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Robson Homes
Yes indeed, the Robson Homes is a very cool boat.
The first thing I noticed when I paddled the boat was that it is light
(I paddled the boat at a Slalom Course where a local german dealer has
a demo day once a year). The boat I normally paddle is the Spanish Fly, so
that is my reference. The Spanish Fly is quite a bit shorter and made from PE.
Still it is way heavier than the Homes. Very impressive.
So this was a demo day and I therefore could not do a full test of the boat.
It had a standard outfitting Robson ships it with (it seemed to be one of the
prototypes). The bulkhead was a little bit to tight for my thighs and I was
not able to put my bum on the seat properly. Also, my feet did not really
touch the foot rests. But hey, I had to give it a whirl anyways.
My first impression on the water was: The boat has good acceleration and holds
its speed well once you get it going. It tracks better than the Fly which
tracks like an oil drum. Well, this was expected.
The boat seems to be stable on edge and turns well. I am about 240 lbs and the
boat seemed to handle this well.
On the short paddle at the Slalom course the boat seemed to ride up on waves
nicely and dry. It really snapped into eddies compared to my Spanish Fly that
sits quite low in the water wta my weight.
The boat surfs really nice, even on the smaller waves. Even though the boat
did not appear to have massive rocker, the bow came up nicely and stayed dry.
The fitting looks pretty solid and the bulkhead leaves lots of options for
changes. I liked the foot rests better than the ones I have in the Fly. They
are smoother which I think my feet will thank me for.
It has standard airbags with tubes rather than the Pyranha style bags.
The hull was pretty scratched up which is why I thought it must have been a
prototype that has a fair bit of use already. But there was no substantial or
deep scratches. The material seemed to be very tough. Noone could tell me
anything about how the material ages with UV over time. Also, I could not find
out about how you can glue to Armerlite.
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© copyright 2005 Kai Strieder
