Reviews for America 11.0 Kayak by Perception Sport

Tracking is excellent and the boat can move fairly quickly, tho' it's no racer. I paddled directly into a series of windy, choppy rainstorms in the BWCA and the boat handled them with ease, with only minor leakage under the spray skirt due to a slight flaw in the cockpit combing.

My only complaint is common to all kayaks, in that they are a little difficult to portage. The Perception is a bit of a tank to carry over distances. The answer to that has been a universal kayak yoke purchased from a store in Ely, MN (About $80.00 and worth every penny). With the yoke,the boat balances perfectly and makes portaging a whole lot easier.

O.K. Here's my opinion. It's great, and I'm hooked. My home river is class I,II. I just came back from her maiden voyage. Wow. Handled like a dream. Went right where I wanted it to. Dodging rocks and over mild whitewater was almost effortless. I bought the accessory spay skirt (not a full skirt) and only shipped a very little water from the paddle drip. I was amazed at the added control provided by the footpegs. The storage hatch has ample space for gear (as in a planned overnighter in the near future)and the speed was really impressive. The tracking on this kayak and the glide was the best that I have experienced.

I thought I would like this sport, and with this kayak I am not disappointed. I have nothing to compare it to, since I have never paddled before, but I can already see that as my experience increases this kayak will continue to serve me well.

I obviously needed something larger, and the budget was still tight. Dick's had an "America 11.0" by Victory on sale this December. After a lot of research online, I found out it's the old mold from Perception, and at $299 it was about half what the Perception name used to cost. Actually, it came with a Perception sticker on it, so I knew the research was right.

Took it out twice this week, a few hours each time. Wide, slow moving river, although the Spring thaw has it moving pretty good, but no rapids at all. I was able to paddle easily upstream a couple of miles, something I could never do in our canoe or the Blast. It glides really well, especially downstream. Tracking is great, straight as an arrow until you slow down, then it gets turned easily by wind or river flow. Actually, if just floating downstream, it had a strong preference for going backward. I think it's because there's a prominent keel on the stern, and none on the bow. In the 25+ mph wind yesterday, it was a little trickier to keep straight, but overall it was easy to paddle.

I like the oversize cockpit, but since I fish, it is an issue on where to put a rod holder. The bow is too much of a stretch, as I need to come out of my seat to reach it, and there's no good place behind. There is plenty of room at the front of the cockpit, however, to mount a tool bar across for mounting whatever you need without making entry/exit too tight.

One major difference between the Victory and Perception marketing, however, is that this one came without a sealed stern. There is still a hatch that seems to seal very well, but the stern flotation does not in anyway seal off the entire stern, so the storage is not dry.