Has anyone seen a boat made with this material yet? It is a poly boat with a layer of Corlite between two layers of poly. Supposed to be stiffer boat less flex. Anyone see the new kayak Delphin from P & H? Seem close to the weight of a regular poly boat but is it noticeably stiller?

Yes, I've seen at least some of the poly boats that P&H makes. Are they stiffer than other poly boats? Maybe a little, but there are plenty of single layer boats that are just as stiff. I own a three layer poly and a single layer poly (not P&H); the three layer is stiffer, but the single layer is stiff enough. Both are stiffer than my composite boat in regard to the skin.

If you're looking for the stiffest, but lightest boats, it's going to be a wood/glass boat--such as a stitch and glue kit boat, or maybe a wood stripper.

There are some very stiff glass boats, but they tend to be a bit heavier than necessary.

I believe there are at least two measures of stiffness. One is how rigid the skin is in any given area of the boat and the other is in how rigid the boat is from end to end and tortionally.

There is no secret to making a stiff boat, but when the goal is to keep it as light as possible there will be some compromise.

know 3 people w. Corelite P&H plastic - 1 Venture Easky, 2 w. P&H Capella 166. One of the latter is my man & regular paddling partner. I actually advised him to get the Capella from an outfitter/ACA coach who used it in his school fleet, and he's very pleased w. the boat and material.

I was originally a lil skeptical of Corelite, but having seen in action over a few seasons IMO it is a superb solution for making longer seakayaks a bit lighter than rotomould (nothing approaching the weight savings of composite tho)without compromising durability. Corelite gives the boats a very fine pebbled surface compared to roto. They flex more like composite.

The only negative comment from Corelite boat owners (on other boards) is that it soils easily - but their boat housekeeping so to speak is unknown. My friends' ooats are 3-5 years old and look very clean.

I've seen but not yet paddled the Delphin - one of my paddling acquaintances is a P&H rep and recently took one 23 river miles down a local river. Google Kelly Blades & read his blog. My friend Chris took his P&H Cetus on the same trip.

The Delphin (the Aries is the composite version) is designed to be an agile playful boat, shorter than the typical seakayak but equipped like one, for bony rivers, tidal races, and playing in the waves. It is a bit odd looking due to the full clipped stern and blunt moderately rockered bow. Teh full ends are in part what makes it good in active waters.

Comparable boat designs would be the Dagger Alchemy S and Wildy Systems Zephyr 155 I paddled an AlchemyS and liked it, although Dagger QC was lacking - bulkhead leaded, coaming was not consistently in round, and most annoying of all the lumpy material under the thigh braces.

I'll be paddling Kelly's Delphin one of these days and get back to you w. more info.

thanks for the info.

you're welcome P-dog. Happy to help. I'm very fortunate to know so many people in the paddle biz. Gives me a chance to try or at least see a lot of new boats.

Last week I did a test paddle of the new Eddyline Samba - the first demo avail here in the Midwest. I got an email from Tom Derrer thanking me for emailing my impressions... he intends to use some of them on the Eddyline website. So that's my 15 seconds of fame LOL

so what did you think of the Samba? GF tried one.

Eddyline has the rights to the review I did, as I gave them permission to use it.

What I will say here is that the boat is nicely made in every detail. Carbonlite 2000 makes the boat light - s/be easy for your gf to rack and carry her own boat. My bias is that a woman s/be able to manage her own boat.

The material is very like fiberglass in its simultaneous ability to flex and stiffen.

Well & thoughtfully appointed afa seat pan, thigh braces, hatches, skeg slider, deck lines and toggles.

Thought the backband was too loose and needs to be tied back into the bulkhead. Coaming was too high off the deck for comfortable layback position (but I have a short torso, like 16-17")

Boat is easy to keep on track and very stable. The hard chines bulge straight out as they rise, giving the boat an overall shape like a football. Those bulges add to the stability, kind of a pontoon effect. Not unattractive. You don't really notice them til you are looking straight down.

For my preference the Samba is too tracky and too stable. I prefer a more agile and turny boat & happily sacrifice stability for that. Also like smaller cockpits & lower decks, but that is personal preference, not a knock on the Samba's design.

Great length for daytrips, packable for long weekends. S/be versatile in open water, rivers (Class I & II), bays, estuaries, marshes.

If I were a beginning seakayaker like your gf who is not totally comfortable in the water (as you posted before) and is transitioning from a wide Hobie SOT to a SINK, this would definitely make my short list.

Thanks for you opinion!