Chatham 17 Composite

Purchased used. Man I love this boat! Carves great and plenty fast enough for my Lake Michigan morning paddles. As others have said, the low deck reduces the storage capacity. As a beginner, it's not the most stable yak while just sitting there on glassy water, but plenty fine once it's moving and in rough chop.

One of the greatest pros on the Chatham 17 is also it's biggest peeve for me, the low aft deck. I don't feel comfortable, even on glass, going out without a spray skirt. I'm also 220lbs, so it sits preeeety low for me (it sits low regardless).

Necky Chatham 17 is an easy to handle boat in varied water conditions. on calm water it moves effortlessly and turns quickly with minimal effort. Going into the wind she picks up speed smoothly. In rough water she is stable and with skeg down rack with minimal effort. The Chahtam is a versatile boat, stable, easy to handle in varied water and wind conditions and is a good boat for day trip of 15 to 20 miles or for short leisurely paddles.

This is a great boat. I got mine in 2006. Still my favorite kayak. It is fast, tough, comfortable (I'm 6'1", 195#). It is a little heavy. The hatches have started to break down over the years and I plan to replace them soon. They have redesigned them since...

I paddled a 16 ft plastic Chatham for 2 years, and loved it's handling, surfing abilities and confidence-inspiring stability, and it turns on a dime! But it is SLOOOOOOW! And heavy in plastic, it was time to reconsider. Like many marriages, I fell in love with her beauty, but the relationship has deepened as we have gotten familiar with each other.

My first paddle with the boat was in Northern California's Pillar Point, in 18 mph winds and 3-4 foot following seas. I was initially wondering if I should even be out there,given my skill set at the time. Boy, did I realize right away I had made a good choice. This boat is rock solid in a following sea, only breaking waves at the beach will make it broach. I never felt out of control, even as speed rapidly increased on the wind wave's face.Beach surfing is a bit different, it is a long boat and I find it hard to pull out of a broach as compared to the 16 ft Chatham, which is a legendary surfer. But I find with good torso rotation and a wing paddle I can keep 4.5 to 5mph going for hours. I was able in a time trial to average 6 mph over a two mile sprint. Not bad for a British-style skeg boat!

It is not as instantly maneuverable as the 16, but with an honest edge I can still 360 in about 4 strokes. Stability is fantastic for a 20" beam, and the cockpit is very nicely outfitted, much cleaner than my old plastic 16. I have had no issues with the hatches, they let in a little bit after a day in the spray, but not enough to care about, they wipe dry after paddling with a towel. Curved bulkheads help the hatch capacity, but this is definitely a low volume boat.

All in all, IMHO, the perfect cross between a mileage maker and a play boat, and absolutely ideal for the wide variety of conditions that are found in the San Francisco Bay, which is my boat's primary place to be enjoyed. A day Cruiser par excellence! Get this boat, a cheap plastic Looksha Sport for the rocks and coast, and a Seda Swift for packing with gear, and you will have every boat you will ever need,although the answer to the question"How many boats should you own?" is always the same, "Just one more!" Happy Paddling!

Ok kayak. Seems a bit slow, but the most bothersome aspect is the seat. The adjustment belts don't maintain their place and the back rest is garbage. Most of the time, your back is against hard plastic which is very uncomfortable. This kayak needs a better seat.

First let me give you some background which will add a little context to the review. I am 6'1", 225 LBS, 40 in waist, 32" inseam and size 11 shoe. I am new to this sport and not tremendously comfortable on or in the water. I went to a demo day, tried and retried several boats. Gave my list of things I wanted to each company's rep: Flat water: lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, some protected coastal waters on Cape Cod, stability* important, and it needs to look sharp. Prior to the Demo day I had done as much research as possible without paddling. The Chatham 17 was not even on the radar at Demo day because I was told it was too advanced of a boat for me by everyone at Demo day and even Necky’s YouTube videos lead you to believe the boat is for a more advance paddler. What was "recommended" were: the CD Vision 150, Necky’s Manitou 14, Wilderness Systems Tsunami 140, the Eddyline Journey and the Hurricane Tampico 140 L. I loved the way the Vision 150 felt but I hated the lack of color choices. I loved the stability and comfort of Wilderness Tsunami 140 but hated that Poly look (demo boats always make me think "This is what my boat is going to look like in a year"). I like the stability and comfort of the Eddyline Journey but I was not convinced on the longevity or reparability of Thermoform. The Manitou 14 was ok, but I liked the CD vision better.

