I got my first kayak way back in 2010. At the time I was living with my buddy Kane. We only lived together for a couple years, like 2009-2011. He bought a kayak, a yellow Necky Chatham 17. Necky the company doesn't exist anymore. Old Town bought them at some point. Kane's dad also has a house in Chatham, Mass. which is kind of funny.
So he bought this boat. I demoed a Chatham 17 at Charles River Canoe and Kayak. Then I bought the boat. Not 100% sure I bought the exact hull that I demoed, but it was a 2009 model. I still have the boat and paddled it as recently as August 2024. It's been a heck of a run with it. It's blue. I've used 303 Protectant on it religiously, so the hull is still nice and shiny. All of the hatches on it have been replaced, and the foot pegs and seat have needed some minor repairs, but it's held up.
I paddled the boat all around. It was such a trip to be facing forwards after a lifetime of rowing facing backwards. I would even do stuff like drive up from Boston to Southern NH or Southern Maine just to paddle some river. The boat is fast and lightweight. It was relatively easy for me to pick it up and put it on my car. I drove a Subaru and used J bars for transport. I had a nice Werner Shuna fiberglass paddle. I wore a comfortable NRS Chinook PFD because it had two big pockets in the front.
The boat's very low to the water, which I'm actually not crazy about, but it means that it doesn't have a lot of wind resistance, which is important. Kane and I paddled our boats all over. I don't have the energy right now to do a full deep dive into everything I did with it, but I just wanted to briefly chronicle my boat history. Here's what the boat looks like, or, looked like.
