Can anyone give me a comparison of the Little River Cambridge and the Alden Star. I am in the market for a boat of this type, and would appreciate any evaluations, both their good points and bad points.

-- Stephen Sepe (ssepe@optonline.net), December 02, 2004

Answers

I've not rowed the Alden (though I have rowed their canoe-with-clips, a real barge!), but I have owned and rowed the Cambridge on Lake Lanier, the highest visitation Corps of Engineers lake in the country (read: can be rough).

I now row an Olympus, but only when it's flat, and it's for sale because we're leaving the country in a different boat (see sig). But, I digress.

The Cambridge is one cool boat. It flares, so as to make a much longer waterline, as well as to be much beamier, in waves. Thus, it's very stable. The coaming will keep you dry in all but the most amazing weather. See their site for ocean rowing in one of these.

Yet, it has good run, and is easy to row. It's also light enough to handle reasonably easily. I used to row mine through the cruiser wakes with no problems. In my Oly, I have to stop and let them pass.

I'd also say that it's a gas surfing the wakes if you're some distance away when they're made. I used to come home timing my stroke and power to allow me to keep on the downside of some of the rollers the big yachts threw off as they went perpendicular to my path home. A very weird feeling, as there's virtually no effort to the stroke - a bit like catching air.

Hope that helped...

l8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig http://tinyurl.com/384p2 "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

-- SKIP GUNDLACH (skipgundlach@earthlink.net), March 14, 2005.