Submitted: 07-26-2012 by zijlstra
This is an update of an earlier review (2008-07-11) I did of this boat.
I ended up having to return the boat to REI after the skeg connector broke. There is a small black hollow plastic screw that connects the skeg wire to the boat. This screw snapped off one day, probably caused by stuffing the rear compartment of the boat with gear. It's in a rather unfortunate place, sticking out of the skeg housing inside the hatch and since it's plastic can easily snap.
After contacting Wilderness Systems through REI, I was told that there was no replacement part for this screw. The skeg was non functional without it, plus the boat was now heavily leaking water into the rear hatch from the point where the skeg wire had been connected. So essentially I had a non-functional $3000 piece of fiberglass sitting in my garage. Fortunately, REI has an unlimited return policy and they took the boat back. I would not buy this boat again, considering this obvious design flaw. |