The Vermont Paddlers Club

The Angst was the boat that started the design trend in squirt boats toward shorter length and flatter hulls, and it still performs at the front of the pack in all areas of the squirt lexicon. It’s short (7’11″), comfortable (biggest footbumps in the industry), and has a hull that can best be described as half displacement, half planing. It starts at the bow as a pure, round displacement shape, develops some discreet chines around the knee area, and finishes as a full-on flat planing hull with hard chines and flat sidewalls. The boat performs very well in a variety of conditions; it sinks mystery moves in the same league as the classic Jim Snyder designs, swaps ends quickly and gracefully through the vertical and past vertical planes, and shreds waves and holes like a playboat. It’s a great river-runner as well; the rounded, turned-up bow rides up over turbulence instead of burying in it, the stern chines make the boat very responsive, and the narrow overall width lends it surprising speed for such a short boat. Paddlers with an inseam of around 30-34″ who are searching for one squirt boat to do it all may not have to look any further than the Angst!