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My friend in England has just tested the new Capella RM 166 and this is his impressions. He liked the new hatch system, especially the addition of the day hatch. My friend has owned various P&H boats all with the day hatch, which he finds very useful. It was one of his (and mine) pet peeves about the previous Capella RM model, though we both have learned to live with the set-up.

My friend also commented on the new seat system and said it improved an already comfortable kayak and the new seat is more like the ones found on P&H's fibreglass models. As for the boat feel in the water, he said it felt pretty much the way the old Capella felt (typical British Kayak feel), except he though it had a little more initial stability and tracked a little better.

He liked the boat so much he has placed an order and suggested I do the same once I've seen and tested the boat myself

I've owned my Poly Capella for just over 6 months now and am very impressed with this boat, especially its performance considering it is a plastic boat! As an expereinced paddler who has been paddling for over 20 years and a BCU Sea Kayak Instructor, I knew exactly what I wanted from the boat I purchased and the Capella was the one that fit the bill.

Before purchasing the Capella I test paddled various boats, both Glass, plastic and Carbon, and decided to purchase a plastic boat because it fits the large variety of paddling I do. I paddled boats from all the well known manufacturers and some lesser known ones and found the combination of performance, quality, design, fit and finish, comfort and feel of the Capella best suited my needs.

I have paddled the boat in various conditions from flat calm to 8' swells and even surfed the boat off Long Beach on Vancouver Island (what a blast that was) and found the all round performance of the boat was excellent. To date I have not had to use the skeg once, even though I have paddled in some high wind/strong tidal conditions. In fact for a plastic boat I found the Capella tracks very well and is pretty fast. I can keep up with any of my friends in their Glass or Carbon Kevlar boats without any problem, but I am a strong paddler!

I had to add hip pads but other than that I haven't had to do anything with the fittings on the boat and find the seating to be excellent. Even without the hip pads I've found this boat is a dream to roll and very manouverable. It has decent initial stability and excellent secondary stability, which is the way I prefer in a sea kayak.

Despite its relativey small storage areas I have found carrying even a week or twos camping supplies not to be a problem, although I will admit I am a light camper.

I purchased a fully loaded version which included the built in compass and pump and although I haven't used the pump apart from pumping out friends boats, the compass has been used a lot and is great! Overall I am extremely happy with this boat and know it will serve me well for a long long time. I can highly recommend the P & H range and especially the Capella to anyone looking for a good performance Sea Kayak!