I went and bought it I'm not very patient... After a 2 hour drive to test paddle it, I was ready to buy anything that didn't physically pitch me out. The Catalina is a surprisingly plain boat, the finish is matte, the decals are a bit garish and the bow is straight, not upswept, so even though it's quite narrow and sleek it looks, well, a bit ugly. But that's ok, I may lust after the shiny bling stuff but I do much better with plain functional stuff. And it's very functional. The hatches are very good, easy to open and solid waterproof, the rudder is huge and works excellently with very good pedals once I got them dialed in. The fit is very snug. That's what I get for all that cycling - difficulty fitting my thighs below deck My skinny longlegged dh fit better! But I can carve a bit out of the thigh braces if I want to. I can also sit with my knees up out of the cockpit if I don't need the bracing. The paddle I borrowed was very different from the one I've used recently so I couldn't really get the boat up to speed. It's said to be "fast", but I did notice the downside of that - it turns like a plank. So I tossed a little Newcastle Brown Ale over the bow once I got it home and christened it "Plank"

Since it's narrow it's also a little more tippy than the extremely stable beginner boats I've tried so far, but not uncomfortably so, just that if I lean over the boat will keep leaning until it, presumably, goes around. But it's easy to right up again.

So I have a kayak! W00t!