I think in general they're more stable as in harder to tip over, but less stable as far as tracking,
Posted on September 15, 2026 at 04:35:54 PM by jBdub
i.e. staying on a straight line. At any rate, my two Old Town Loons are flat-bottomed and are considered to be very stable. They also let you paddle in shallower water.
I might be wrong, but I think v-bottomed boats are mostly for bigger water like Great Lakes and oceans. They're typically much longer, too, and are much narrower in width, which makes them more efficient to paddle straight, but also more tippy. The class referred to as "recreational kayaks" tend to be flat bottomed. The most stable would be fishing kayaks, which are flat bottomed and quite wide across the middle, but are a slog to paddle.
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