Think Evo II

I got my hands on a South African built Think Evo II this weekend.

Took it out in flat conditions in Hout Bay and then raced it in hectic weather yesterday.

In brief:

First looks

First impressions were - heavy boat... I'm guessing 17-18kg and I'm also guessing that it was built heavy specifically a) for the Durban conditions and b) because it's a demo boat. I'll confirm what the normal production weight is for these skis - but I know they're a LOT lighter built overseas.

[Later: I spoke to Ken Holden at Kayak Centre and he confirmed that this boat was the first out of the mould and was built tough to withstand demo-type handling (why do people treat demo boats so badly?). Normal production glass boats will weigh in at around 15-16kg.)]

The cockpit seating position is great - I'm not sure whether the seat really is high or whether the foot position is really low, but it feels as though the seat is high, heels low and you're sitting in a much more upright position than, say, the Fenn Elite or Fenn Swordfish.

We did a few sprints on the flat water and I didn't get the boat up to a very high speed (got up to just over 12kph sustained without too much effort, but couldn't make it much past 13kph). I suspect this might have something to do with lack of fitness and the fact that I definitely overdid the upper-body session at gym on Friday...

Wake Chasing

In Hout Bay we went wake-chasing on the back of the 88tonne Nauticat tourist boat. It's a great test because the steep wake exposes skis that have a tendency to broach. The Evo II apparently does not have much of a tendency to broach - and I was able to ride the second wave all the way to Duiker Island (aka Seal Island) without having to manoeuvre drastically to stay on the wave. On the way back I found it more difficult, there was a bit of a swell running and the wake kept disappearing and re-forming and I mistimed one of the waves and fell off it. I had no problem getting onto the third wave and rode that all the way back into the harbour.

So far so good - the boat seems to have extraordinary secondary stability and I felt pretty much as comfortable (from a stability point of view) as I do in the Swordfish.

Racing

Race day yesterday at Fish Hoek saw a honking 30kt southeaster pumping onshore. The course took us about 1km into the wind, 2km along the shore, parallel to wind and waves, and then another 4km out to the Roman Rock lighthouse directly into the wind and waves... And then a fantastic 5km downwind run back to Fish Hoek.

It took me a while (until the turning buoy really) to warm up. My arms were aching from Friday's gym - and paddling in cross-chop is my weakest link anyway.

But once we started upwind, the stability of the boat really started counting and I was able to sit there and grind it out, steadily overtaking other skis... There was a rhythm to the conditions - the sea would go intensely choppy, forcing one to take shorter strokes, then a set of big, breaking swell would come through, over which one would get air, and sometimes have to take a brace. If you braced, you'd be stopped dead in the water by the wind and have to grind back up to speed again. After the set came through there would often be a period of relative calm and if you were concentrating, you could speed up your cadence and get a half length or so on the guys around you before the maelstrom hit again.

To give you an idea, I chatted to elite-grade paddler Barry Lewin after the race and he said that at times, when he was with the front bunch, he'd put in an interval and get his speed up to 8kph! (He hit his rudder on a rock at the lighthouse and struggled home after swimming a number of times to try to straighten it, in 20th place.)

At the lighthouse (knowing the area very well - or so I thought) I cut in on the inside of two paddlers with whom I'd diced all the way upwind. I was just planning where to turn downwind when I abruptly found myself in the water... Just downwind wind from me was the lighthouse, and rocks and breakers! I had to roll on my back and swim the ski past the rocks before I could remount which took me a couple of minutes.

I found the remount in those hectic conditions easy - the gunwales at the seat are quite low (they're higher at the catch) and I did my normal bum first remount, a couple of strokes to get some speed up and turned downwind.

I found the ski a total joy in the big downwind conditions... I could throw it around, to line up sequences, and I was able to pull it over the next wave on a couple of occasions... I went once too far and wallowed off, swamping the cockpit, but that was the only time - and it drained rapidly through the single bullet scupper.

I overtook a bunch of people going downwind, including the two who'd dropped me at the lighthouse.

GPS Track

So, sure, it's a sample of two paddles, but so far the only question mark that I have is perhaps the high end speed of the ski on flat water. But the stability, manoeuvrability and comfort of the boat all get top marks from me.

I'm going to be paddling one in Hong Kong in two weeks time - so I'll see if I can perform a little better than I did last time in those technical downwind conditions. Last time I was on a V10 Ultra, which I found it too much to handle specifically during the first 5km of diagonal waves and wind. (Once on the longer downwind I was fine, and on the flat coming back to the finish also ok, but on the tricky diagonal chop, I found it difficult to control...)

I'm hoping for another cracking downwind tomorrow in the Evo II. Impressed.

Great to hear you enjoyed the ski, Rob. The production weights for the Evo II here are 12 and 15kgs, which I'm sure you will enjoy in comparison to the 18kg one.

Looking forward to reading and hearing more feed back.

Cheers.

Yeah, I'm hoping to borrow a kevlar Evo II in HK...

One other detail on the boat I paddled here - it had the conventional Kayak Center rudder, which has a parallelogram ie rectangular shape. I'll be interested to see what difference a different rudder makes.

Think have the best range of rudders on the market.

Ask for one of each and spend an hour on the beach prior to the race trying to figure out which one to use.

Just did a cracking, hectic Millers Run in the boat. 30kt, big swells (really big for Cape Town - I'm guessing 2-3m) plus all kinds of sideways/diagonal waves - very messy. To give you an idea Dawid Mocke swam after being hit by a side on growler.
Some more observations:

The first 800m of the run are diagonally into the wind and waves to get to the rock where the Millers Run actually starts. I used to crap myself in my Fenn Elite getting out there. One nice aspect of the Evo II is that it doesn't have a slab sided nose - so it doesn't get thrown sideways when you get air over a wave.

I broached precisely once - and it was in circumstances where a side wave had knocked me unbalanced and I didn't pick up enough speed to prevent the spin out as the next wave came through.

And the boat just feels stable to me - I'm really comfortable in it, even in the mess. Can't wait to try a lighter one!

Rob, who do I organise a demo through?

Ric wrote: Rob, who do I organise a demo through?

Sean Rice... Get hold of him on FB or send him a txt.

Another observation from last night's big Millers...

I flooded the cockpit a couple of times (the first time tearing down the face of big swell slap into a smaller wave half way down.). The cockpit has relatively low volume I think - whatever, the full cockpit didn't noticeably affect handling (which it does on some skis) and drained rapidly.

I have an Evo II in the Kevlar layup and love paddling it. I'm very average and it's very forgiving, just seems to love the runs. Wish I could handle a Uno, they're that much slipperier.