Demo day came and went with no decision made, enter Boat store sales crew. The CD Gulfstream came highly recommended; it had the colors choices, was FG and fit me. I spent about 4 hours in this boat and found that I didn't like its stability*. The Tsunami 175 Pro was great; has all that Wilderness Systems comfort stuff, seat adjustable foot pedals from within cockpit; but only 3 color choice and none were what I wanted. But I didn’t rule it out completely.

4 weeks go by since demo day and I'm driving my boat store staff absolutely crazy by trying boat after boat and not being able to make a decision. My mind and eye keeps coming back to Necky boats in the store probably due to the fact that I think their web site is excellent, their YouTube videos are helpful if not entertaining, the boats just looks stunning for the price and their color choices are superb. But this is where it gets interesting. So far my store has steered me away from the longer Necky boats. So I go to another store and try a Necky Looksha 17 (staying away from Chatham because it's too advanced remember). We’re getting warmer, stability was good, not great. But I now have a 4 hour private lesson under my belt and about 10 more hours of rentals. I strike up a conversation with a guy fixing boats at this "other" store. I tell him about all the above and could he tell me about reliability, as I wonder what he see for repairs on a daily basis. This is where the Wilderness Tsunami gets ruled out, the "comfort features and moving parts", seat, foot pedal adjustments, etc., break often. He's got 5 boats out to repair and three of them are Wilderness Systems. That's all I need to know. While we are talking I see a real tall guy, he must be 6'4" get out of a Chatham 17 after trying it; so much for being too small for tall people. So I ask the repair guy what he thinks about a Chatham for me? He lights up and says he has a Chatham 16 and he wouldn't part with it, it's great for surfing, it's the best boat etc. etc. I have to remind him that we're talking about for me a newbie. He says, rent it for an hour and see if you like it. But what about stability* I ask. And here is the asterisk explanation for stability. His response to this question is the best I have heard or read to date about stability and matches my feeling to date on the topic exactly.
"The definition of stability has more to do with the person in the boat AND the boat than the boat itself. Both initial stability and secondary stability are going to depend on the experience level of the person in the boat, the weight and height of the person in the boat added to the specs (length and width, chine, rocker etc. ) and capacity of the boat. In other words what is stable for me may be unstable for you, initial or secondary. Get in and see how it feels to you."

I was in it 10 minutes and I knew. The Chatham 17 just feels comfortable on me. The deck is not too high, I like a snug cockpit, like the Vision 150 was on me. It's snug but not tight. It's a skeg boat; no rudder debate here. It moves through the water with ease and tracks great and maneuvers fantastic for such a long boat. The Necky Hulls are great for beginners I think. AND IT'S A BEAUTIFUL BOAT. I got the Mango, which I hear they are no longer making for 2009. Good. It will be like my red Vermont Castings wood stove: a classic.

As I said earlier I was impressed by those Necky YouTube videos seeing a hammer hit the hull without any damage. That's the boat for me I thought. Unfortunately, I would have to say something is wrong there because I have a real reason to NOT believe what is presented in that video. My boat fell off my car while I was unloading it and the bow hit the pavement. There was a 7 inch crack in the gel coat along the keel of the hull and 4 inch square damage to the layup near the left foot pedal anchors probably other damage as well. I took it out on a lake for a few hours and there was water in all the hatches. Not a lot, but they are supposed to be air tight. The bow hatch I could understand because of the gel coat crack was right underneath (within) the bow hatch. But there was no visible damage to the other areas. So needless to say I am worried as my baby is in the hospital now being repaired. My store was nice enough to lend me a poly Chatham 16 and yes I fit in that as well. I can't figure why I was kept away from these boats from my other store.

LESSON: Try everything even when the sales guy says not to. Do your own research and critiquing.
I can paddle this boat for 4 hours straight and not be sore anywhere when I get out of it, it is that comfortable and fits that well AND I consider myself quite out of shape and just starting as a paddler. It can only get easier. I think the 16 is a little smaller than 17 for me capacity and cockpit wise but it is just as much fun as the 17.

So how did I end up buying a 17’ boat when I was looking for something smaller for flat water you ask? I asked myself that question a hundred times. The best answer came from the owner of the first boat store, "You can always paddle your boat down but you can't paddle it up. If you want to grow into a boat and not rule out surfing or touring at some point, you don’t want a small boat. A 17' boat will be fine on flat water, a 14' foot boat will not be fine touring on open water."

The fine folks at the KayakCentre in Wickford Rhode Island are the very best. The fine folks at Charles River Canoe and Kayak in Newton are a close second.

