Tempest 170 Pro

I purchased my Tempest 170 Pro in the spring of 2014. The local dealer generously allowed me use of a 2012 Tempest 170 Pro until mine arrived, about a month later. The 2012 boat was one from the China construction lineage and my boat would be part of the new more robust production line from Estonia.

I quite liked the 2012 boat, basically because it felt relatively light weight. I believe it was about 52 lbs. The sub-par construction was not that evident, maybe some gelcoat cracking in a couple places.

It was with great anticipation the day I went to pick up my new boat. There a time of denial, because I could not believe how much heavier it was than the other boat. I estimate it to be around 58 lbs, not a great weight for a composite boat. I find I don't carry it more than a few feet by myself. But using a caddy is easy to do and allows loading everything into the boat and making one trip. The rear hatch will just fit the caddy if I need to bring it along.

One reason I bought the boat was the excellent seating system WS offers in their touring boats. But the cockpit size is a bit short. They advertise it to be 34" long, but measured to the actual opening, it is only 30 1/2". Many folks, including myself have moved the seat mounting location to the rear by 1-2". I actually met the boat designer, Steve Scherrer, once and he said that was fine to do it. But it is still a bit tight at the shins when exiting. Wet exit/re-entry has not been a problem at all however. The boat feels great when seated in the cockpit with all the wonderful seating adjustments available. The boat has the best seating, outfitting hardware, and lines of any I have seen on the market.

The design is beautiful and the boat handles well. I wish it was closer to 50 lbs in weight. It is a bit sluggish on acceleration but maintains pace easily. This model is no longer available from WS.

I recently purchased a new 170 pro. This is my second 170Pro. The current 170Pros are being produced by Tahe and have greatly improved body construction over the China made ones. Kajak Sport Hatches are now used and the 170 still has the best skeg system.

I recently completed a 46 mile bay trip and the only complaint is the seat which they say is the best. After 8 plus hours in the boat the seat cover was a real pain. There is some piping around the back end that presses into you butt and is really uncomfortable. Also the elongated front portion of the seat used to raises your legs hampers quick entrance and exits. After removing the seat pad and the front portion I have since had it out on open water and it handles great in all conditions.
With the seat changes it is can be 10.

I bought the WP170 at Frontenac Outfitters five years ago and I love it. I am seventy years old and I feel every bit secure in it as I am in my lazy boy. Sure it is a tad weighty for me but my kids bought me a cart for the longer hauls. A great yak that is fast, effortless to paddle in big waters and just a great looking kayak.

My husband bought me this kayak for my 50th birthday, and it's fabulous. It's a great roller, really comfortable with great contact and boat control due to the thigh braces. It's a real pleasure to paddle, and it's fabulous for those lay-back Greenland rolls.

I bought this craft from Frontenac Outfitters in Sydenham ON, Canada I paid about $3250 plus change (cash)

First I have to say that the store is very impressive and I like the fact they have a small calm lake nearby to test paddle what they sell, saying that I was there twice and never saw the owners, you know of those YouTube videos. Oh well. So I had to deal with a much younger man than myself and was a little disappointed as obviously he did not have the experience which is mainly why I traveled over 2 hours to go there for. Oh well.
Anyway I decided to buy this craft, It was a choice between the Caribou from CD and this and I really liked the way this kayak performed although I did not try the Caribou.

I was sold. I own an Essence RM and really liked that but this is not in the same class at all. First the F.G. is lighter and the kayak is a fish form design, it's about 1/2 inch narrower and 6 inches longer but man it performs very well. The rigging is incredible, much better than the Essence and I thought that was hard to beat. The hatches are air tight and the boat just looks really good.

I only had a chance to paddle it 3 times so far including the test paddle and my impression of it's handling and speed hasn't changed. Love this design.

No problem with the skeg and the seat is incredibly comfortable, after a few hours of hard paddling with the Essence I would get a sore back, not with this thing. Although I haven't tried edging it to the point of capsizing yet, mainly because I don't need to, very little edging is required to make this thing respond compared to the RM Essence. The boat makes me appear much better than I am . Very impressed with that.

