Castine

I just purchased the Castine 135 and so far am really enjoying it. I'm 5' and 110lbs. I have been paddling for a few years now. I'm not an expert but also not new to kayaking. I've taken it on local waterways in my area of western NY, and also in Narragansett Bay, RI. It handled the large swells and wakes from fishing boats very well. And I'm not used to that type of water, so I was a bit anxious, but made it through fine.

It's quite a step up from my Pelican 10' boat. It was quite a bit wider than the Castine, and very stable. However, the Castine is stable, something I worried about since it is so much narrower than my previous boat, but I've had no problem with that.

At that time I did not have the optional rudder installed, but had it on order. It tracked very well without it. Since then I did have it installed. So far I'm not sure that it's really needed, but if it is, I now have it.

I would suggest that the thigh pads be beefier...they are quite a thin plastic pad. The ones on the WS Tsunami are more comfortable. I haven't had any leaking problems with the hatches, and I like the hatch covers very much. It seems like the boat will be able to hold a lot of gear if I decide to go camping at some point. I would really like to have a paddle holder and maybe a few attachment points to add a camera or light, etc. At some point I may change the seat back to a backhand as I'd like to learn to roll, but that is maybe for next year. Overall I'm glad that I've purchased the boat and looking forward to learning more about it as I continue to paddle it.

This was my first kayak. Having only rented a kayak once before buying this one I found it very easy to adapt to kayaking.my boyfriend had an old town canoe so I wanted an old town kayak. The Castine is long and sleek. Tracks well and I never felt unstable in it. Paddled on small ponds and lakes. A few times more wind than I would like but the Castine cut the wind and handled well. Plenty of storage and cargo straps. Never had leaks.Seat is comfortable even after a few hours absolutely love this kayak. The only problem I had was the weight. I am under 5 ft and it was too heavy for me. Otherwise a great kayak and recommend it.

I've owned my beauty for 8 years and she's still my favorite river boat. I've even had her out on Lake Michigan and she rides the waves very nicely. I also owned a 38#, fiberglass, Castine, which was truly my favorite. Now that was one sweet, sweet boat but I sold it as I tend to beat my boats on the rocks.
If you get the chance to buy one, do so.

This was my first kayak, purchased 5 years ago.
What I loved about it at first -- rock solid stability, abundant bone dry storage -- recently just didn't make up for its drawbacks -- it's heavy and slow and just doesn't edge.

It's rated at 50 lbs., it's actually 64 lbs. (I weighed it). It also leaves a wake when I'm pushing it as fast as I can (never a good sign).
Nevertheless, it's a superb boat for beginners, so I'm keeping up at my Adirondack cabin for guests.
Bottom line, this yak is like a great beginner ski, but when you're ready for a racing ski, it just doesn't cut it.

Have had my Castine for 2 years now, and continue to be pleased with it. What you should know is that for a 13-footer, it is an extremely happy compromise between initial stability, secondary stability, maneuverability, and forward speed. This is a hard balance to achieve, and OT has done it. Leaned turns are very effective (I put a rudder on mine and took it off after 1/2 a season; superfluous and gadgety). I have had it on long (5 mile) Chesapeake Bay crossings in 20-KT winds, nasty chop, and I was properly nervous but in the end, gratified by the boat's intrinsic seaworthiness (it got me there safely). It lies nicely to the seas when you stop paddling, doesn't weathercock excessively when properly trimmed, and is generally well-behaved. The aft bulkhead leaks after much fussing and lots of silicone, and my guess is it always will, because of paddler weight flexing the structure at that point. C'est la vie, and as Feathercraft says..."hello, it's a water sport..." Forward bulkhead, made the same way, is bone dry.

Cowboy and paddle float re-entry work fine even at my arthritic, 59-year-old 199lbs. HOWEVER, and please note for safety: The high, rigid factory seat back make both rolling and re-entry techniques extremely difficult. Even though the thing folds forward, imagine climbing back in and maneuvering around the thing to quickly get your center of gravity low...bearing in mind the conditions under which you would have wet-exited in the first place. I took mine out and installed a backband, augmented by a portable camp seat for long trips. Thus, the 8 vs 10 rating.

