I am looking to buy my first Kayak and I am looking at the Old Town
Castine and the Nantucket. I am 6' 195lbs, and I am looking to use
this kayak for overnight trips down rivers and larger creeks. I may do
some larger lakes in the future. I am also looking for a kayak that
will last me several years since I have to plans to upgrade for
several years.

How do these two compare in terms of stability, tracking, storage
space, and any other form of performance? Price does not matter since
I should be able to get either for less than $600. I would also
appreciate it if anyone has anything else that could help me make a
decision.

On 6 Jul 2004 10:56:10 -0700, (PHILVID2) wrote:

I am looking to buy my first Kayak and I am looking at the Old Town
Castine and the Nantucket. I am 6' 195lbs, and I am looking to use
this kayak for overnight trips down rivers and larger creeks. I may do
some larger lakes in the future. I am also looking for a kayak that
will last me several years since I have to plans to upgrade for
several years.

How do these two compare in terms of stability, tracking, storage
space, and any other form of performance? Price does not matter since
I should be able to get either for less than $600. I would also
appreciate it if anyone has anything else that could help me make a
decision.

Have you checked with Old Town to see if their rep is doing a demo day
in your area? There are more of these than most people realize.

Nothing beats putting your butt in the boat and the boat in the water,
to get the feel of a boat.

Big enough purchase that a road trip to a demo day would make sense.

See: http://www.otccanoe.com/dealer.php to find dealers.

Also see their kayak buying guide:
http://www.otccanoe.com/kayaks_buying.php

Both of those look to be in their "day touring" category. There may
not be enough cargo space for overnights, depending on how much gear
you have. Since this seems to be important usage for you, make certain
that your typical load of camping gear will fit in the boat.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

On 6 Jul 2004 10:56:10 -0700, (PHILVID2) posted:

I am looking to buy my first Kayak and I am looking at the Old Town
Castine and the Nantucket. I am 6' 195lbs, and I am looking to use
this kayak for overnight trips down rivers and larger creeks. I may do
some larger lakes in the future. I am also looking for a kayak that
will last me several years since I have to plans to upgrade for
several years.

How do these two compare in terms of stability, tracking, storage
space, and any other form of performance? Price does not matter since
I should be able to get either for less than $600. I would also
appreciate it if anyone has anything else that could help me make a
decision.

I'd definitely go with the Nantucket, even though I've never paddled
one. Especially if there's not much price difference.

I bought the Castine as my first kayak, and it was a fine boat, but
I quickly wanted something longer and sleeker, meaning faster. The
Nantucket isn't much narrower than the Castine but it is almost two
feet longer. The Castine was quite stable, and the Nantucket should
be, too. As wide as the Castine is, it's no slouch in moving along,
if you work at it. The one I had tracked very well. Of course, the
Nantucket is quite a bit heavier, though maybe you can spring for
the fiberglass version, which knocks the weight down significantly.
There should be quite a bit more storage on the Nantucket, too.

The Old Towns are well constructed boats, and are geared toward
activities like fishing and bumping around shallower, gentler
streams, though they can be paddled some distance in a day, too.

I took the Castine through some small surf once, and ended up going
sideways, so they're not the ideal boats for that kind of play.

Mike

(PHILVID2) wrote in message . com...
I am looking to buy my first Kayak and I am looking at the Old Town
Castine and the Nantucket. I am 6' 195lbs, and I am looking to use
this kayak for overnight trips down rivers and larger creeks. I may do
some larger lakes in the future. I am also looking for a kayak that
will last me several years since I have to plans to upgrade for
several years.

How do these two compare in terms of stability, tracking, storage
space, and any other form of performance? Price does not matter since
I should be able to get either for less than $600. I would also
appreciate it if anyone has anything else that could help me make a
decision.

We have two Castines and when we tried them out we also tried the
Nantucket. The Nantucket is a larger version of the Castine. The
Nantucket is definitely heavier than the Castine, longer, which was a
problem since we were going to store ours inside and the Nantucket was
too long. As it turns out the Castine won't fit in our house after
all, so they live outside. The Nantucket wasn't as nimble as the
Castine. We've used ours for fla****er on a couple of lakes, and some
small rivers with up to class 2 rapids with no problems. We're
planning our first overnight in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, between
the two of them, there will maybe enough room for a small tent, a
couple of sleeping pads and a bit of food, but probably not much more
than that. The Nantucket probably has more storage room.
I agreed that it would be best to try both out to see which one you
like.