Fatima

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I row a 15 foot Virus Yole. It's a great boat. It's self bailing. The waves that come over the front run right out the back. I'm ready to move up. I need more speed with the same canoe-quality stability. That means a FAT ocean scul. Does anyone make a scul with double the typical beam ?

-- Hal Stiles (halcyon590@aol.com), February 23, 2005

Answers

I row an 18 ft Alden Ocean Shell as a single. I'm big (215 lb). The beam is 30". The Alden is flat bottomed. I can let go of the oars and take a photograph. It has a good coaming but a bailer is extra. I've only had water in the boat when landing in an onshore wind. It's reasonably quick. I want to go faster too and I'm interested in the Alden Martin which is 21 ft.

-- Tony Wells (arwells@on.aibn.com), February 23, 2005.

A boat you might want to consider would be the ECHO-18. Its an 18ft. boat with a 26" beam. It has a very flat bottom similar to the Alden Ocean shell. It weighs approx 50lbs and has a really slick folding rigger system. The boat also comes with a self-bailer as well. I went out in one of these boats for the first time today and must say that I was very impressed. The stability is great, you would have to work really hard to flip one of these over I think. The boat was designed by the son of the man who designed the Alden Ocean Shell and I would have to say that it is quite an improvement over the Alden as well. At 18 ft. it can be stored in a home garage and at 50lbs its easily car-toppable. Its construction seems to be very rugged and has built in hand grips at both bow and stern as well as amidships, and when the riggers are folded in and straped down they make a good handle for carring the boat as well. regards, Scott

-- Scott (esdol@hotmail.com), February 24, 2005.

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