BTW, those who think that kayaks under 18 feet are toys should have a look at Tappan Adney's The Bark And Skin Boats of North America. In it they will find Inuit kayaks in the 13-14-foot range. The Greenland tradition wasn't the only one...

I bought 2 OT Loons for my grandaughters...Grandpa tried one & to make a long story short, I bought a Castine & loved it. Great beginner boat. My daughter tried my boat & , you guessed it, She now owns a Castine.. Great boat for the money...If I were to update, I wouldn't know which way to go... So I guess the Castine is around for quite some time, right ???

This is a great boat. I recently sold my Old Town Heron, because I've started doing more overnight'rs on rivers with up to class 3 rapids and felt I needed a boat that's a little shorter. While I could force the 16'Heron down the river, it wasen't a lot of fun, which brings me to the Castine. This boat is great. Much better quality than my Heron. Maybe not quite as fast as the Heron, but fast non the less.

I looked hard at the Dagger Crossover, but all things considered, who really camps on class 4-5 anyway. I'll use my RPM for the day trips, and my castine for when I'll see you next week. This is a great crossover boat, check it out.

I have had my Castine for a little over one week and have been on two river runs in central FL. I have not been paddleing for very long. I have only been on four trips and used three different kayak. I ordered my Castine from my milepoint shopper ( frequent flyer mile points). It took three weeks to receive. I am very pleased with the quality of my boat. As the previous person wrote the bulkheads are made of foam and not very substantial, but I can remedy that. I also will have to add a little sealant to the black strip around the cockpit, which will take all of two minutes.

I love the way the Castine tracks and glides throught the water. The rivers I have been on have had a lot of fallen trees and tight corners to negotiate and the Castine was a breeze to turn through these obstacles. I have had many compliments on the maneuverability and the over all looks of my Castine. I commend Old Town on the clean lines and performance of the Castine kayak and would highly recommend this model to anyone.

This little boat is FANTASTIC! I love the comfort, agility, speed, and ease of tracking. The hull design, there layers, insulated, I can't say enough good about this boat! A true gem! I have owned it just 6 days and have been in the water with it almost more than not. This is my second kayak, replacing a Perception Acadia bought last year. The Castine is a far superior outfit! My wife bought a Loon 111 for herself and is equally impressed with Old Town products!

Helluva little boat. My wife and I bought 2 of these gems and then just looked at them for 6 weeks when the weather turned to crap. Yesterday we said tohell with it and tossed them into L.I. Sound. Explored and had a great time. Great boats for beginners. Our only other experience has been in an old town twin otter, which is a fun boat, but the castine is a gem!

I've had a Castine for about 3 months and I really have nothing but praise for it. This is my second kayak. The seat back is not padded but I have found it to be very comfortable. I'm very satisfied with its speed and stability. Fit and finish are excellent. I'm impressed with Polylink construction as it seems to be much more rigid than other poly boats I looked at. I looked at many boats and for its price range and size, I don't think that it can be beat. Note that I said that I have looked (not paddled) at many boats. I'm still fairly new to kayaking but this is my honest opinion of this boat.

I love this boat! Tracks great, fast, and stable. For the price, it is the best light touring/recreational boat oon the market. I've used it many times on flat water and even a few times on class II rapids. I was impressed with how well a boat of this length handled the rapids. Would of given it a 10 but the bulkheads leak a tiny bit. Some silicon will surely fix that for good.

Just returned from my first trip in my new Castine ,a short run from Fishs Eddy to Hancock NY on the east branch of the Delaware river, what a great boat this going to be !The Castine tracked very well in slow moving water and in 1-1.5 rapids also very stable ,after a few minutes with it i felt very confident , foot pegs were good and pretty easy to adjust while under way .very easy to paddle and i didnt detect any bulkhead leaks so far . the only negative is the seat got to be uncomfortable on the lower back near the end of the trip but a pad will take care of that ,fit and finish was good , I am very happy with my purchase and i am sure i will have the castine for quite some time , I would highly recommend this boat to anyone take one for a paddle you will like it ......

