Homepage www.falconsails.com
Eddyline Sandpiper review.
By Patrick Forrester
- Designer and owner of Falcon Sails
11-09-2013
I have many years of experience paddling sea
and white water kayaks.
As the owner and designer for Falcon Sails, I always
want to know more. Since our sails are so commonly installed on
recreational kayaks, I decided to see how well our sails will perform on them. Now that my daughter is 7 years old, this was a perfect time
to acquire a boat of this kind.
Up until recently I had no interest in paddling or owning a recreational kayak,
but after acquiring and paddling my new Sandpiper, I have changed my mind!
Today I tried this boat for the
very first time. I was very pleasantly surprised.
I was amazed how it had the best of both worlds in
terms of being easy to keep on course, and at the same time, it was very easy to
change the direction I was traveling.
This was true even when I put the sail up in
light to moderate winds we had today. The Sandpiper passed this test with flying colors. A boat that will
stay on course well with the sail up, and also change directions easily is truly
a gem.
All these great characteristics came without the
complication of a skeg or rudder.
I like how comfortable the boat is.
I could easily spend many enjoyable hours in
this kayak.
I have not taken my daughter out with me yet,
but I think it will work out fine as long as she is still small. It is
so stable and comfortable, I think I could close my eyes and fall asleep.
The foot pegs are very easy to adjust.
If
somebody changes the foot pegs, and I manage to not notice until after I paddle
away, I will not have to return to shore like many boats require.
The construction and finish are
very well done. Based on my sea kayaking friends experience with Carbonlite, I
have always known it is a great material. I have been watching this material for over 10 years, and the reports
are always the same. Eddyline boat owners consistently say great things about
Carbonlite. It
has the great look of a fiberglass boat, and at the same time, out performs all
the other plastic boats in what plastic does so well.
Not that I suggest you abuse your boat, I can
tell you Carbonlite 2000 material will look great even if you do.
After taking the time to install a sail rig on
this boat, my impressions of this material have only improved.
I knew Carbonlite was good stuff before I owned
this boat. My experience with the Sandpiper only confirms this belief.
Carbonlite is stiff, smooth, and makes a light weight boat that is a pleasure to
carry.
A long time sea kayaking friend of mine that is very hard on his
boats, asked me to take some "for sale" pictures of his old boat, which is an Eddyline Fathom
made of Carbonlite. Even after 6 years of constant heavy use,
that boat looks almost brand new. My 24 megapixel SLR camera could not reveal
anything except hard to see scratches. There is less than 1/20th
of the scratching you would find on a fiberglass boat, or the typical rotomolded
polyethylene boats. This boat shows very few signs of aging. It is truly
amazing.
See
www.falconsails.com/eddylinefathom/
It is no wonder boats made of Carbonlite will hold their value
extremely well even after many years of use.
The fact this boat has bulk heads sets it apart again
from all the other boats in the recreational class.
First, if you keep the hatch covers on, it makes swamping the boat impossible.
The bulkheads also add structural strength to
the deck and hull.
The bulk heads also allow for storage where you
can organize and keep dry whatever you want to bring on an adventure. Since my
boat has been made,
Eddyline has improved the Sandpiper to include some very nice rubber deck
hatches which is ideal. They are plenty big so you can quickly load and
unload the dry storage area. If my boat had these like the upgraded design
does, I would like this boat even more.
I talked about looks, but this deserves another
mention. The boat looks great. The one I have has a red deck, and a white hull.
The deck has contours to it that add to its
structural strength, and at the same time just look really cool.
This boat has a black cockpit coaming that
really makes it look great.
The bottom line is the Sandpiper is a comfortable, easy to paddle, easy to
carry, stable, light weight kayak that looks great, and will continue to be
all these things over many years. If you want a very good quality light weight
recreational kayak, this boat has to be on your short list. If you want a
recreational kayak that sails well in moderate conditions, this boat does very
well.
See more pictures here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30659399@N02/sets/72157637540001563/
Falcon Sails home page
www.falconsails.com
