Carolina

Perception Carolina

My second kayak. It was fairly inexpensive, $700 in a Dayton Ohio kayak store.

14 1/2 feet long, rotomolded, 54 pounds.

The Carolina comes standard with nice footpegs and a very comfortable plastic seat. It has Minicel® bulkheads and two water tight hatches. It is breeze to reenter and roll, as the thigh braces are very effective in promoting a good hip snap.

This is the boat I learned how to roll first. It is reasonably stable, and has never come close to intentionally dumping me, but it is not so stable that one can not roll it. I have not been able to do a balance brace in the boat.

It has enough cargo space to carry lots of camping gear - not for a month, but a week would be easy.

It is terribly heavy for portaging across long distances. A kayak carrier would be very useful for moving this boat more than a couple hundred yards. It is not so heavy as to be hard to cartop.

It's a nice fishing boat, with a very long cockpit for easy entries. It makes a nice boat for class I whitewater, though it has no protection from entrapping the kayaker if it gets wrapped around a boulder.

Summary:

Great, if heavy, boat. Very nice introduction to kayaking. Great rental boat. It takes a lot of knocks and still looks good.