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I've owned this boat for eighteen years and have learned almost everything I know about good kayaking skills in it. I'd bought it for a 450-mile solo circumnavigation of Lake Ontario for my 50th birthday virtually without knowing anything about it, other than it looked small and petite and would fit me. Little did I know the gem I would end up with, practically living init for the duration. In 'those days' boats had initial and secondary stability. Initial stability was then defined as how well it handled without being fully loaded. It was wiggly feeling at first but I got very accustomed to that feeling quite quickly. What I wasn't prepared for was how well it handled in the diciest situations I could throw at it, while fully loaded. In one situation I was paddling a long dreary, sullen day with an increasing tailwind. It had started out as nothing at all...I was drenched to the bone after paddling for 7 hours and had the shoreline ahead in my sights, a mile off. I was feeling a bit glum and knackered so wasn't really paying attention until suddenly I was aware of confused waves coming off shore a mile out! I was now quite awake and alert. There was suddenly the roar of whitecaps and my boat was being covered with breaking waves on all sides. I thought for sure "this is it, I'm capsizing." I was bracing for all I was worth when I realized the boat seemed calmer than I did somehow, as if it was telling me, "calm down, I know what I'm doing." Continuing to brace, but more easily now that I had the confidence of the boat, we glided toward shore, FAST. In the end a wave picked me up and dumped me on shore and I scrambled out, hardly able to walk. In the process of this six-week trip I'd taken many of the skills I'd learned in a class and had put them to work, nearly effortlessly now. Such as carving turns, all kinds of bracing plus surf landings and launchings. The two things I could never master with this boat were a roll (I have a back injury so had to be content with learning bomb proof self-rescues) and correcting a nasty little habit the boat has of turning immediately to port when about to land in surf, but not always so I could never figure out what was going wrong. But that was SO minor compared to all the beautiful feelings I've had controlling and playing with this boat. I know the boat is no longer being made and the design creator, Derek Hutchinson, is deceased, but if you have a chance to buy this boat used and are small in stature I can't recommend it highly enough. I've only seen one other in all these years. It was on a car top and the guy had borrowed it from his wife, liking it better than his own boat. He was slight of build and loved the boat as much as I love mine. I'd seen him on the highway and pestered him to pull over so we could chat. If I could find this boat in Kevlar I'd buy it and paddle off into my seventies, still doing gung ho long mileage.