Infinity 17’9” by Current Designs
After paddling down the Hudson a second time, I got fed up
with trying to cram 6 days’ worth of gear into my Romany. I did some research and the kayak with the
most storage volume that I could still fit in was the Infinity by Current
Designs, so I bought one.
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| My Infinity Kayak |
The CD website
promised that this kayak would be fast and would hold all of my gear, and they
were spot on. This kayak is a rocket. Even though it is made for bigger paddlers
and lots of gear, I still felt very comfortable in the cockpit. It moves effortlessly through the water and
just cruises with amazing speed. You
could easily fit 1-2 week’s gear in the hatches. It is fiberglass with fiberglass bulkheads so
no worry about the bulkheads leaking. At
52 lbs. it is fairly light for its size.
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| The Day Hatch is easily accessible on the water |
The initial stability is moderate (this is not a boat for beginners),
and the secondary stability is excellent, but only when you get it down into
the water. The problem I had with it is
that I only weigh 150 lbs. so it sat very high on the water, which
significantly reduced the stability of the boat. With a paddler of 180 lbs. or more this would
be a sweet boat. I had trouble edging it
for turns because I was just too high out of the water. It doesn’t have much rocker so you need to be
able to edge it for turns.
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| Paddling the Infinity kayak around Manhattan |
I paddled it
30+ miles around Manhattan and it performed very well in the confused seas of
NY Harbor. We got slammed with waves
from every direction and the Infinity just shrugged them off. (I put lots of gear in the boat to lower the
water line a bit). Despite the many
cross-currents, wind and waves, I hardly used the skeg at all on that
trip. The Infinity tracks very well
without it. I used the skeg a few times
just to see how it worked and with the skeg deployed the Infinity tracked like
it was on rails.
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| Infinity Kayak |
What impresses me most
about this kayak is the speed and the ease with which is just chews up the
miles. I know if I had paddled my Romany
around Manhattan, I would have been exhausted.
But with the Infinity, after 30 miles, I was ready for more. In the end, I decided to sell it because it
was just a little bit too big for me. I
replaced it with a Cetus from P&H.
The Cetus sits lower in the water, but I believe the Infinity is still
faster.
Specs:
Length :
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17'9" (541.02 cm)
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Form :
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Fish
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Width :
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22" (55.88 cm)
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Depth :
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13.5" (34.29 cm)
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Chine :
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Soft
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Hull :
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Shallow Arch
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Cockpit size:
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31.75" x 16.5"
(80.645 cm x 41.91 cm)
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Cockpit type:
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Keyhole
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Forward Hatch:
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9.5" x 9.5" (24.13
cm x 24.13 cm)
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Day Hatch:
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8" x 8" (20.32 cm
x 20.32 cm)
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Rear Hatch:
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16.5" x 11" (41.91
cm x 27.94 cm)
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Front Hatch Volume:
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20 gal. (76 L)
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Day Hatch Volume:
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13 gal. (49.4 L)
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Rear Hatch Volume:
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22 gal. (83.6 L)
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Max. load*:
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400 lb. (180 kg)
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Rudder/Skeg:
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Skeg
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