quest and I am really pleased that Tim from Pyranha/P&H is keeping an eye on this board and asking for comments. So Tim, I am delighted to hear (from another post) about testing exciting new products but please remember that quality control can make much more difference to customer satisfaction than a very slight difference in speed.

Lastly in case anyone thinks I am picking on P&H quality control, I have recently paddled boats by P&H, Valley, NDK, Dagger, Perception, Point 65, and Rockpool and I have found materials/workmanship issues with them all. Its a bit like the car industry used to be!

Douglas :o)

[Tim from P&H / Pyranh]

Always make sure I read your threads Douglas...for the feedback and the stories :-)

I would be certainly interested in your current experiences, so if you would like to send me an e-mail with a sort of 'wish list' for new P&H products I would be really grateful.

Kind Regards and Happy Boating

Tim Sadler
P&H / Pyranha

[Guest]

Thanks for those comments guys, I've tried an older quest and found it to be comfortable enough, but a bit twitchy (too responsive for my poor bracing technique).

I liked the look of the LCHVS17, but I'm not a rudder fan, so I guess I'll pass on that one.

Any more specific comments about the Poseidon and your experiences with it much appreciated...

[Jim]

I was going to point out that people have different ideas about what fits and what doesn't. I am approximately your build and have over the years used various boats with ocean cockpits and what many would consider cramped insides and always felt just fine because I had a positive control fit.

I will however wait until after my next trip to get cocky about that as I've borrowed a Nordkapp HM for it - ocean cockpit, knees up in front rather than spread for stability, the seat felt wide enough when I tried it and the footrest was OK but I guess up to a week in it will either make or break me! Luckily it's also one of the least stable boats around, but also one of the fastest and most capacious :)

Like Douglas says though, how a boat is set up makes a huge difference. My Sea King has a nice wide seat and whilst I have covered it in karrimat, it does fit my backside quite well, but maybe not someone else's. It also has plenty of space to spread the knees for stability, not as wide as my playboat so I still have efficient paddling, but enough to feel very stable. When I bought it it had keeper footrests which I never liked. I ripped the mout, glassed the holes and use a BDH set into a large piece of foam pushed up against the bulkhead as a footrest. My seat is fibreglass and moulded with the coaming, if it wasn't perfect for me I would be knackered - at least with a separate seat, whether it is in straight or not initially you have options to jiggle it around a bit. I spent ages getting the seat right in my first topo, when the replacement arrived by some amazing chance the seat was in exactly the right place - so it does work both ways!
It is possible to cut a glassfibre seat an inch or so below the coaming, and make up a joining piece so you can alter the angle etc, but you are then always going to have bolt heads trying to dig into you because you can't counersink them very deep, to put it a different way, I don't recommend it!

The boat you asked about, sorry haven't heard of it let alone tried it! I see plenty of Romany's and Explorers but no Posiedons!

JIM

[Zoe Newsam]

Hi Guest,

Someone suggested a Valley Argonaut- that's what I paddle (they're few & far between!) and I'll be at the symposium this weekend, so track me down and as long as I'm not already paddling it, you're welcome to have a quick test paddle. I'll be there from tomorrow (Thursday), blue new-shape micra, red boat. Fairly easy to spot!

See you there,

Zoe