Speed is also a nice surprise, I read some reviews of the 170 especially regarding speed or a lack of it. Well on my last outing I hit 6.2 miles/hr on a sprint. Avg. of 3.5 miles /hr for 6.1 miles. Against the wind and current I managed 5.3 miles/hr. in a sprint. Could never do that with the Essence.

The boat is lighter than models of previous years and I believe it's due to a reduction of material being used. It feels fragile to me but then again I'm used to a plastic boat... The storage space is incredible, I like to go out with comfort and this will allow me to do that. Just the day hatch is so much more spacious than the Essence and bulkheads are made of F.G. plus the hatch behind the seat is angled which should make for less water if ever I need to do a wet exit and re-enter.

As stated above, this is lighter about 51 lbs as stated by W.S. but it feels more like 49-48 to me. Again maybe that's just because I’m used to lifting a plastic.

The only peeve I have is that the hull seems a little deformed by the skeg. I didn't really get to notice this due to my excitement at the store. And I also just recently notice a little pimple like dent (about the size of my baby fingertip) pushing outward where the day and aft bulkheads are, seems the material at that spot is thinner. Not sure what would cause that but I didn't see any effect on it's performance and it's hardly noticeable, but I know this will keep bothering me as I'm a bit anal when it comes to these things.

I'm about 5'10"+ and about 185-190 lbs (depending on my eating habits) and I can lift this thing strait on my saddles without a problem.

If this didn't have those defects I mentioned above I would rate this boat a 9 -10. But because it feels fragile and because of the deformities I will still give it a solid 8. I contacted Confluence too see what they recommended for that little fingertip dent protruding outward (It would seem almost as if the pressure of heated air inside that day compartment pushed out the hull at that spot).

Still a very good kayak and I have no regrets in purchasing it. I just need the time now to go out on a multi-day trip and really test it when it's loaded up:)

I've owned and paddled a glass 170 Pro now for a little over 3 years. It's regularly taken it into big currents, big waves, big surf, big winds, & following seas. It's been on several week-long expedition-style trips, as well as many numerous weekend and day trips. It's been rammed into barnacle-encrusted walls in sea-caves, run over reefs, and drug over rocky beaches. It's only needed repair once and that was because it dropped from the top of a truck. A boat is not a piece of furniture - they're a tool, and I play hard.

I've not had any trouble out of this boat, and do have an attachment to it. One reviewer below tagged it as a "tank" - they were right in the moniker, but wrong in the context. It is a tank in the fact that it will take you and your gear to hell & back, and survive beautifully. It is not a tank in the fact that it paddles like a world class kayak should. It's really not fair to post a review of a boat that is a "rental boat" as they're not well kept and tend to have problems, i.e. the skeg complaint. The review was also on a poly boat - if you paddle a glass boat, then hop in a polyboat, sure, it feels like a barge. And the reviewer did acknowledge that.

What I Like: pretty much everything! It has full perimeter deck lines, plenty of bungie, enclosed cable & rod skeg control that prevents any cable kinkage, foot pegs adjustable while sitting in cockpit, well padded thigh braces, recessed compass mount, carry handles that retract.

The construction is top notch: layup is stellar - no globs of resin, discolorations, rough spots, or stray glass fibers. The insides of the storage are smooth and virtually blemish-free. The skeg box is well constructed and smooth on the inside compartment - nothing for gear to hang on as it slides past.

It had a pretty nice seat system, but for some reason, no matter how I adjusted the thigh lifters, my legs still went to sleep. I ended up ripping it out and built a custom seat from foam: http://kayakfit.tripod.com/instructions.htm
I also ended up glassing in a small bulkhead and adding a foot pump, and also a keel strip. My hatch covers are of an older design, and after 2 years, I've started getting a little bit of water in the storage, but only when I roll. The amount is nothing to get excited about. Recent Tempest Pros I've seen have a different, beefier hatch cover.

What I don't like: weight - in this day & age, it's an overly heavy boat. But for it's size/weight, it handles as well or better as any other boat in that same class. This last weekend, I spent A LOT of time at a symposium paddling several new boats as I was in the market. I probably spent 30-45 minutes in each boat (I know, that's not long enough to REALLY know a boat, but it is long enough to get a good feel). I tried the P&H Cetus, and it came in a close second. It is a well crafted & designed boat. It handled beautifully, and I liked the forward "day hatch" feature they put in it. The only problem with the Cetus was that it wouldn't track true without the skeg down - it would wander one way or the other. My third choice would have been the the Impex Cat 3 or Outer Island - they were nicely built and handled very well, but I noticed rust on some metal parts. My final choice would have been the NDK Explorer. The boat is built big & solid, and is meant for big open water, expedition-style trips. There seemed to be some sloppiness in the layup on the ones I looked at. It handled ok - a little slow to start the turn - to be honest, I thought my Tempest handles a lot better, and seems to be of better construction quality than the Explorer (plus $400 cheaper), so I choose not to "down-grade".

What was my top pick? One that completely surprised me - the SEDA Ikkuma 17. It was a real dream to paddle that boat. I ordered a Carbon/kevlar layup - I'll post my impressions after I've paddled it for several months.

After several years of paddling, research, and saving money, I decided to move up and buy my dream boat, a glass Tempest Pro 170. I proudly picked it up, drove to a river near my home, and launched it for an hour-long shakedown cruise on flat water. For the first half hour, the boat was everything I expected -- fast,comfortable, and responsive. But after another half hour, I began to feel tired and the boat began to feel less responsive. I figured I was just having an off day, until I got back to shore and tried to lift the boat. I couldn't. That's when discovered several gallons of water in the rear compartment. I pumped that out, drove home, and found the problem: where the back of the skeg box is supposed to join the hull, there was a quarter-inch gap. Good thing my shakedown cruise wasn't a four-hour paddle offshore!

I took the boat back to the dealer (Alder Creek, in Portland, OR) the next day. They offered to repair the boat, but I didn't like that idea. So I wound up trading my new boat and $180 for a Kevlar demo Tempest 170.

Bottom line: Alder Creek treated me well, the Tempest Pro 170 is a great boat, and, after a bumpy ride, I'm now a happy camper. But why oh why doesn't Wildnerness Systems do a simple quality-control check on every boat that leaves the factory? Stick a garden hose in the aft compartment, run a few gallons of water in there, and check for leaks. That extra five minutes of effort might save some customers from inconvenience, disappointment -- and perhaps even danger.

I note many reviews mention leaky deck hatches. My Tempest 170 Pro (Kevlar) that is 4 years old leaked some. My dealer talked with Wilderness Systems and learned that for early Tempests the hatch collar (that the cover goes over) was too soft. They began using harder material later. Wilderness replaced mine at no charge and gave me new covers! I think this was largely due to the relationship my dealer has with them.

I've owned my glass Tempest 170 for about a year now and it is the best boat I've owned yet. And I've had some nice boats. It's extremely comfortable (snug in the right places and roomy in the right places). It doesn't leak, the skeg doesn't rattle, and it tracks like an arrow. It's fast and it looks great. It's a tad heavy at 58lbs., so consider the kevlar version. I love the skeg, but only use it in heavy weather. It's what I've been looking for in a touring boat.

As a Registered Maine Sea Kayak Guide and kayak instructor, I have had my seat in many different makes, sizes and models of kayaks. Last summer I purchased a Tempest 170 in kevlar to use as a guide boat. It is by far the best kayak I have ever paddled. The hip braces, adjustable thigh braces and seat allow me to paddle in comfort all day. Unlike the plastic version, the hatches fit great and are water tight. Even after teaching a class where the kayak is upside down a great deal of the time (intentionally of course), no water leaks into the hatches. This is a wonderful boat for paddlers of all abilities. It is very responsive, fun to carve turns with, and very easy to roll (one should special notice of the combing design at the stern end...how it tilts back toward the stern...awesome design) This is a kayak everyone should try before buying a their first or next one.