During several sessions I tested the Cetus in autumn 2009.
Underneath you can find a summary of the information about the Cetus that I collected during those sessions .
You can find more details and pictures in the reports of the test-sessions: just click in the menu above.

 

Paddling
The Cetus is a comfortable, high volume seakayak. She is rather fast and has a good primary- and secondary stability. This made me feel very safe in rough weather and rough seas.

Despite her length she is very manoeuvrable, especially when you edge her. I can add to this that the edging is very easy to do because the high stability gives you quite a margin before you are close to a capsize.

The manoeuvrability feels a bit nervous in the beginning when paddling a straight course, but it was easy to get used to this. Besides this you can drop the skeg a bit to make her more course-stable and better tracking.
The Cetus weathercocks a bit above average but this is easy to correct by adjusting the variable skeg.
Paddling against the wind can make her leecock a bit because the long bow catches the wind. Because of her manoeuvrability the leecocking is easy to correct with edging and sweepstrokes. But don't drop the skeg because the leecocking will worsen if you do so.
I must say that I expect that the leecocking will be less once you are heavier than I am. Don't forget the Cetus is a high volume kayak and the heavier loaded she is, the lesser the effect that the wind will have on her.

Paddling the Cetus with following wind and waves is not easy and the small skeg helps only a bit. On a course in a following sea the Cetus broaches quickly, especially when you try to surf the waves.
Because the Cetus does not easily pickup a wave, it is a better strategy not to surf and just keep her going on the required course using stern-rudder frequently to prevent broaching.

Rolling the Cetus is no problem but only a bit laborious when compared with other easier rolling kayaks. Further it can be said the all rescue-techniques are possible.
High- and low braces are all easy to perform in the Cetus.

The kayak
The seat is very comfortable and the contact in the cockpit for hips, feet and knees is very good. I only would like to advise to fasten the seatliner with velcro to the seat to prevent moving sideways when edging the kayak.

The Cetus is outfitted with a 4th compartment on the deck in front of the cockpit. It is of course very easy to access this compartment while paddling, but when your legs are a bit short, this compartment will make it impossible to mount a footpump on the bulkhead. But also with longer legs you will have to wriggle your feet if you want to move your feet to a position to operate the pump. Installing a foot-pump is probably something which is only possible to have done in the factory while assembling the kayak. Afterwards it seems a hell of a job to me. Personally, being an advocate of using foot-pumps for safety reasons, I would order a Cetus without the 4th compartment.
But, seeing the benefits of such a handy 4th compartment, I think it would be nicer if P&H makes a new design for the 4th compartment: shorter and wider. May be even as wide that it adds to knee-contact.

Although the skeg-system is new and very advanced, I think that there are some improvements that P&H could (should !) make for the skeg-functionality: The skeg blade is rather small and is also very flexible. Because it will be bent away when it is used, the lateral surface of the small skeg will be further reduced making it less effective. So I would like a bigger, stiffer skeg-blade.

Quality.
Both Cetus kayaks I have seen, were neatly built and of good quality.
The only issue is the new rope-control of the variable skeg: That needs to be improved because most skegs are far too hard to operate easily out at sea or with cold fingers. It seams that the rope functions worse when wet.

For whom the Cetus could be a choice:
I think that the Cetus can be a choice for those paddlers wanting to take a lot of gear on extended camping trips.
Because of the high stability the Cetus is very forgiving and therefor I believe that beginners can handle a Cetus quite well.
But the first thing a beginner should focus on, is learning to perform edging and sternrudder in order to keep her straight going.