After my very positive experience with the VCP Avocet RM, a couple of people suggested that the VCP Skerray RMX might be better for somebody of my advanced weight. It’s a bigger boat, with higher displacement, but similar lines.
My first impression was that it was as hard to paddle in a straight line as the kayak I’d tried a few weeks ago and given up on. So I tried dropping the skeg, and found that then I couldn’t turn it at all. So I pulled up the skeg so it was only a tiny bit in the water, and got it PERFECT. It tracked nicely, but I could turn when I had to. And when I wanted to spin the boat around, just pull it up the whole way and away I go. That’s pretty nice.
The boat fit ok, but evidently the previous owner added some thigh pads that would need to be moved for me. I also braced my feet against the bulkhead rather than on the foot pegs most of the time – I’d need to move the foot peg rail down a tad. Also, the seat wasn’t as tight fit as the Avocet.
But I don’t know why, but to me the boat was good, but it wasn’t as majorly fun as the Avocet. I can’t put my finger on the difference. Possibly the looser seat and the badly positioned thigh braces means I’m not as much in control. I guess I need to try them side by side to see what’s the difference.
The guy running the place said that the Skerray has a different shaped rear section and more rocker, which explains why I had the steering differences. VCP is coming out with a new kayak this fall that’s exactly the same as the Avocet, only scaled up to the Skerray’s size.
So while I still have a few other kayaks to try, right now I’m tossing up whether to buy this used Skerray in what looks like very good condition for a very reasonable $800, or wait to see if I like this new boat which will probably cost about twice as much. Or maybe find something else – the only thing I don’t much like on these VCP boats is the seat, especially the back.
ITYM “the total lack of back support of any kind.”
HTH. HAND!
I dunno from seal-skin and whalebone canoes, but my experience is that any major purchase that comes with any significant drawback is a mistake.
Every time you use it you are aware of the problem and wish you really had the better thing that you couldn’t buy at the time. That disappointment never goes away. Any time you use something that’s really right, the sheer luxury of getting what you want, and not compromising, is a renewed pleasure. This is especially so if the reason you didn’t buy the right thing was a question of money; the difference in satisfaction quickly overwhelms the importance of however much money you saved, even for fairly large amounts of money. Paying for quality really works.
(That is, that rationalization works pretty well, in my case.)
HTH HAND!