In all my years of paddling I have never seen such a fine job of laying out the cloth in such a manner that it appears to be one piece of material with no seems. Oh yes, I got a clear coat black carbon boat. Looking like a dream is only the start because it paddles even better than it looks, if that were possible. I have been paddling the Chatam now for around 8 months and love the solid feel the edging and the great glide.

The Chatam handles waves and chop without a problem. The Chatam just feels right either moving or sitting the boat feels solid and like it is much wider than it's specs. The only thing I changed on my boat was adding a slightly wider back band. The factory back band was good but my new band is a little wider with a little addition support. Seat and thigh braces are very comfortable. Hatches are very dry and very easy to get in and out of. The curved bulkheads and smooth inside finish for places where your feet and legs touch make this boat even better. It also has a large cockpit which makes entry and exit very easy. Foot room is also excellent for my size 12 feet. So my rating is 10, 10, 10. Yes it is that good.

I rented a Chatham 17 from Citi Kayak in San Francisco, California and spent a
very pleasant afternoon paddling it around the Bay.

I'm a big guy (6'2", 210 pounds) and, at 21 inches wide, the Chatham 17 is a fairly narrow boat. Nevertheless, I felt very comfortable in it. I found the thigh bracking particularly well-done, as it enabled me to get a very firm but comfortable grip on the boat. I liked the seat, too.

Being a racer who uses a wing paddle, I prefer an upright paddling posture, and this seat definitely helped me maintain it. I mostly paddled it with the skeg deployed. It tracks very well and feels very stable, even when taking the occasional large wake from passing tug boats. I did not find it at all tippy, but as I am trained to paddle an olympic-sytle K-1 (that most-tippy of boats), mine is perhaps not the most credible endorsement of stability.

Now to the negatives: the Chatham 17 was not nearly as fast of a boat as I was expecting it to be, given its rather slender width. I could maintain a speed, as measured by a GPS odometer, of 5.7 m.p.h. without much trouble, and sprint the boat up to 6.3 m.p.h., but I can reach these speeds in almost any 17+ foot boat.

Two other negatives are noteworthy: I consider any boat that weighs more than 50 pounds to be a chiropractor's dream, and this one comes in at 63; and I dislike stiff rubber deck hatches, like the ones on the Chatham 17, for they are extremely hard to close with cold, wet hands.

My wife and I were new to kayaking. We spent about 6 weeks researching kayaks for the type of large river, lake, and coastal sea kayaking we planned to do. We took lessons, demo'd boats at local dealers and attended demo days. We tried 15-18' boats from Perception, Eddyline, Current Designs, P&H, & Wilderness Systems. Although, like anyone, we loved the look of the glass/composite/carbon/kevlar boats, we decided that we would buy poly models for cost reasons (we were buying two...gulp). (Although the durability of poly for novice kayakers was a plus.) What we didn't want to do was buy a boat that our skills would outgrow in the 3-5 years we expected to own it.

Considering the general rule of thumb about narrowness of beam and instability, we thought we'd be more comfortable in a wider beam boat. After "trying on" many boats, we both tended to like a snug cockpit that made us feel more attached to the kayak. There is a lot of science and engineering that goes into designing and building a kayak, but we're of the opinion that you buy one because of the way it feels. Specs become secondary, paddling reveals all. That, and a lot of patient advice from the very nice folks at Alder Creek Kayak.

To make a 6 week long story short, we both found that we liked the Necky line. We concentrated a bit more time on their longer sea kayak models in poly (Elaho, Chatham 16, Chatham 17). Conclusion: we both loved the Chatham 17. Surprisingly, it's probably the narrowest beamed boat we paddled but it felt completely stable. The cockpit is also very snug while the foot pegs are long enough to accommodate my 6'2" frame.

So we've been taking more lessons and paddling lakes and rivers nearly weekend since April. We've had no buyer's remorse. The Chatham 17's respond to every new skill we acquire and have been a delight. They can track well without the skeg and edge better than anything else we tried. They are a great compromise between kayak designs that are meant to go straight as an arrow and those that can turn but can't track. We've found windage to be minimal...it's not a high volume boat and is pretty low slung (though it can handle large wake on the Willamette and Columbia without a problem). Drop the skeg and you can handle a windy day on Vancouver Lake.

We love our Chatham 17's. Would recommend that you try one if your criteria for a boat are similar to ours.

I purchased a Chatham 17 (RM) at the end of June, and after paddling it for the summer I feel I can write an informed review. FYI, I’m 6’1” and weigh about 185. I do most of my paddling in bays and oceans…been paddling off and on since 1991.

