Ella (six years old) was initially a bit nervous about paddling but became enthusiastic about the idea after seeing her elder brother paddling around- so much so that on our last day she must have paddled just a little under two miles behind our hired Old Town canoe. Following close behind, she seemed to have no difficulty keeping up. I think that part of the key to this was the boat's confidence-building stability.

Ella's brother Ewan (eight years old) also took to the little boat like a duck to water. In truth, I should say that he would have preferred us to have brought his sailing Flying Mouse, but still he was delighted to find that he could race and beat his Dad rowing an 11ft tender supplied with the houseboat in which we were lodging. (That tender was a pig of a boat, but still it says something that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't beat him without playing dirty...)

For myself, I can see why people like these little boats; they're quite a lot better than I would have guessed they could be when David Colpitts and I first worked on the original idea. 'Lion' is a standard vee-bottom 8ft Mouse. It's surprisingly stable when heeled even slightly (a LOT of chine goes into the water very quickly as she heels), it comfortably supports my weight (195lbs or so) and it paddles acceptably straight with the skeg I made for it (see the picture files). AND and I can put it on a roof rack and take it down easily without help.

It travels at a reasonable speed without being too tiring. I took it out for a paddle after the kids were in bed a few times while we were away, and from experience I'd say the boat settles down to a kind of natural rolling-along speed of about 3mph with a desk-jockey non-athlete paddling after a good dinner - going any faster takes so much effort that it's unrewarding and going any slower seems too easy. A true athlete might get something better, however!

Overall, I'm very pleased. In fact, I'm absolutely delighted with the boat, and the experience has confirmed my theory that young children love to be in charge of their own craft so long as they feel confident and it's done safely, of course. Really, I should have found a way of taking a Mouse boat each for them. For more on the Mouse family of boats, sign up at 

https://groups.yahoo.com/group/mouseboats/ .

Gavin Atkin