NWPaddler, sorry for the long delay with this reply. A lot has happened since my last post on this thread.

My reason for wanting a longer boat is to fill a desire for a boat that should be a little easier to paddle long distance. When I say long distance, I'm not talking about loooong distance. When I take off on the Columbia sometimes, I just like to cover a lot of water--maybe 15 miles one way. I usually try to time the tides so that I get a little help on the way back. Sometimes the wind becomes a factor too.

The Sirocco does a fine job, but a longer boat should--at least theoretically have a little higher cruising speed. I guess I'm going to find out, because there is a beautiful, brand new NC Expedition sitting in my shop. This boat is not going to be my everyday boat, but I'm going to have a hard time picking one of the other boats for a while.

The weather has been pretty wintery here lately, but there might be a chance today, or tomorrow to take the Expedition to the river and start to get familiar with it. I don't like getting on the Columbia when it gets too high from runoff, so I might have to go to a lake.

One more thing; I got a GPS for Christmas, so I will be able to actually find out the real differences in the cruising and top speeds of all my boats.

Hi Magoch,
First of all, I should disclose that I represent Rockpool Kayaks from Wales UK. We decided to build their Alaw Bach in thermoform and have Eddyline build it to our specifications. We are trying to blend classic sea kayak design with the latest technology. We are finding the boats very well accepted both here and in the UK and Europe.
Now to answer your specific question; Minor scratches can be polished out with plastic polish. I recommend Mequiers. Deeper scratches can be sanded and then polished or filled with a mixture of Methacrylate adhesive and plastic paint. When nearly cured (15 minutes) just scrape off the excess, sand and then polish.
There is a great video on Eddyline's website that shows a repair.

Cheers,

High, Paddle Pro

I see that you just responded to a message that's pushing three years old

The only reason I'm bothering to comment is that last August I bought a RP Alaw Bach TCC demo from Evergreen Outfitters. It was a little banged up but that was going to happen anyway.

And what a great boat. Right now the water temps are too cold for me but late last September I took it out on Lake Erie on a small craft advisory day when the wind was so strong I could barely hang on to my paddle (probably not a very good idea going out that day).

Anyhow the RP was easy to control and swing around in the wind. Even tried a couple of rolls just to see what would happen. It was just like rolling on flat water. Now about the only thing I would like to see is a comfy seat pad designed for the Alaw to help cushion my bony ischial tuberosities.

In closing, hope the Alaw catches on over here. It seems to be built to accommodate smaller paddlers (that's me @ 5'6" and 145 lb) as the cockpit is pretty narrow and there's not exactly a mountain of foot room.

Yeah paddlepro,
I demoed one of the Eddyline Alaw Bachs (what's up with that name) and found it to be a quick, easy handling boat. The thing about the boat that grabbed me right from the start was how it stood up to having the rep. stomp all over the deck before he let me paddle it. I mean he literally stomped it from end to end. It twisted and flexed a bit, but popped right back with little to no evidence of the battering it had just taken.

Apparently the only thing on the boat that wasn't quite up to the abuse it had received in its short life was the seat. It's been a while since I paddled the boat, but as I recall, there was something about the track the seat was mounted on.

Not to be critical and I realize that every design has some compromise in one aspect, or another, but the boat seemed to hit the wall prematurely when it came to speed (for a 17'-2" boat). It just might be that the boat is so easy to bring up to speed ... but some of the others who tried the boat said the same thing. That in no way is to say the boat is slow. It's just that it seemed like there should be more there if you could just generate a little more horse power, which I couldn't. I didn't have the chance to surf it, or see how it reacted to confused seas, but knowing it's lineage I'm sure it has that covered and then some.

For paddlers who like to challenge what the sea can dish out and know they are going to slam the boat around, the Alaw Bach in Carbonlite 2000 should be at the top of the list.

Well, that's an area where I'm not experienced but my previous boat was an Eddyline Fathom LV. I've taken the RP out in conditions that I would have never managed to stay upright in the Fathom. For maybe the third or forth time I got to surf some four to five footers that were beyond my ability in the Fathom. The RP made it ever so easy. It opened up another parallel universe of kayaking for me.

As for the speed wall, I can't say that at this point it's been a factor. I have yet to paddle the RP with others and have no frame of reference. I do have a gps for tracking speed but I never bother as I'm slow no matter what I'm paddling

I guess to be fair, one should actually check the speed of any particular boat with a gps before making claims one way, or another. However, some boats I have paddled give the feeling that the stern of the boat begins to squat as you reach the upper limits of the boat's flat-water velocity. I think for most paddlers--including me--that condition becomes a very effective speed limiter. In the case of the Alaw Bach, I thought that squating feeling came at a point where I was not even close to my maximum effort. I felt like I was in a strong exercise mode that I should be able to sustain for a little while. The impression I got was that there was no point in pushing any harder, because it just wasn't going to do any good.

The conclusions I have come to on my own boats is that what really counts is how easy the boats glide through the water at a moderate paddling effort. The actual top speed of the boat is irrelevant for the most part, because I'm not going there except under very unusual circumstances. And I fully expect to hurt myself if that condition arises.

Rented a Eddyline S-18 Falcon yesterday. Boat was fast and felt stable enough. I must be getting better LOL! I did notice on many rental eddyline thermoformed boats the noses were busted up a bit. I guess if you own it you will take better care of it. People looked to have rammed the nose into the dock or something. Composite Current design boats don't show that. That may be due to more experience people renting? One I did rent was fairly old and beaten up cosmetically. Material seems tough with little flex if any. I am renting a CD Nomad today like the one I am restoring because I can't wait any longer.

If scratches on a TCS boat are cleaned, dabbed with color and then coverd with polish, they can hardly be seen. In the case of major cracks (i.e. seeing daylight thru them), a TCS boat can be very reliably repaired pretty cheaply. Delta and Eddyline TCS boats are very similar. My Delta 18.5 had two 18" cracks that were repaired by my local kayak shop for $200. It takes a hell of an impact to break thru a TCS boat. In my case a loose bow line was snagged by the front wheel on my car and bent the boat like a banana. TCS is tough and repairable.

Yesterday, in a rather klutzy moment, I managed to drop my RockPool off the top of my car. Didn't even bother to check the hull. When I got home later I didn't notice any new "beauty marks".

So far this summer the RP has been to Lake Erie, Huron, and Superior where I managed to find many rocks to beat my hull against

To quote Marv from Sin City: "I love thermoformed boats. No matter what you do to them, you never feel bad."