Cruising: This boat has a lot of wetted surface, so theoretically it has a pretty good top speed…but you’ll find yourself needing to increase your strokes to achieve it! At an all day, touring cadence, this boat feels efficient (it won’t tire you out) but it’s not particularly fast. Pick up the pace, however, and the boat is more than adequate in the speed department. It has decent glide, requires little effort, yet by no means is it a speed demon. It is significantly faster than its cousin, the Chatham 16. If all you want to do is go fast, there are certainly better boats out there. Personally, I found that having good stability + good tracking + decent speed leaves me feeling less tired at the end of the day than if I paddled a boat requiring constant correction or lots of bracing.

Tracking: I was told by someone at Necky that the 17 has the strongest tracking of the Chatham family, including the 18. It’s pretty tight steering. Good cockpit fit is essential in this boat because you’ll find yourself using a lot of hip for turning. It’s relatively easy to make gentle micro-corrections while paddling. Folks coming from loose-steering boats or who rely extensively on rudders will need to take some time to get comfortable on this front. Because of the solid tracking, I find that I use the skeg very little. At the end of the day, I’d be willing to sacrifice some of the Chatham 17’s tracking for a boat that’s a little more responsive/has a more delicate feel.

Stability: Very strong primary stability, especially given the narrow beam. Secondary is very good. I’ve had beginner paddlers in this boat and they’ve felt completely at ease in it. Plenty of stability for doing things like popping your skirt to grab something below deck, taking a photo, etc. The boat it feels lively edge to edge, it’s fun, yet it’s predictable and controllable.

Surfing: This boat is easily fast enough for catching swells. And the boat surfs well…it’s a blast. But if surfing is your focus, consider the Chatham 16 instead. The additional rocker will make carving way more dynamic.

Rolling: It can’t get much easier than rolling a Chatham 17. The low stern deck makes it easy to lie back, and the boat comes around quickly. This is a British-inspired design, meaning that it roughly approximates Greenlandic designs, most of which are stellar rollers.

Ride and weathercocking: Weathercocking is *very* minimal and well within any reasonable paddler’s tolerance…in the wind, this boat’s low profile is a tremendous asset. The bow had good volume for resurfacing, and generally stays above the waves. The deck doesn’t throw up spray in most cases and it sheds water quickly. All in all, a dry ride. It’s smooth in chop—rather than smacking down, it settles into the troughs. The 17 is a predictable performer. I’d describe everything as a bit dampened (bear with me here…) no movement is sudden or snappy—the secondary stability as you brace is pretty constant, turning describes a gradual arc, the boat gets up to speed in a few moments and once there, will glide well. There are no sudden surprises. In my opinion, this makes the boat a clear favorite in rough water—you simply know what it’s going to do. It’s very solid in confused water. Yet predictable doesn’t mean boring. With proper outfitting, the fit is snug and you feel connected to the boat and the water.

Fit/finish: Necky is known for their quality construction, and this boat certainly adheres to high quality standards. I had a small problem with the skeg, and Necky’s customer service was top notch about resolving it. I happen to like the looks and I think the deck layout is functional. The dayhatch is handy. Hatches are watertight and the compartments stay dry. I wish there was a bit of space behind the seat to store a camelback.

Cockpit and seat: The large cockpit is comfortable and secure. Necky’s thigh hooks are fully adjustable and give excellent support during rolling and bracing. Necky’s ’06 seat is the best non-custom seat I’ve used…it alleviates nearly all the lower back and leg pain I’ve experienced with other commercial seats. The ratcheting backband is incredibly comfortable and supportive, but doesn’t hinder rolling. There is a problem with the ratchets rusting up, but Necky has since engineered a replacement part. The hip pads are somewhat ridiculous—I ended up throwing them away and getting an aftermarket product. I have a 34” waist the pads that came with boat gave me a loose, sloppy fit. There’s plenty of room for my size 11 1/2 feet.

Final word: This boat is a great all-arounder. I’d recommend this boat to anyone looking for an RM day-tripper that excels in a wide variety of conditions. Consider the Chatham if you’re looking for an all-in-one day-tripper, rough-water boat, and occasional weekender. The Chatham truly shines in chop and rough stuff, tracks incredibly well, and had acceptable speed. There isn’t a ton of volume for packing a lot of gear, but it’s adequate for go-light camping. And in exchange for that lack of volume, you gain better performance and better feel. If I could change anything, it’d be to loosen up the steering a bit. I give it an 8 out of 10, which I consider high marks.