I upgraded from an otter to a Castine. I also just got back from a Florida trip where I rented some large (16ft) Perception Sea Kayaks with rudders. It was funny how small my otter seemed, but the Castine held it's own. I raced my son in his otter & won hands down. There was a 18Mile wind also & it was amazing how the tracking was different between the 2 boats. Overall I really like the Castine esp. without the keelson bar. P.S. I also called OT & got my free paddleholder.

I really like my Castine! I didn't think that it was ever going to come in, but once I got my hands on it I learned that it was worth the wait. I have paddled several of the beautiful, clear rivers of southern Missouri since last summer and am very pleased with the boat. It has enough cargo space to go on an extended trip, but if lightly loaded handles well in a wide variety of water. I find it to be a good tracker and am able to steer with boat lean even though I did not get the optional rudder. I plan on removing the seat back and replacing it with a back band as I got pinned against a log in fast water last year because I couldn't lean back. (Beware River Runners) I also found that a Kilt Universal spray skirt will fit well over the factory seat back, too. It keeps out the water very well. I give the boat an 8 only because I was forced to move the foot braces forward two inches and the seat back two inches to be able to fit in the boat. Though I am 6'2" tall and 220#, I don't think that this should be necessary in a boat of over 12 feet in length.

My brother and I tried the 2 Castines (no rudders) a local outfitter rents on our midwestern river. We have a nice drop, with frequent Class I riffles interrupting the flatwater stretches. More importantly one must dodge downed trees and sweepers, or slalom through just the right channels to stay off the bottom. The Castines were a nice balance between maneuverability and speed, much faster than the Loons that he rents to most customers. We did 8 hours plus, covering double the typical daily distance on the river in surprising comfort. We also noted the leakage problems mentioned by others. The outfitter will be providing aprons in the future. You wouldn't want to roll this one, but our river is often only a foot or two deep anyway. It's a fun boat for playing around on our little river, because it's fast enough to eat up the flatwater stretches but easy to steer around obstacles. WAY better than most of the tubs in this price range. With a rudder I think it would even be an economical cruiser. Just caulk up those bulkheads! 9 out of 10 because it's a great boat for the price.

My wife and I just bought an Old Town kayak( Castine) and we traded in our sit on top kayaks for them. We enjoyed them, and after taking lessons, the instructor said,"by fall you'll both want something longer and faster" and she was right. We tried out a Waldon Vista, to see if we would(or could) get used to the cockpit and it was no problem, but the comfort was NOT there for us in the Waldon. We could not find a dealer that would let us try a Castine out, as they can not even get hold of any, so we took a chance and bought them any way. Well, we lucked out, and we are really happy with them. We go out every single night for at least two hours, and cannot tell you how happy we are with these kayaks.They track really great, are fassssst! and very stabile. These are our second Old Town purchase, and they came through as usual, and made a great product. Have let my fellow kayakers try them and one has already gone out and bought one. The others cannot find them anywhere. I think Old Town, did not have any idea how fast these Castine's were going to sell, as I have been told by several dealers that they have back orders and wished they could get their hands on more of them. We had to buy one locally, and then drive another fifty miles to get another, but it was well worth it. The only complaint (and not really a big deal with us) is the advertised paddle holder which did not come with the kayaks as they did advertise in their brochure. They need to correct that, as some people might get more upset with it then we did. We were looking for comfort and that seat is most definately the most comfortable seat you will EVER find in any kayak made today!! I give this wonderful kayak a BIG plus and a 10 for sure. We plan on having these for qiute some time. Thanks Old Town !!!!!!!

I have an Old Town 120 and really enjoyed the boat and so when I saw the new Castine I was very curious. It was hard to find one and when I did I bought it. It looked to be in better shape than my last 2 new Old Town purchases. My Old Town Camper canoe had a few little problems which Old Town addressed. My new Loon 120 had a very minor problem which Old Town also addressed. My new Castine appeared to have no problems. It was however missing the advertised paddle holder. When I took it out it was nice. It might be me but it didnt track as well as my Loon. I am not very experienced but it seemed as though it should have tracked a little better. The rear "sealed" compartment leaks badly. And I dont mean it trickles. I do like it and it was a faster boat than my Loon. I have purchased my third Old Town product in less than 12 months and wouldnt buy another until I hear that the little production problems have been addressed. I hope they can address my currnet problem and that Old Town improves. I think they have a good product line.