Submitted: 03-26-2007 by DPH
First, my personal info: height just under 5'7", weight (at the time) was 182 pounds. I test paddled the Sirocco on a small lake; the water that day was smooth as glass. Boat seemed to fit me well, and I liked the speed and the way it kept gliding after I stopped paddling. Also, I loved the look of it with that upswept Greenland style bow and the little mermaid. (Call me superficial...) I bought it.
When I got it out on the open water of the big lake on a day with wind and waves, it was a different boat. Weathercocked severely, and I kept having to adjust the skeg to various increments of up/down to try to compensate for the wind without overcompensating. It was a quite frustrating.
The boat may have also been too high volume for me because on a choppy lake it seemed to bounce around on top of the water rather than slice through the waves. When I experimented by loading it with some water jugs in the bow and stern hatches, it behaved minimally better but still wasn't what I'd call an enjoyable paddle.
The quality of the boat seems good overall; plastic is probably no better or worse than average (not as good as Prijon, Riot, or P&H, in my opinion).
I sold my Sirocco after having only paddled it a few times. I seem to be in the minority here, but I really didn't like the way the boat handled on anything except very flat water. In that circumstance, it is fun, fast and glides well. I'm rating it a 5. |