Chatham 18 Composite

The Chatham 18 in fiberglass construction is my current kayak (following quite a few others previously). At 20" wide, it is on the narrow side for touring kayaks, and compared to 22" wide options offers a bit less final stability. For me, an experienced paddler, 6'4"tall at 200lb the stability is plenty good, even in choppy waters. Where I sometimes wish it had just a bit more final stability is when I am rather tired, after a long hard day of paddling, where having a more stable kayak to relax in could be an advantage (not talking about a huge barge, but let's say something like P&H Delphin or Cetus MV offers that extra bit of helpful stability). Perhaps a shorter paddler would feel less need for that, but at 6'4" I have to stay well-centered, and that could be an issue at the end of a long day or if nauseous for some reason. When fresh or not dead-tired, the stability is fine for me and I appreciate the slim long waterline to pick-up speed when needed.

From the side, the Chatham 18 has very little rocker. But the hull cross section and volume distribution is such that it just bursts forward in following seas and surfs swell very well. The bow does not tend to dig deep since there is nice volume building-up quickly. It also gives nice stability when on the wave. That same volume tends to plow after certain speed on flat water, so top speed I don't feel is as high as for instance Nordkapp LV or P&H Cetus, but the Chatham 18 is no slouch.

The cockpit is nicely snug for me, with the thigh braces just where they need to be. Unlike the other reviewer, my legs do not make contact with the skeg slider. You size 15 US feet fit fine with medium weight paddling shoes, with a couple of notches left on the rails (toes somewhat pointed forward though, as there deck there begins thereof get low). People with normal-sized feet and shorter legs will find the legroom even more spacious. The ratcheting back band works nicely. The front deck near the cockpit seems just right for me, but I can see how a short person might find it excessively high.

The deck bungies are not very well laid out as they are split into the hero halves side there woo side and are too narrow for a wide paddle blade to fithe under. For example I can't stow a 2-piece Euro paddle behind me, only can do it on the front deck.

Despite the spacious cockpit and 18' length, the storage space is on the small side compared Theo larger volume kayaks. The front and rear decks are low and narrow near the hatch covers. So the one his is more of a day or weekend boat than a week or longer expedition kayak.

The hatch covers were Valley, and mine promptly disintegrated (dry rotted) too quickly. Replaced with SeaLect (sp?) hatch covers that work great - totally water proof, shed water nicely, easy to put on and take off.

The kayak is not very skeg dependent: has a slight tendency to weathercock, which is easily compensated for by partially deploying the skeg. Fully deploying the skeg results is gentle leecocking. This is what a well-balanced kayak should be and this one is.

The ride is fairly dry even in choppy waters. The kayak rolls easy for me and the low rear deck helps with lay back rolls.

Overall, a nice and quite beautiful kayak, which in my opinion is excellent and fun in following seas and choppy waters and windy conditions. Fairly easy to course-correct (not stiff-tracking) but tracks well enough to not require undue attention.

At just under 50lb this is light compared to 60lb+ for Cetus or some other competing offerings in fiberglass construction. It also feels light and well-balanced to carry.

Nice kayak, all black carbon version, probably one of the best kayaks that I have owned, I have went through many, very well behaved in wind and wave, I felt the skeg was unnecessary, for 48lbs, I wish they could make them around 40lbs and I probably would have kept it. They put the skeg slider right at my right thigh I had to cut the foam on the inside it bothered me, it protruded out about 3 quarters of an inch. If the bow and stern weren't so upswept it would probably be faster.

A few reviews I have read about the Chatham 18 indicate that it cannot be ordered without the forward bulkhead installed. Good thing I didn't know that when I ordered mine, because they sent mine without the bulkhead or footpeg tracks installed and I had that done at my local shop. I moved the bulkhead back about 14 inches, gained a huge amount of storage in the hatch, and most importantly, with the aft repositioning of the forward bulkhead, I get less water in the cockpit to pump out if I wet exit. But funny thing about water in the cockpit, I have paddled and rolled it with water up to the seat, (as much as gets in when you reenter and roll), and it doesn't seem to lose much stability, at least compared to my last boat.

I love the primary stability. I can sit on top of my kayak and still launch through small waves. The secondary stability is so positive that I feel like I am learning each time I paddle. It feels like there is a moment when the boat says "okay, here's your chance to recover", a pause when a little hip flick will bring me back up.

