I fit easily into the Greenland, its cockpit width would accommodate someone who was up to maybe an inch wider at the hips than me comfortably, me legs reach deep into the cockpit but there is still 5 inches of room in front of where I set the foot pegs. The foot pegs are very comfortable, they are not the classic rigid upright ones I have used before, they are comfortably rounded and pivot to the angle of my feet. My feet (size 10 US) are unable to fit in the vertical plane, I have my heals together and toes angled out and forward, this avoids my big toe chaffing on the deck. I found the neoprene boots with rubber soles to be too large to fit comfotably, they resulted in my toes having to be too pointed for long periods of time, currently I am using bare feet of the feet built into my dry-suit I expect neoprene socks will fit just fine.
On the third day of paddling I removed the back strap completely, it got in the way a couple of times during entry and did not appear to be in contact with my back while paddling. Once removed I found I was sitting 3/4 inch further aft but other than that did not miss it – I do however need to move the foot pegs to accommodate for it.
The Greenland has no day hatch so I am considering whether to leave the space behind the seat as a small storage area or to fill it with closed cell foam like my explorer. The edge does hit my back when I lie back, but nothing like as noticeable as the explorers deck.
When seated I find my knees are in contact with the deck, and my thighs just barely are touching the deck by the cockpit. One task for this wee if to fit pads in the appropriate places to make the contact more comfortable. I found I had sufficient room to raise and lower my knees by about 4 inches during each paddle stroke, this provided plenty of room to assist with powering the strokes.
The spray skirt I am using is a full neoprene deck with a tall tunnel made by Snap Dragon it is sized XXS and is only just small enough, it has leaked a little at times during rolling and I would prefer a tighter fit by just a hair.
It is a very wet kayak! especially at my weight 180 lbs. I sit with under one inch of free board in still water, this is not a kayak to use without a spray skirt. During cowboy reentry in still water I filled the cockpit repeatedly, making this a pointless method of reentry. Reentry and roll proved much quicker and less challenging than attempting to balance and crawl along the stern deck. With such low aft deck waves tend to roll over the cockpit also, especially when coming from the rear quarters, with the nose into waves the kayak behaves well rising and slicing exactly as you would expect a sea kayak to. I have yet to experience any waves over 2 feet but there has been no feeling of slapping the water when coming off waves, just slicing into the next one. The other time I notice is when I am relaxing and put my elbows on the stern deck to support my weight and lean back – invariably one arm gets soaked as it is basically touching the water – I guess this is not the preferred method of taking a break in the Greenland.
As documented in many reviews the kayak is affected by the wind, but the skeg was easily able to deal with the sustained 20 mph breeze we had on Sunday with the use of maybe 30% of the skeg.
The skeg is control slide is held in place with two plastic clips, the first time I used the kayak off a sandy beach some sand was in the skeg box causing the skeg to be tight, the pressure I applied to the slider caused one of the clips to pop off and sink…. fortunately one clip is currently sufficient – I do need to replace the other and have yet to find the manufacturer.
I find the kayak turns well when it is leaned onto its chines, it turns especially well with an extended sweep stoke with a Greenland paddle – no surprises there.
When paddling in a straight line the Greenland is more challenging than the explorer to keep straight, however in calm water conditions I have not found it necessary to use the skeg once I became accustomed to its behavior.
The kayak accelerates well and easily out paces all my existing kayaks, I have yet to put the GPS on it to see what speed I am achieving.
Tonight I plan to set up the trailer to transport the kayak, an to start work on the foam pads.
