Mohican

I love the orange Mohican with both rudders and rear hatch. It is slightly faster and lighter than the t-bolt I love so much. In the t-bolt I had small out of way thigh braces so I could lean over until water came in the cockpit. I do not have that option with the Mohican. It is cooler on a hot day with lots of air to hit my chest. Get the rear bungees for water storage. If you are on a budget, then a used t-bolt is a better value. Add a rear bulkhead and small out of way thigh braces for start of race or when you get nailed by big waves.

Van dusen boats have won many gold medals. They are the best in the world but it helps to have size 10 feet or smaller for portage. ICF boats are made to be paddled barefoot. Not much room for the feet. My big disappointment is that getting back in might take a paddlefloat. Wide plastic sit on tops are easy to remount. This boat is not easy even in flatwater. You learn to go fast by Smile relax and wiggle your hips. J lean the boat to the left and right. learn how you can really lean it over and recover. Its weakness is that it is like a bike, it needs to move to be stable. Stopped, I like to let my legs hang out just like pontoons. You can make a hairpin turn by dragging one foot. Huki makes rear pontoons that might work. It really is about time in the boat. Near shore on a small river I like getting nailed by big wakes.

The Mohican is much more stable than you first think. Smile relax and wiggle those hips. Rocket fast. I wish I could attach an outrigger as a convertible OC1 or kayak. I wish Mr van Dusen made a more stable version to compete with the epic sport or marathon master. I love tiller steering and will never buy anything but tiller steering. Even my Seda Glider has tiller steering

Orange Van Dusen Mohican with tiller steering, toe straps and both rudders. Just 2 minutes to switch rudders because the understern fits thru a tube. The narrow nose is so fast but the main drawback is narrow place for feet. Hard to make buoy turn until you figure how to lift your foot out to slide bar across. I love the seat with no pad. The footstraps are so efficient at pulling your hip forward for the next stroke. Stability - similar to orion or t-bolt but t-bolt had small out of way thigh braces so I felt very stable in big water in t-bolt. With the Mohican you can let thighs rest against side to get some support or at start put feet outside boat to paddle sideways. Mohican might be one minute per hour faster for me on flatwater than t-bolt. T-bolt turns better for me around buoys because of wider footbox. Have not yet learned how to get back into Mohican without paddle float. PFD makes it harder to get in. The Mohican is so ergonomic that it is easier for me to paddle at 7mph for an hour. If you are on a budget, a used t-bolt might be a better value. I added rear bulkhead to t-bolt.

You might want to consider a new non-ICF kayak to race if you are not limited to ICF spec boats. Specifically, the new Van Dusen Mohican. I had an opportunity to race one this past weekend on a slow flowing river that had a mix of shallow and deep water. (Usually, I paddle a Fenn Millenium and a Nelo Vanquish Vintage or Cleaver X. I also have no relationship with any paddling company so this is as impartial as it gets) The Mohican has a narrow entry and low foredeck like a k1 and a big ICF k1 type cockpit. Footboard and tiller. There was no cockpit coaming. It was 21' long, but looked and felt shorter. The hull was very flat right under the seat area - surprisingly flat. There is some resemblance to a sit-down type C1 canoe, only longer and narrower. The foredeck has nice cutaways for a close entry. The one I used had a bucket seat like a ski and a venturi drain of the type canoes use that you can open and close, but another I saw (Ted Van Dusen's boat) was set up like an ICF kayak. Its stability was exceptional and I'd compare it to a trainer ICF K1 like a Kirton Tor or slightly tippier than a Mako XT surfski. I could have sat on two telephone books and been stable, I think, and that's what struck me most about the hull. I'm accustomed to losing stability in a boat to gain potential speed, so I don't understand the physics of the design and I asked Ted Van Dusen about this. He said that if he took away the stability (flat spot) and made it really tippy, it would only gain about 1/2 % better resistance which translates to a fraction of that in mph. Even though I didn't need all that extra stability, I found myself using more leg drive and torso rotation and the boat just sat flat as I flailed away. Speed in deep water was very good and it's difficult to tell the 0.1 or 0.2 mph speed difference compared to an ICF K1, particularly when the ICF K1 resistance is more of the wave drag type and this Mohican is more of the wetted surface area type. My guess is that it has a comparable cruising speed / resistance at 7-8 mph. It felt like it probably doesn't sprint as well, but my guess is that it marathons as well as a current racing ICF K1 design. In the shallow water sections, I could hardly feel the bottom as the hull seemed to be somewhat immune to the suck water feel. It also was very good at wake riding another boat probably because of the flat spot on the hull. The hull shape looks different from other boats that I've paddled, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it felt different in shallows and on wakes. Overall, I thought it was the nicest hull I'd ever paddled on flatwater and worth a look if you want speed and need some measure of stability and can live with a non-ICF boat. It would be a great boat for an intermediate paddler to learn to get faster in as you'd be much more stable than in a racing ICF K1. Plus, you would never need a faster marathon boat when you do get better. The build quality was also among the nicest I've seen. Solid and true as an old Struer I once had. I think there are only 4 Mohicans in existence right now and all on the east coast of the US - it's a very new boat. I also don't know what the production plan or availability is so you'd have to contact Van Dusen about that if you are interested.