For quick paddles on local waters and for trucking down to Florida while keeping the Forester roof relatively clear, I recently purchased an Advanced Elements Airfusion hybrid inflatable/folder single, as a companion to my Epic 16X. I won't review the boat, other than to say that it is well made, handles the serious chop of a summer bay seabreeze well, riding the waves like a gull, and feels "alive" in a busy seaway, almost as if one were astride a sea beast of some sort. I like it A LOT.

But, as usual, it needed my help to make it "perfect". The sprayskirt doesn't hold at all well to the inflatable coaming, so I've added 4 short Velcro strips to the rear of the sprayskirt and coaming, and, as another suggested, moved the knot joining the sprayskirt bungee ends from the rear of the skirt to the front. Much, much better.

Also ordered the Airfusion optional skeg. The boat keeps a quite straight line while one is continuously paddling, but veers off as soon as one puts down the paddle. Also, it weathercocks. The skeg is to cure these problems. When it arrived, I found it to be actually a very well-constructed rudder that cannot be turned. And for some mysterious reason, Advanced Elements has incorporated a bungee to hold the rudder/skeg blade down at all times, though there is a cord to partially pull it up out of the water. But there is no way to hold it up out of the water, and no provision to flip the rudder/skeg blade onto the rear deck like any self-respecting rudder. So I immediately cut out the bungee and threw it away. Then I threaded the free end of the cord back through the hole the bungee had passed through, wrapped it back around the axle of the rudder, and affixed it to the rudder blade where the bungee had been attached.

So now I have a fully-retractable, non-turnable rudder/skeg that can be deployed or retracted completely at will. The now-looped cord passes through a small pulley affixed just behind the cockpit, so I just reach behind and pull either one side or the other of the looped cord to engage or retract the rudder/skeg. Works great! I have no clue as to why Advanced Elements set up the skeg their way.

I got started in an inflatable kayak and had a lot of fun with it, but that all changed when I discovered rigids. I feel kind of bad that the inflatable hasn't been wet in years and right now, I can't see where that will change. I hope they don't deteriorate while in the bag.

Carl, I hope your new toy brings you lots of enjoyment, but watch out for sharp objects--like shark teeth if you take it out in the salt.

Magooch, thanks for the encouragement. The reason the Airfusion attracted my interest from the get-go was the fact that the designer(s) clearly wanted to make an inflatable that looked and behaved like a hardshell single. Feathercraft for years has done very well with folders that mimic hardshells, and now Advanced Elements has, to certain extent, duplicated the feat with the Airfusion, which clearly is a hybrid craft utilizing both folder and inflatable elements. And you cannot beat the price. For literally thousands less than a Feathercraft, the Airfusion does a very creditable job of mimicing a hardshell (at a distance, to be sure--the wrinkles in the hull fabric become noticeable as one gets close to the boat). Given the Airfusion's low profile, V-hull when afloat, nimbleness, and turn of speed (it surfs chop, too), they've got a real winner here.