another newbie post

Well, after so much question about what type of boat to get and so many
good suggestions, I recently bought a stitch and glue single. (CLC
Northbay for anyone who wants to know.) My daughter has decided she'd
rather have her own boat anyway, so now I'm looking at a couple of
options.

We were originally planning an SOT for her to see how well she likes the
whole thing, and then get her a S&G boat as well if she likes it, but
then we saw the LL Bean inflatable that seems really cool. Has anyone
had any experience with this or any other comparable inflatable? My
daughter is almost 8 and weighs about 55 lbs, so I'm looking for
something reasonably small for her to handle. I've looked at a couple
of the SOTs but everything is really wide and she has some trouble with
that because she's so small. Anyone know of good children's boat
designs that she might be able to grow into over the next few years.
I'm thinking something reasonably narrow but not too aggressive, say
20-23" and between 12 and 14 feet long. I'm going to take her out soon
and have her try the CLC Chesapeake 14, but in the meantime, I'd like as
much input from experienced paddlers as I can get. Any other kits or
kit companies I should look at?


I'm at this point just considering buying the S&G because we went out
yesterday in a rented Olde Town tandem and she loved it. She rested a
lot over the 2 hours we were out, but she really loved the whole
experience and we worked on paddling technique and just letting her get
into the idea of paddling. When she didn't rest, she wanted to paddle
by herself and actually did a decent job. Her biggest problem was the
length and weight of the rental paddle (big aluminum and plastic job)
and the width of the boat. She kept banging against the side because it
was so wide. Other than that, much fun was had and the day was beautiful.

Thanks for any and all comments past, present and future,

bkr

 >bkr bkr1_2k RemoveThis @yahoo.com

Typed in >Message-ID: <s8Eib.9$K6.101@bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com>

 >We were originally planning an SOT for her to see how well she likes the
 >whole thing, and then get her a S&G boat as well if she likes it, but
 >then we saw the LL Bean inflatable that seems really cool. Has anyone
 >had any experience with this or any other comparable inflatable? My

 >daughter is almost 8 and weighs about 55 lbs, so I'm looking for
 >something reasonably small for her to handle. I've looked at a couple
 >of the SOTs but everything is really wide and she has some trouble with
 >that because she's so small. Anyone know of good children's

 >boat

LL Bean offers two boats in their catalog,
the Sterns and the Innova Double. My opinion of the Sterns is to save your
money and buy a better boat. They don't blow up very tight and don't self bail
very quickly, all of which make for crappy performance. I would suggest looking
at one of the solo Aires or Innova boats to get a decent boat that will last a
long time.

Check out The Boat People at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.theboatpeople.com" target="_blank">www.theboatpeople.com</a> and read their
FAQ page. A lot of information of IK's
and their construction. This is a commercial site, but they are pretty on the
mark with most of their comments. They have the best selection of IK's
available in the US that I can find.

I'm not afflilliated with this company, but they do have a nice website.

SYOTR
Larry C.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->