And another PS... some have preferred Hemlock canoes after trying the Swifts. Somewhere east of Buffalo NY with variously-sized Peregrine, Kestrel, SRT... ?
Similar to you I'm coming from paddling a tandem sole, in my case a 2001 Swift Algonquin 16 . Never owned any other solo by design either until I picked up a 2012 Peregrine a few weeks ago. So take my honeymoon "solo" opinion in stride...
Before the Peregrine came available my short list was Nomad, Osprey, Peregrine, Keewadyin 15 and a Shearwater, not necessarily in that order. Where I live test paddling any of the above in short order requires $500 airfare and rental cars though, so I had to gamble on reviews and opinions of others. In my mind I was all but all in on a Shearwater until the Peregrine popped up in the classifieds and after some quick math decided a used model might be a good idea for my first solo.
After 3 trips, a 10 mile, 19 mile and 14 mile sprint last weekend, the Peregrine has far exceeded my expectations. Workmanship and lamination is superb. Was sipping coffee a little after sunrise this morning just staring at it, beautiful lines.
Can't give you Charlie Wilson's wisdom on all matters canoeing and he rates the L/W ratio of the Kee 14 at 6.5, Key 15 at 6.8 and Peregrine at 6.8.
I can give you some rough "on the water" numbers to work with in my case. The first trip it was loaded with at least 75-100lbs of gear (35qt Yeti loaded, 50-60lbs of hickory firewood, 3 gallons of water, food and camping gear), plus my 200lbs of living in excess. The Peregrine performed really well in my opinion. I was able to maintain 3.6 - 3.7 mph cruise via GPS without what I would consider a lot of effort, seems to glide with ease loaded or not.
My last 14 mile trip was a lightly loaded (cooler, ice, water, rain gear and 3 cliff bars, est 25-30lbs) workout paddle in 95 degree weather. My GPS track on that sprint shows a few short 5.7 - 5.9mph segments and a couple bursts at 6.2-3 mph with a round trip average speed of 4.4 mph or 14 miles in 3:10. This was a slow moving river trip, probably about 1-1.5mph current, 7 miles against and 7 mile return with the current. Can't say quantitatively whether I was over or under powering the canoe based on it's geometry, but I can say I wasn't particularly tired after that 14 mile jaunt. I felt it the next day or two, but it wasn't like I was thinking I'll never do that again. It was more a matter of my own conditioning and learning to use my core more for power and rotation than my arms and shoulders
I don't have any requirement for deft maneuvering nor do I have the skill either, but I find the Peregrine easy to handle and control loaded or not for my cruising purposes, much easier than the Algonquin paddled backwards for sure. I also found the Peregrine to be very stable, even sitting with the seat in the kneeling configuration. I could stand up and fly cast from it too for short periods of time. I wouldn't say its comfortable in this regard in that you have to really pay attention and work to stay centered. In the Algonquin I'm not even thinking about balance when standing, so they are as one would expect very different in that regard.
I think stability has a lot to do with one's sense of balance as much or more than the characteristics of the design, but if stability is important to you in a solo I would rate the Peregrine as pretty darn stable. I've heard the Keewaydin's are very stable too. As Charlie often says new solo designs are bulging at the mid section as most contemporary paddlers are, myself included. I've had the Peregrine laid over on a rail for short periods while sitting with the seat in the sitting position and it likes it there too. The first time I thought I would go over, but it resisted more than I expected. I suspect the Kee 14/15 and others too have better secondary stability than most paddlers.
Paddling healed like that is a new experience for me and at least for now the Peregrine seems a lot better at it than I am. Kneeling would be easier too, but I haven't tried that yet since it's not something I feel a need to do for my type of canoeing.
Bottom line, the Keewaydin your considering and all of the others in the same category are probably excellent in their own right and may have salient characteristics among them that are more important to you, but if you can manage to test any of Dave's models I think the time and effort would be well worth it.
Link to a 1.5 minute video my buddy put together from one of our trips with some footage of the Peregrine with my fat arse in it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUslyFOHknw
