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I've had my Eskia since 2002 or 2003. At 6'4" tall, 240 pounds and with size 14 feet the size of the large cockpit opening and the very generous height under the front deck of the Eskia were major selling points. At the time we lived in the eastern Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York and if I left the Eskia on the ladder rack of my F-350 I could have it in the water at Skaneateles Lake or the Seneca River 15 minutes after walking out the kitchen door and just a bit longer to Otisco or Owasco Lakes.

Over the years the Eskia and I have been in Lakes Ontario and Erie, all over the Adirondacks and paddled the the waters off Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and in Block Island and Long Island Sounds. It has been paddled in both calm and rough water when empty or heavily loaded on camping/touring trips. While I've never had it in waves higher than 8-10 feet or in really severe squalls I have never felt like it and I were overmatched. A little white knuckled at times but never feeling like I was in immediate danger. It's a rugged boat that has served me well.

Like others, I found the seat uncomfortable for longer stints in the boat and found that a thin gel seat pad and occasionally changing the length of the rudder pedals relieved the pressure that otherwise sometimes put my leg(s) to sleep. And finding your legs asleep when you've just punched the boat through the surf and are trying to slide out and drag it up the beach before getting swamped can be tough (umm....don't ask, please....)

Now that we've retired to the foothills region of North Carolina it gets less use than it did before but just last month my wife in her Necky Narpa and I in the Eskia kept up just under 4 MPH headed into a stiff breeze on a quick one hour trip.

We just gave our kayaks and canoe their fall coat of SPF-50 Boat Guard protectant and hung them up but before that I took the measurements to order new custom straps for the kayaks cargo hatch covers, new lines for the elastic tie down cords, the rudder cords and the rigid rescue cord that runs around the perimeter of the top deck. I also need to replace the elastic cords that return the rudder pedals to the forward position as they have gotten well stretched over the years. I suspect that when I'm done sometime this winter I'll have somewhere around $100-120 in both boats. As that will be the first "repairs" in all the years we've had them and in all the miles we've paddled them I think Necky did a pretty darn good job with these boats. It's a shame they went out of business.