CD Extreme

I had the opportunity to demo the CD Extreme on relatively flat water, so I was unable to really "stretch its legs", so to speak. The Extreme's cockpit fit my 6'-6" frame pretty well, but its footpegs were too short. Knee hooks and side-of-seat hip bracing was pretty nice for a factory setup. Of course, it could definitely benefit from custom hip pads fitted to the owner, to really tweak performance. The boat is easy to lean, and easy to edge, but leaned turns are not much faster than flat turns. With its generous amount of forward rocker, the Extreme allows relatively fast turns with sweep or rudder strokes. The rudder, when deployed, does not allow quick, reflexive changes in course to be made with paddle technique. However, when the rudder is stowed, the Extreme's hull shape provides an excellent balance between maneuverability and tracking. It was not difficult to paddle in a straight line, but with a few sweep strokes, the 18'-11" hull could actually be turned quickly.

The 21" wide beam felt quite stable and didn't really have a "tender" feeling. I would love to have this boat out on a stormy day to play in big waves.

With the amount of forward rocker the Extreme has, it doesn't really have a long waterline, so top speed wouldn't be what you would expect from a nearly 19' long boat, but it would allow a very comfortable and efficient cruising speed with a big gear load. The CD Expedition would be slightly faster, but you would pay by having to exert more energy at lower cruising speeds, and lose some agility.

Current Designs new cam hatch straps really keep the hatches dry, and after about 45 minutes of rolling the boat, there were only a few drops of water in the storage compartments. These cam straps tend to grab your PFD straps when doing rear-deck reentry maneuvers. The hatch sizes were large enough to accommodate easy stowing of medium-sized dry bags.

The rudder is definitely a detriment to this boat. Aside from adding windage and making rolling more difficult, the presence of the rudder with CD's sliding footpeg rails makes foot support "mushy". This boat could really benefit from a drop skeg that would help the user when countering beam or quartering winds, but could be raised fully and ignored when not needed. The installation of "gas-pedal" type rudder pedals like Prijon uses would eliminate the mushy feeling and make bracing and edging the boat more solid.

The Extreme is an excellent boat. While I wouldn't want it as a primarily day-tripping boat, it would be wonderful for overnight to multi-day with the potential for big seas. Current Designs has really "missed the boat", though, so to speak, by not offering a skeg option for this boat.