A Review of My Current Designs Composite Squamish

Last year I purchased a used and very light 2005 Current Designs (CD) Squamish. Most Squamish kayaks are rotomolded, but this kayak is a very rare and much lighter composite. The seller thought it was carbon fiber, while CD says it is aramid/fiberglass. If aramid, the hull interior doesn’t look like any Kevlar hull I’ve seen. Whatever. The specifications are

• length 15’ 8” width 23” depth 12.5”

• weight 38.5 pounds!

• coaming 29” by 16”

• bow and stern hatches, no day hatch

• fish form, soft chine, shallow V

• mango deck, white hull

• paddler size small to medium

A review typically depends on the reviewer’s size, experience, etc. I am 140 pounds (naked, which you don’t want to see), 5’ 5” in height, and over 80 years old. I would probably be considered an intermediate paddler, having kayaked for 16 years and having been a BWCA canoe lad in my teens and early twenties. I paddle about 40 day trips per year, mostly on my home lake (110 miles around the periphery) and in the waters off Vancouver Island on usually two trips per season. I rarely do extended kayak camping trips. I enjoy purchasing used kayaks and restoring them to full function. So I have experienced paddling many different kayaks.

Of my 3 composite kayaks, the Squamish is the shortest, fattest, and slowest; but not by much. However, it is by far the lightest, extremely important for this small old guy. A few other reviewers have indicated that the rotomolded Squamish weather cocks readily. Maybe the composite hull is different, but the weather cocking seems non existent. However, I avoid high winds these days and have only been out in winds up to about 8 knots. It tracks well and is maneuverable.

The rear hatch, despite the skeg box, easily holds my C-Tug cart. I can readily get the kayak onto and off of my Thule Hullavator. I have made these minor modifications to the Squamish:

• a keel strip via Keel Eazy

• a paddle holder via two open cleats (in the Broze Brothers style)

• a stainless steel pad eye on the bow deck

• under fore deck storage for the manual bilge pump

• a cord hanging down from the skeg blade to have a companion free the blade if stuck when far from shore

Pre-modification photo:

 

A practice rescue session resulted in significant water in both hatches. It was enough water that it could not just be coming in the hatch covers. Clearly water was leaking from the cockpit into the hatches via the bulkheads. Sealing the bulkhead perimeters with Lexel seemed to fix the problem.

Because of a long-ago downhill ski injury, I have destroyed a disc in my lower back. I need significant support in the right place from the kayak seat back. I must nearly always modify the seat back for any kayak I purchase. Remarkably, the seat back of this Squamish is perfect for me in its unaltered state!

I have two other very nice fiberglass kayaks, a CD Slipstream and a Valley 17.3 Etain. Both are faster than the Squamish and both weathercock somewhat. However, because of its light weight and refusal to weathercock, the Squamish will be the keeper among those three (as old age begins to shut down my kayaking career).