Eddyline Nighthawk

I demo'ed the Eddyline Night Hawk in Carbonlite 2000--it is a great boat! At only 16' long, it was faster than I'd expected. It has a nice hull shape that feels great in the water. It is easily rolled at 22" wide with a smooth hull shape, and easily cartopped at 48 lbs.

The cockpit has rather spartan outfitting, and would benefit greatly with the investment of $20 in minicel and a couple hours of carving, especially for rolling and edged turns. Knee hooks were adequate, but hip pads, as with most new boats, should be installed and customized for the owner. The seat was fairly comfortable, but the solid plastic back rest wasn't. I spent 3 continuous hours in the boat, and my lower back was sore where it contacted the back rest. I was comfortable everywhere else. I would definitely install a back band in this kayak. It had plenty of legroom for my 38" inseam legs, but out that far, it was just a little bit short on footroom for my size 14's. Anyone smaller would fit nicely.

While there isn't a great deal of weathercocking with its low deck profile, what little bit there is was easily counteracted with the drop skeg. The boat feels a little bit "loose" with the skeg all the way up and paddling a course, but maneuverability near shore or while playing in waves is wonderful. For extended crossings, even without wind, the paddler will probably wish to drop the skeg a little bit to stiffen up tracking.

The Night Hawk has a fairly full hull profile for an effectively long waterline length. It was nearly effortless to maintain a 3-knot pace, and keeping up with paddlers in longer boats would be easy. This hull profile, while allowing for a higher top-end speed, pounded a bit when dropping over short wavelength 2' boat wakes, but its relatively high-volume bow didn't plunge either, and was a remarkably dry ride.

The 22" beam made the boat easy to lean and perform edged turns. When leaned way over on its edge, the boat did a complete 180 with only two small sweep strokes. Its rubber hatch covers kept the compartments completely dry during rolling practice.

Carbonlite is reported to be pretty tough, but I was reluctant to test that property on a demo boat. Two-part acrylic adhesive is the cement recommended for doing repairs--much easier than repairing a polyethylene boat-and it's available even at WalMart! Polycarbonate is certainly light and stiff, and the resulting kayak is slightly heavier than fiberglass, yet not as costly. A little higher cost than polyethylene, but much lighter and stiffer.

The Night Hawk is an excellent design. It would be a great first, primary, or only boat for a paddler who did mostly day trips. It has enough storage for overnights, but would be a bit cramped for multi-day use. It would be a great "loaner" boat. Experienced friends would find it a lot of fun, while complete novices wouldn't feel too out-of-place.