Thinking about what kayak to take with me on the club outing to the IJsselmeer (Durgerdam - Marken vv.) on 1 march didn't take long because I didn't paddle the Silhouette in quiet weather yet.
So no exciting stories today!
When starting in the morning the sea, or should I say lake, was oily-flat and mysterious. I felt completely at home in the kayak and when I discovered that I could shoot a nice picture of Durgerdam with kayaks in front I sprinted ahead of our group. Paddling the Silhouette fast was a nice experience; splicing the surface of the water.
But I think I wrote before she is not a slow kayak.
I also took a sprint at the end of the tour; the participants felt a bit apart and while paddling at the end I started paddling fast to meet the front-paddlers a km ahead already. Nice experience while the kayak didn't slow me down.
When the wind picked up a bit to approx. 2-3 Bft and in the waves produced than, as well coming from some ships, I felt very comfortable with the stability.
But the trick finding my hat in the day-compartment and closing the hatch again didn't feel simple and the kayak started to shake a bit uncontrolled. Don't think I can reproduce this act in heavier weather.
On the first part of this double trip the wind came from aside; a bit from the front. To my experience the Silhouette paddled neutral without any sign of weathercocking. Comparing other kayaks I noticed the were or making sweepstrokes or dropped the skeg a bit.
And on our way back when the wind picked up a bit, blowing from aside and a bit from backwards, she did weathercock started to weathercock a bit. Not very seriously because it was easy to correct for this. Yet it was necessary to edge during every stroke. When it had been possible to use the skeg, I would have dropped it a bit. But I must say that the other kayaks weathercocked much more because most of them dropped the skeg almost completely.
Paddling in such quiet weather results for me in less concentrated coursekeeping. When paddling a manoeuvrable kayak this will certainly not result in a straight course. But with the Silhouette a didn't suffer this disease as she kept course very accurately. On the other hand, when wanting to turn 180 degrees, I had to work for it.
Although I did roll the Silhouette before, it seemed a nice exercise to roll during the lunch break, now wearing kayak clothes. Several rolls conformed that she still was easy to roll.
About the comfort I am more and more frustrated by the impact that the backrest behind the seat has on my back. As not all backbones are the same I assume that not everybody will experience this burden, but in my case my lower back started again being tired an aching. Probably it is possible to improve on this by tailorfitting the cockpit completely. As this kayak is not my property, it's to complicated to apply these changes in the present setting. I am thinking about to resume my testresults and not taking the Silhouette for a longer trip anymore. I will finish with photo-sessions of "cold water-rolls" en speed-measuring with the GPS
Taking into account my comfort-experience I would advise anyone, who likes to buy this kayak, to paddle her for 1,5 hour and experience if the kayak feels comfortable.