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Name: Dr_Disco

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I paddled this boat for a week in the Galapagos Islands. My wife also had one. For a setting like that, this kind of boat may be the only option. However, our experience was more negative than positive.

Let me start with inflation. Be sure that the tubes on each side are equally inflated. This is not an easy thing to do and if not achieved the boat will track badly. The foot pegs are attached to metal tracks along the inside of the outer tubes. They can be tightened in place or left un-tightened if the boat has a rudder and you wish to use it (ours did have a rudder and we had to use it some times because of unequal inflation). But whether loose or tight, the foot pegs are very uncomfortable. There is no way to position your feet on them that is not unpleasant. They sit at the wrong angle for your foot to rest flat whether you use your heel or the ball of your foot and your foot constantly rubs against the metal track. An hour of that is very difficult. Our boats were assembled and inflated by our guide (or crew members of the boat we were on). On at least one occasion the foot peg tracks placed the foot pegs at different angles from each other. Once the boat is inflated this is impossible to adjust. In a tropical climate they have to be deflated a certain amount after each use if they are exposed to the sun when stored. This means they have to be reinflated each time they are used.

The boats actually handle pretty well. The skeg needs to be down at all times or they don't track well. But even with the skeg down they are easy to turn and not that difficult to keep going straight. They do tend to move left and right as you paddle and consequently are not as efficient as a hard shell boat. They are not fast either because they do not glide very far and cannot be pushed much beyond 4 mph. They are stable boats but at first you may not be sure. They bob around like corks and feel like they are going to turn over with every wave. But if you relax they just bob along without a problem. It is actually difficult to turn them over if you try.
I do not recommend this boat unless you have no other alternative.

I am 5'10", 185. I paddled this boat for 3 days on a guided tour in a fjord in Alaska. As a boat for rental operations it might be just fine. But I found it to be a mediocre to poor ride. Tracking was bad. It wanted to turn left now matter what. I would get it moving straight and then edge it toward the left and it would turn left, not right. If I edged it toward the right it turned sharply left. There was nothing I could see in the hull to indicate a defect but that is possible. Needless to say I had to use the rudder a great deal of the time. The boat was very sensitive to even mild wind and difficult to control in those circumstances without the rudder. I didn't try to roll it or do extreme leans (water temp 34 degrees!). The cockpit was roomy, it you need that. It was too big for me so I would have to add a lot of foam if it were my personal boat. I had trouble keeping up with the guide in an Elaho and my wife in an Eskia. My wife is not a fast paddler and normally I have to wait for her. This means the Cape Horn is slow. Initial stability was high. I didn't really test secondary stability (see above). I don't really recommend this boat to anyone except a tour operation where most people are beginners and will be using the rudder to steer, and you need a cockpit that will accomodate lots of sizes, including larger folk, and initial stability is a concern.

I have a fiberglass version that is about 3 years old. I have taken it on several trips of a week or more and paddle it around the lake I live on. Overall I am very pleased with the Falcon. It handles well without a rudder or skeg in ordinary conditions. In following seas you need to edge it significantly to keep it from broaching. You also have to edge it significantly to turn it, which can be somewhat scary to new paddlers since it has very low initial stability. It is fast and resistant to weathercocking. Paddling with a small amount of edging handles any weathercocking well. In fact the boat seems to lean almost by itself in those conditions. If you happen to capsize it is easy to roll. On the negative side ... It came with Keepers footpegs, which are a piece of sh***. I replaced them with Yakima aluminum. The back support never worked well for me and, as others have reported, is prone to breakage. I replaced it with an IR backband and am very happy. I was concerned that the small hatch covers would make it difficult to pack stuff but as it turns out I have never had a problem. My gear tends to be back packing size and weight so YMMV. I do not recommend this as a first boat. If this is a "move up to" boat, then do a lot of practice turning with a J-lean (of course, be sure you can roll when you capsize). Eddyline customer service is first rate.

I paddled a rental plastic Sealution II and was not impressed. It weighs a ton. There is no way one person can get it on a car top without something like hully rollers. The thigh braces are a disgrace -- too small, badly shaped, and badly placed. The foot pegs are plastic p.o.s.'s. You can fit an army in the cockpit, which means most people will need lots of outfitting to make it usable. Finally it weathercocks like crazy so definitely get a rudder or skeg.