The Boreal Design Sedna is a quality plastic kayak with pretty good performance characteristics, at least ours is. I use this boat to take friends kayaking and my wife uses it as her primary boat. Boreal Design boats used to be made in Canada but are now made in Asia by a different company. I can not vouch for these new boats but our made-in-Canada kayak features a quality fit and finish of components and rigging that give you the feeling that you're in a boat that was expertly assembled by someone who shares your passion for paddling. Workmanship and materials are top notch for a plastic kayak.
The design has good and bad points in my opinion.
First the good:
Stable. Somebody who has never kayaked before can hop in, hit the water, and feel like a natural very quickly. I have had numerous friends who do not kayak use this boat, sometimes in moderately challenging conditions with no problems. Many tour companies in my area use this boat for rookie paddlers.
Maneuverable. When using the rudder, this boat will turn on a dime compared to my other kayak. This is very beginner friendly because when my non-kayaker friends want to turn they just pivot the rudder and the boat turns. They can just use an easy straight paddle stroke and let the rudder do the work instead of trying to turn by paddle stroke. The rudder is also very useful in wind and current to keep the boat on a desired heading.
The bad:
Tracks straight poorly. Without using the rudder, the boat's natural tendency is to turn at the slightest provocation. This could be a benefit to some people but I prefer straight tracking ability over turning ability. I do not want to be constantly focusing on keeping the boat going straight. My novice kayaker friends normally can not keep the boat straight so they revert to using the rudder. In my opinion it simply turns too easily to be a practical boat for non-rudder use. That is the only place where it loses points.
