I currently have 6 kayaks in my 'fleet' of very specific niche kayaks, the Zephyr is one of my favorite kayaks, it is never the wrong kayak to pull out of the rack when you are not sure what the day will bring. The wire push pull is much better than ropes or cables used in many other skegs, and allows for adjustment of deployment with different winds. Its drop down skeg does need to be kept clean, a little mud or small rocks not cleaned out will easily jam the system. One down side to the poly Zephyr is that its robust nature makes it a little on the heavy side. The front hatch has never leaked, the oval rear hatch has leaked a little during rock gardening when surf breaks on the deck of the boat, but it has not imploded yet. The Zephyrs handling and turning are very sensitive to weight and center of balance, so loading the boat changes its manners quite a bit.

The outfitting is adjustable enough to suit most paddlers, and very comfortable.

The mild rocker allows edging to make fairly tight turns for a 15' 6' long boat.

The boat tracks very well without the skeg, when it is put down it tracks like a much longer boat. The low profile and skeg make the Zephyr an ideal boat in high wind. I have owned the poly 155 for about 4 years, I have used it as a down river boat in class 2/3 white water, light rock gardening, rough water and day touring. I bought the Zephyr as a rough water day touring boat, it is that and a little more.

Ws zephyr pro