Made it out Sunday morning with a buddy. We hit Newport due to the familiarity and the proximity of the launch (a little under an hour from home). First paddle review/observations (wall of text sorry guys)
The kayak is very light. Obviously given the actual weight its light, but it feels light, carries easily, and is over all a breeze to handle from the truck to the waters edge. I carried it down to the sand about 20 feet, set it gently down, loaded it up and dragged it using the "drag handle" thats the one that is clocked at about 45 degrees, and located halfway up the bow on the port side. Ergonomically this handle is positioned well. I was able to drag the kayak with my right hand about 50-60 feet across the sand full loaded (rods+reels, water bottle, tackle boxes, etc.) with no problems at all. The angle of the handle and positioning also allows the kayak to lay over at such a degree that the fixed rudder does not hang in the sand enough to add any notable resistance to the pull.
However, the rudder being fixed does make entering the kayak in shallow water a little more difficult and it can stick into the sand like a stake in water less than probably 8 or 10 inches. I pulled the ski out into knee deep water and swung a leg over to straddle the kayak and sit down. The angle and depth of the seat coupled with the ergonomic contour of the deck between the gunwale and the center hatch make for a very solid and stable position for paddling, although I scraped my leg on something on the outside face of the gunwale and slice it from knee to ankle when I pulled my leg up and into the kayak to sit down after straddling it. I dont know hat it was but I hve to find it because it was a pretty nasty slice.
As for the on the water feel, the kayak is absurdly stable due to the center of gravity. There is no space between the seat and the hull of the kayak, so the paddler is sitting with butt/hips below the water line. While this lends itself to a strong paddling position as mentioned above (think surf ski), and tons of stability, it does cause an issue if you take water over the side or get into the kayak wet because it does not drain. Before we left the harbor I practiced self rescue/re entry, getting back into the kayak wet left me sitting in water for the rest of the day. All of my previous kayaks had scuppers in the seat and were not so low that water wouldn't drain. Not the case with this one. It wasn't a big deal on Sunday because it was hot outside, but in the coming fall-spring months I am going to have to wear my paddling pants or wetsuit bottoms so I don't freeze sitting in a puddle.
The paddling and ride of the kayak was nice. The kayak is fairly narrow and I use a pretty short wing paddle (rpc3 full carbon fiber mid wing for anyone wondering), I had to shrink it from 218.5cm to 217cm because it was a little long, I still need to figure out where I like the length for my new seating position and kayak width tho. The kayak itself is capable of pretty fast speeds I was able to get it up to 6.4mph on the way out of the harbor, while I was trying to adjust the paddle to the proper length and testing it with sprints. I thin I can propel it faster once I adjust the rudder pedals so I can brace on them, and get used to the width of the kayak and where my stroke needs to be along side it. Open water was slower, but still relatively fast at about 3.5mph trolling a 140mm nomad rated to dive about 28 feet. These things create a ton of drag. Once I pulled it up to avoid the boats in the area I saw my speed bump up to about 4.5mph in open water without having to work too hard (but still more than a "cruise" I would compare it to "power walking or jogging pace", i.e. more effort than if I was just relaxing, but not a full out sprint, and it was pretty lumpy out there after about 10.
Overall I would say that based on the limited time I have in the seat thus far this is kayak is probably the most stable I have been in, easily the lightest and easiest to handle (although I am terrified I will have a mishap and drop the kayak and break something since its fiberglass rather than plastic). It is also the fastest.
Its not as feature rich as most of the kayaks on the market here. There are no gear tracks or H-rails or anywhere to even mount them, the entire deck is thin fiberglass and there are no trays or recesses built in, and the rod holders are narrow and many of the butt caps on y heavier conventional gear do not fit in the tubes, BUT it does have a (small) gravity fed bait-well built in to the deck in front of the paddler which I find to be optimal after having the bait tank behind me for the past couple of years. The hatch lid is rigid and stout enough to mount my fish finer to with no issues. It also has the large fish hatch/rod storage/paddle storage in front of the paddler, albeit a bit too short on this model for "long" rods (7'8" max), while the trident series kayaks I had would all accept 8' rods without an issue and seal up tight for surf launches, but those weighed significantly more and were made of plastic rather than fiberglass so they didnt perform as well on the water.
On my Hobie I couldn't put any rods inside while maintaining the ability to retrieve them by normal method (I tried a few times to no avail), but it had tons of pockets and trays and buckets in the hatches so that was cool and made organization pretty easy especially for fishing stuff like the harbor where one may want to fish with many different techniques on the same say.
All in all its a pretty rad fishing platform for trolling and bottom fishing, probably not ideal for bass fishing docks or any small bodies of water or rivers.
Thanks for reading!
BONUS: I got stopped 3 or 4 times by other people on the water to ask questions about the kayak and compliment me on it. That was pretty cool.