Hi All,

George, If I remember you weigh about 135lbs, I weigh 115Kg that is almost double your weight, Fred Bloggs weighs 185lbs and Alan 203lbs, and so on. When I paddle I take my lunch, or a weeks supply or a months supply of food clothing etc. etc.

Now if I were to engineer a boat to have a safety margin of 100% and I loaded this to the hilt with a range of additional brown bottles for the week end and those famous steaks etc. etc and the thing broke on the way I would be pis........ not happy. So as with most engineering one looks to 300 to 500% safety factor.

Now if you paddle in a smooth pond with no wind and no waves then 28 to 30 lbs on a 16ft stripper is fine but in my opinion it would not stand the test of time in 30knot winds and a 4 ft chop let alone a hard landing in some mean 16ft surf.

That is my humble opinion

All the best Rob