Mayan Seas' racing tandem,…
Submitted by:
guest-paddler
on 8/8/2002
Mayan Seas' racing tandem, this boat is far more stable than most boats intended for racing but still faster than most touring models. It has three dry storage areas, deck bungees and grab lines and carry handles. It also came with seat pads already installed. We used two of them in an adventure race across Florida and although two of my teammates had very little paddling experience, we never were close to capsizing. We encountered a pretty fair chop in one open area and the boat handled it well. It does not come with a rudder so you need to factor that into the cost, because, in my opinion, no boat this long is complete without a rudder. It is vacuum bag fiberglass layup and weight is decent for a sturdy boat of this length (I think it weighs about 78 pounds). Price is reasonable, I believe MSRP is under $3000. So what stands between the boat and a perfect 10? I would like to see a finer, narrower entry and a more rounded hull. I can see no negative to the former and while the latter would reduce stability, I think the boat would still be sufficiently stable and would be faster. One other point: my boat had a problem with part of the gel coat. The manufacturer originally was going to come to me to fix it (the boats are made in Mexico) and when that turned out to be impractical (the repair requires a real shop) agreed to send me a refund to pay the cost of having the repair done by a shop I chose. Customer service is important and this small, new company seems committed to it.