She performs really well. Really stable and great primary stability which is what I was really looking for over the Jem Sabalo I built. We now have the Woodbie, the Sabalo, an old Hobie Oasis Tandem, an inflatable Advanced Elements Tandem and inflatable SUP.
I’d say the Sabalo is the fastest overall with the highest top end speed. The advanced elements is probably a little easier to get up to top speed than the Hobie Oasis, however the Hobie with the mirage drive is really easy to keep up there.
The Woodbie doesn’t so far have the top speed of those 3 kayaks, however what it really is good at is being able to run around 3-4km/hr in all conditions, headwind, tail wind, chop. The Hobie Oasis was very slow into a head wind and chop, it handled really poorly in these conditions. The Woodbie glides through the water with very little wake. The rudder is currently creating most the wake, but its also a very dry and quiet ride. I’m not sure you can appreciate it unless you have a Mirage drive as there’s no sound from paddling and I noticed that this kayak really is quiet as it glides through the water.