This kayak dances over the waves. It feels wonderful even in 5 foot confused seas, and handles it all beautifully. I haven't had the chance to compare it to many other kayaks, mostly because I get in others, and say "not for me" because I can't get a close enough fit.

This boat fits me (5'4" 135 lb woman) perfectly, contact from outside of knee to thigh, to bum. Back band for me is perfect, and about three inches from the coaming. Every movement is translated to the boat. Very intuitive feel. I can do "kayak crunches" with this boat!

I am a beginner to intermediate paddler. I outgrew my bathtub of a boat, the Wilderness Systems Tsunami 140 very quickly. Rolling that boat placed bruises all over me due to all the flopping around (even with customizing foam).

The Chatham 18 is amazing. As a beginner, the boat felt unstable but I quickly found the primary stability to be fantastic and not a problem. To my surprise, this long boat turns like a dream just by a bit of edging. Really nice. I was paddling 10 mile trips on average in a large lake and now 15-20 miles feels like the shorter trips. There was a lot of wasted energy paddling the Tsunami as opposed to this boat that really relays your body movements to the boat.

I love it and feel it will be a boat a beginner/intermediate paddler can grow into. Most likely is a good boat for me for another 3-5 years.

P.S. ratchet system is kind of kooky-isn't that off the whitewater boats???

I just purchased a composite (regular lay-up) Chatham 18 i should be honest and state that i just tried the boat on a whim, i hated the chatham 16, i thought it was slow (even for a 16' boat) and ugly(for any kind of boat) and i wasn't at expecting to even come close to liking the chatham 18, but i soon found it to be very different than it's ugly little brother ... i was in the market for a ndk explorer hv, i have a posiedon( romany hv) which i love and the ex hv handles very similarly to the poseidon and i needed a tripping boat(too many ands?) ...well i should start off with my first impression: the chatham 18 is a beautiful looking boat... in fact i remembered thinking that when i saw the proto-type at port townshend a while back, but i soon found the beauty was *much more* than skin deep! the boat handles wonderfully, although not slow, it looks to be faster than it is, I have already paddled it in 2-3' wind waves on the Columbia and it surfs like a dream, good volume in the bow, doesn't lock in like the Explorer or Viking, however what surprised me was how neutral the boat was when traveling abeam to the wind. It was gusting easily to 25mph and the boat didn't seem to want to weather cock or lee cock- I was worried that it might have a tendency to lee cock just by the looks of the boat, but again i just didn't notice much of a wind effect , however on my first few trips I will probably be very careful with the packing of kit (50/50 or just a bit more weight fore) just to be on the safe side.

The primary stability is solid and the secondary is fantastic, on edge the Chatham 18 spins on a dime... as for turning in wind, it very easy to hold a moderate to extreme edge when sweeping/ bow ruddering to turn upwind and likewise when back paddling to turn down wind.

As for things to modify (you always have to modify a new boat right?). I will have to move the front bulkhead aft about 7" or so-maybe a bit more, lots of wasted space. I got rid of the ratchet system and just attached my back band straps to the slots on the metal stays; I like low tech. and i didn't like having all those straps everywhere .... c'mon necky, what were you thinking, it's a cheesey set up for such a nice boat!! ... also I had to trim the fiberglass that connects to the metal stay (that only took a few minutes) the corner was digging into my leg, the skeg is too thin or too weak or too something because, when deployed, it hums like a bad country western singer. Good thing the boat doesn't seem to need a skeg ... besides the w.s. tempest series who figured this out first, kudos steve if you are reading, somebody else has *finally* put a skeg control recess out of the way of both your knee (inside the hull) and your knuckles on the control side - are you LISTENING NDK and VALLEY????

After I get done with a couple of tours I may take the skeg and skeg box out to gain more aft stowage space. I’ll make a post later this summer after a few trips. Oh yeah the fit of the boat is great. I am 5'9" 205, pretty much built like a tank and I have lots of room. I couldn’t believe it to tell you the truth. Despite my quibbles, I gave the boat a 10 because it is a fantastic handling hull. I highly recommend the Chatham 18.

I got a glass Chatham18 recently. I've had it out in gentle conditions off Annapolis about a dozen times this month. Waves around 1' and wind less than 15mph. It is related to the Chatham 16,,more maneuverable than expected for a long/low rocker hull,,but tracks well enough for a reasonably fast hull although not a really fast hull, but I'm not a fast paddler so go figure. In other words another kayak that's faster than me. This description may sound wishy-washy but I'm not,,someone tried to make this kayak do a lot of things well,,and it does. It's related to the 16 regarding excellent handling in wind but you wanted 'faster' and more volume. If you ever wanted a kayak that only needed a little skeg trim this is it,,if you wanted a kayak that could still be maneuvered in changeable conditions with a disabled skeg,,this is it. Try paddling a Tempest170 with a broken skeg with a beam wind and stern seas to see what I mean.

