Hi J,
The Heritage Redfish is a flat-bottomed boat and is completely stable. It's the newest hull design from the same guy who designed my
Wilderness Tarpon 160 (he sold the company and started Heritage). Her 10' boat is 2" wider than my 16' boat. The surprising part is that even with my 220 lbs, her 10'er still glides beautifully and very efficiently. For a day on the flats, I would much rather be in my Tarpon, but part of the reason I bought it was so that when she wasn't looking, I could use it as a river boat - it turns on a dime.
Of course, the
Redfish 12 makes more sense for someone my size, but the Redfish 10 was the right boat at the right time for us (and it's only 44 lbs, vs. 75 for my big boat) (If I was buying a river boat for me, it would be a
Jackson Coosa - if you check the Jackson ad, they show somebody standing up in it, but don't believe it - this is a river boat made to rock and turn - every boat sold now has to show somebody standing up in it - does have a nice high seat, though).
They're making boats now that
really are built to stand in - a couple of boats made out of ABS (instead of polyethylene, which brings the weight down and cost up) -
KC K12 and
Diablo Adios - both are $1400 and are not the best flats boats (i.e., big coastal wind) but would be good for rivers and any other small water. They're also putting taller seats in these boats. The seat in the KC moves on rails and you can put in a pair of seats if you want - it's like a little catamaran pirogue.
Nice boats.
