For the most part, performance and stability don’t coexist in the kayak world. Either a kayak is fast or it is stable. so, when FeelFree’s president, Jim Hager, showed me pictures of the Lure prototype at last summer’s ICAsT tackle show, I was anxious to take it for a ride. The boat looked low and flat with a channeled hull that promised solid tracking. Each photo showed the new kayak in a different stage of development, testing and refining. “We went back to the drawing board on this one,” Hager told me.
As soon as the first models hit the street, I picked up a test boat at Appomattox River Company in Hampton, Virginia. At first inspection, I was impressed with the flat deck and low gunwales. looking below the waterline, I noted the channeled hull and hard chine. The most striking feature is the commando color scheme; the test boat was a mottled blue, black and grey that looked like it came off the set of The A-Team…
