New Review on the Epic V12 Surfski

The Basics

The Ultra construction V12 that I have is awfully light. I don’t have an accurate scale, but the advertised 23 lbs seems about right. Boat construction is not my forte’ so I won’t comment much about that. In short, though, it seems light, stiff, well finished, typical of the Epics. The outer skin, according to Greg Barton, is a “combination of carbon (in the higher stress areas) and Kevlar on the outside, and Kevlar and lightweight fiberglass on the inside” with a core mat in between. Because I’m a “run the boat up onto the beach” and a “Rock? That’s merely a speed bump!” type of guy, my preference would be more in line with a solid hull that would be less susceptible to pressure point impacts, even if it would add a pound or two.

Footwell

The footwell size and shape seems standard and in line with the Fenn Elite and the Think Uno. The footplate is angled back a normal amount. It’s easy to adjust. The rudder cables are Spectra and continuous as a loop, so you can adjust the footwell length without the use of an allen wrench, which to me, is neither here nor there as it’s easy to do on the Fenns anyway. I don’t like that the V12‘s footplate creaks a bit when you really “stomp on the gas”, but any two-point anchored footplate will creak to a certain extent. I think only the Stellar and Red7 skis have the 3-point footplates, though I could be wrong about that.

Click here to read the full article