1st (and only) impressions Steath Superlite Noosa based kayak fishing guru and Fishing Noosa editor, Bill 'Billybob' Watson, was kind enough to offer me the opportunity to try out his sample Stealth Superlite kayak for an outing into Laguna Bay today. I thought it worth sharing my impressions on the experience, as there's a bit of interest in these yaks in the Aus kayak fishing community at the moment. Stealth kayaks (or Skis, as they are commonly referred to) are made and popularized in South Africa, where surf conditions are typically a lot more menacing than what we find on most of the Aussie coastline. It's those conditions that they are purposely built for.
The conditions in Laguna Bay were a farcry from that today and generally always are. Regardless, I was pretty keen to get on and give it a whirl. Launching at around 5:30 AM into less than daunting waves, the Stealth sliced right through nicely and it was easy to get the impression that it could handle much higher breakers if need be. From there we paddled out to the tip of the heads to take a look at Sunshine beach, athough Billybob concluded we were better off sticking to Laguna Bay and I wasn't going to argue. With a shoulder still in a slow state of repair I really didn't want to push it too hard. The water was reasonably choppy at outer Noosa heads and here I noticed a whole lot of hull slap, with bow lifting high on waves and crashing fairly hard. It performed much better in protected waters, paddling pretty well for the most part.
Instead of exploring Sunshine beach we paddled north onto Jew Shoal, which exposed us to winds that were blowing from the south east at about 15 knots (at a guess) and here I discovered another red flag - it's performance in the wind. For the first time in a long time (since I last paddled an inflatable yak infact) I actually started to get concerned about the effect wind was having on the kayak. I wouldn't have been as concerned if not for my dodgy shoulder, but in this instance I was soon convinced that heading back to the protective shielding of the heads was a wise move. I wasn't expecting it to be so effected by the wind and I'm not quite sure why it was so adversly, but I suspect that 2 factors were playing a part. Firstly, it sits fairly high in the water. Secondly, it's really quite light for it's size. I'm not a heavy guy either, so that probably didn't help. An added 15kg Mackeral or 2 wouldn't have gone astray. Even with the relative protection of the heads I still noticed the wind having an effect - especially when I was casting and retreiving lures. The wind would just swing the kayak around, which made it difficult to get a consistent position from which to retrieve in. I'm use to having lots of control when kayak fishing, so this started to bother me quite a bit.
 Paddling the stealth in Laguna Bay I also found the footwells to be litte water traps, with my feet submerged in water the entire time. It didn't bother me because the water was reasonably warm, but I sure wouldn't wish that upon anyone down south (especially at the moment). I did find later, however, that it wasn't so difficult to scoop it out with my hands.
Admittedly, I didn't feel so at home with the design of the deck, although I figure that's largely because I'm just so use to having more room up top to move around and store gear in. The center hatch was both good and bad. It's highly accessable, poking out from between your legs, although it sticks up fairly high and can be a bit of a hinderance if you're use to having more room. The upside, of course, is that it's easy to store things inside the hatch without having to move. There's plenty of internal space, but the opening isn't anywhere near as large as what I'm use to. The center hatch doesn't seal terribly well (although it might have been better if I was more vigilant with securing the straps that hold it in place). The rear hatch seals very well indeed and although it's opening isn't huge, this is where you'd want to store anything that absolutely, postively has to stay dry.
It's pretty easy to steer, with the rudder being pretty effective for it's size. I did have a negative experience with this also, however, managing to get some braid caught up in it. I was completely unable to remove it on the water to and even trying to was rather precarious (this happened in the chop). The same thing has happened to me on Hobie kayaks as well, although I've never been unable to remove tangled line before.
As with the launch, paddling back in through the surf was a breeze, although todays waves wouldn't have proven much challenge for many kayaks. It did ride the waves nicely though and it made me wish they were higher, just to see how far I could push it. Storing the rods for rentry was really very simple, sliding the rod tips under the webbing loop up front and strapping them down with the center hatch straps. I was also pretty fond of the rod holders, which although fairly shallow, with a rubber lining they did a good job of holding the rods securely.
So all in all, my personal experience was both good and bad. It was refreshing to try something different for a change, but if you asked me if I'd be prepared to replace my Hobie with it, the answer would be a resounding no way known. Infact, I can't think of many plastic kayaks that I wouldn't prefer to own than a Stealth. That's not to say it doesn't have it's place, however. At the end of the day, if your primary concern was surf launch and landings, this would be a good kayak to own. But as a general purpose fishing kayak, I really don't see any real advantages over a good roto-moulded polyethylene kayak. Billybob and I both agreed that it would make a fine 'second' kayak, but I don't think either of us would give up our plastic-fantastics for one of these. I'm not convinced that the Stealth is a better fishing platform than any of the Hobie's I've tried, or any of the other major brands of placcy-yaks I've looked at.
It's all horses for courses though. Everyone is different and we all have different tastes. And many of us fish in completely different conditions than others. As far as my own experiences and impression go, my thoughts are that whilst a Stealth kayak may well be highly suited to the conditions in South Africa, I just don't think that most Aussies would see much or any benefit by owning one of these instead of any number of other polyethylene yaks. if you're considering buying one of these, I highly recommend that you give it a test run first. If that can't be arranged I'd be very tentative indeed.
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