Submitted: 08-17-1999 by Steven
I’ve been paddling my Cape Horn for about two months now, and I love it. It’s well built, with plenty of storage, and a comfortable cockpit. The rudder works well, and tracking is superb. The Cape Horn is my first kayak, and I chose it over a Perception Carolina. It cost several hundred dollars more, but it is more boat in every way, yet is not too much kayak for someone with limited experience. I demo’ed it in April along with a Sealution II, and fell in love right away with the Horn. I waited a while, to paddle some other kayaks [Perception Eclipse, Necky Something-or-other], and when I finally saw one in a shop in upstate New York, in stock, I bought it right away (10% off list, to boot).I don’t know about Wilderness Systems’ distribution, but I haven’t seen many Cape Horns in stores, and very little written about them. I think Perception does a much better job with color blending in plastic- my Ice Blue Horn has some weird dark blue into pale blue blotches and drips molded into the hull- not nearly as nice or as flowing as Perception. Some of their other colors are pretty awful ["Granite Aqua" and "Rasta" with its Red/YellowGreen combo come to mind.] And the shiny molded hatches look kind of cheap, not as nice as the ones pictured on the prototype in the catalog. But all that is minor. It weighs about 55 lbs. Kind of heavy to get on the Thule rack solo, but can be done. The boat paddles well, and I’m thrilled with it. Last time out was in Long Island Sound off Connecticut, a couple of hours after a tornado passed within 20 miles. Plenty of chop, gusty winds and one stable, dry kayak. Recommended highly. |