The few times I got onto small surfing waves it was surprising to find it 'settled down' while flying. Most kayaks get kind of 'busy' when the transition to high speed happens on a wave but this one gets 'settled'. The bow develops lift at surfing speeds that you don't discover until moving fast down a wave. "Hmmm,,this was meant to be this way". Hopefully it'll be as satisfying in the ocean as the Chatham16 turned out to be.

The beam measurement doesn't mean much,,it's more stable than you'd think a 20" wide kayak would be. Certainly more comfortable than an Elaho HV.

One aspect that I'm sure is a marketing decision is that the cockpit is big,,the foredeck could be an inch lower. I'm 5'9" with size 11 feet and have a extra inch of foot room with feet oriented straight up,,which makes me think it'll fit folks 6'4" with size 14 feet just fine if they're accustomed to narrow kayaks. I'm happy for you 6'4" paddlers with size 14ft but you're outside the bell curve,,Necky? bring out a lower foredeck boat with a smidge less aft deck por favor. As it is I'm rigging the underside of the foredeck with LOTS of bungie for misc. gear.

Details,,the construction technique is fairly unique, it looks to involve less labor in deck/hull assembly than the average deck/hull construction that uses interior glass tape, it uses an adhesive with no interior/exterior seam tape. It's got a very low resin/glass ratio which would imply a higher strength/weight ratio. I wasn't aware that the interior glass deck/hull flange was a guide and not a structural bonding element so don't worry if it looks like there isn't adhesive between the flange and the hull,,the adhesive is on the exterior flange. I figure if you got something in there it might as well be bonded but the folks at Necky say it's fine. So I'm going to take them at their word and USE it well.

You'll get a kick out of the construction,,shine a flashlight in the compartments and run your hands around the inside,,,different, I'm charmed with it. Messing with kayak building can do that to a person.

Unfortunately you can't get one shipped with the forward bulkhead uninstalled for custom placement but that was fortuitous in my case. I had it shipped without footbraces installed and was considering cutting out the bulkhead then re-installing one further aft with interior mounted Yakimas as there's a LOT of unused volume in the cockpit. In the mean time I've stuffed three big blocks of 3" minicell for footbraces. All these years I've put up with footbraces,,no more,,I might eventually reposition the bulkhead but in the mean time it's nice having a larger footbrace area than just the ball of the feet,,much better.

The glassing around the aft end of skeg box needs to be re-figured as there is one exterior 5" gel coat crack in the hull that came as delivered, I suspect the skeg box provides a rigid point from the flexible hull panel but it doesn't look like a structural issue regarding the hull itself,,more that the gel coat can't bridge the transition. For folks unfamiliar with gel coat it'll be disconcerting,,and most folks spending $3000 will probably make the dealer fix it or send it back but I'm doing so much stuff to it that it's minor. In heavy use your average glass kayak gets stress cracks in the gel coat,,something tells me this kind of construction won't get as many.

When the Perception Sea Lion came out years ago it was THE boat you'd get if you were a beginner who wanted to learn with the bar set a bit higher than a beginners comfort level. The Chatham 18 is kind of like that but with a higher bar for the average customer now that the average customer should know how to brace/roll. Kind of like when an athlete decides to get into cycling and jumps straight to a road bike with skinny hard tires after riding mtn. bike with larger tires and shocks. The Chatham18 has show room leg comfort, predictable handling on the water, it'll force a beginner to learn how to brace and lean but not be so far out there to eliminate the experienced paddler who likes some stability.

There isn't an appreciable weight/cost difference between the glass and carbon/glass version so Necky should market the attraction of the carbon/glass composite better.

More misc. thoughts,,the ratchet back band adjustments are ridiculous,,all that work to make recessed hardware in the coaming to accomodate them,,toss them out. Who adjusts a backband while paddling a 20" wide kayak??? That's like needing tennis shoes that can be retied while running. Makes no sense.

I haven't bought a new composite kayak in 12 yrs and this is worth it so far. I've owned a dozen kayaks, teach sea kayaking.