Assembly Instructions

Flying with Folding Boats

Mapping Out Your Next Trip

Packing & Securing Gear in a PakCanoe

Repair & Maintenance of Pakboats

Skin on Frame Boats

Surviving Mosquitoes & Black Flies

Long Island Sound 2002

I had tremendous fun in 12-15 kts of wind, dying swells up to about four foot and smaller wind chop that was breaking at times. When I let the Puffin sit broadside on to the wind it started to scud sideways due to the very shallow draft. However, broadside breakers don't phase it; although I would have been prepared for a quick high brace into wind and breaking waves if the winds had been stronger, potentially catching and lifting the weatherside of the wide, light hull as the breaker passes beneath.

It was almost impossible to bury the bow heading into the waves because of the boat's short length and buoyant ends. So I could almost not test the integrity of the Velcro hull-to-deck joint at all, except during stability trials to about 150 degrees of heel. At that point it seems that more water entered the hull under the sprayskirt -- because I had not taken the time to tighten the drawstring of my own neoprene/nylon Snapdragon skirt around the cockpit rim -- than through the hull-to-deck Velcro. In fact, when I picked up the boat to carry it back to the car (not enough water entered to warrant emptying out before picking it up), I had to open a good stretch of the Velcro in way of the cockpit to facilitate draining.

Back to paddling: Of course you'd expect a boat of the waterline length of the Puffin to maneuver more easily than it tracks, but also due to the short length you can so easily apply slight correcting strokes that this made almost no difference at all ... I must have made almost all of my corrections entirely automatically and noticed no ill behavior: On all headings relative to wind and waves the boat tended to stay on course nicely and seemed to deviate only as a result of paddle induced forces, i.e., as long as I let it glide, the Puffin ran straight, but applying paddle power on the leeward side of the boat has greater effect than on the windward side, in effect giving the impression of weathercocking.

We reach the Puffin's hull speed is easily enough, but it was certainly somewhat slower than the wave speed the day we were out, so surfing was not a big feature. I felt no tendency of the hull to break out (not to mention to broach) when running before the wave or with the waves on either quarter.

Given the pretty impressive performance, I find the Puffin's light weight, simplicity of construction, ease of assembly and effectiveness of the whole (SMALL!) package to be very satisfying. Here's a boat that you can truly take on a business trip to be ready for that brief opportunity to splash about on almost any size piece of water ... unless you go international on Lufthansa and are not allowed more than one piece of cabin baggage.

Somewhat of a disclaimer: While I have no commercial involvement with Pakboats, I do know Alv Elvestad personally and on a mutually friendly basis. Therefore, if I had nothing good to say about the boat, I'd just say nothing at all. The paddle over a couple of hours on somewhat troubled Long Island Sound waters the other day was so joyful, however, that I can report the above with nothing but pure pleasure. At the same time Alv is very clear about the target market for this boat: Lightweight, very competitively priced recreational use. My impression: As close to perfect for that as I've seen in folding execution -- perhaps to some extent because of the folding execution!

Best regards,

Ralph