Well, I dropped her in the water today and it looks like she is going to be both fast and quick.  She reminded me of my younger days when I drove an Alfa Romeo Spider.

True enough, the only load in the canoe was me and that adds a little to the existing rocker (the canoe will flex under a load).  So, it was easy to turn this craft ... a bit too easy.  My normal switch and hit pace is around 3-4 strokes before I change sides.  I was having to change after 2 strokes with this little baby as I paddled down river.  On the return trip, I switched to kayak paddle and this will probably be the ticket for running long, straight distances over lakes.

The one-way distance I covered was just over 4.2 miles in just under an hour with a rest break in the middle ... not so much a rest as a water break (it was 103 here today).  Keep in mind that I was paddling my normal "distance" stroke and not digging in to make rapid progress.  In addition, the current was imperceptible, so I believe it was contributing nearly nothing to my forward progress.  In fact, when I quit paddling, I would drift UP stream slightly under the influence of the wind.  (If I were to guess, I traveled up stream faster than down with the yak paddle, but I took more water breaks on the return trip so judging speed was a bit difficult.)

It will be interesting to see how the canoe responds with a trip load, but I seriously doubt that I'll ever get close to the 650 pound load capacity.

dd