Moulton, I've seen several ways kayakers accumulate boats. Some are all-around paddlers--surf, whitewater, tripping, racing, creeking. Some just have the cash (and like kayaks, too), so they end up with quite a few boats. All I ever do is exploration day-tripping, so it's usually only one boat in the stable at a time; the exceptions are the overlap while one kayak is being phased out and its replacement phasing in. I kept the Dirigo long after I built the Patuxent, though, because A) it would be hard to sell and I really can't be bothered, and B) it was an old, old friend and was indeed a great cold-water boat for a cautious paddler like me. BTW, I gave away both the Dirigo and the Patuxent to local paddlers whom I thought would put them to good use. The boats were also just so idiosyncratic by the time I got finished building or modifying them that the odds were very low that any "regular" kayak purchaser would be at all interested. Any boat that I end up with gets to be very highly customized and personalized, to suit my tastes over many years of constant use, and I suppose I pay for it in lost resale value. Don't really care, though.

Chuck Sutherland is an example of boat loyalty. He's still paddling his ancient Broze Brothers Mariner Sprite that he's had since at least the mid-80s: no hatches, no bulkheads...... How old is your Nordkapp? My old paddling partner Bob Zelley is working on his 3rd Nordkapp.