My Mystic is newer than Darren's/Carmel's and it has Valley rubber hatches. Have not had any signs or problems of leakage. I 303 (UV protectant) it every year and store it in the shade. I rinse the boat off after every saltwater trip ASAP. No problems with the skeg line either so far. It got stuck once but just a little persuasion freed it and hasn't been a problem since. Probably got a little sand in it.
The water in the cockpit me thinks isn't a sign of the low cockpit. The Force line of Impex has a lower cockpit and much lower deckback on it... The shorter length with the british design (slightly raised bow) does make for nice sea splashs in rough seas, but hey, this is a water sport, if you don't want to get wet, take up golf. As far as the sprayskirt, I use a Seals extreme tour 1.2 which I like so far. I had an IR Navigator which was nice except the tunnel was too big and it would sag and eventually water would pool on the decking...
One note on the lower backband, when/if you learn to roll, the basic rolls pretty much have you lean as far back as possible to reduce the water resistance, a lower backdeck will make those rolls easier as it'll allow you to lie back farther. Big difference in the mystic vrs the force series and probably the vela too. I think I remember the Vela being a lower cockpit and lower backdeck...
BTW, the Vela and the Mystic all get pretty good reviews when I come across them on P.net, if the skeg was as bad as that reviewer claimed it is, I'd certainly hear about it on the paddling boards...
I just saw something in a magazine, a new Current Designs:
http://www.rutabaga.com/product.asp?pid=1019332
45lbs, 15'8"... Anyway, just thought I'd spit out another one...
Another thing that determines the manueverability is the rocker, the more rocker it has, the easier it will be to turn, some of the bow/sterns are more angled and some are more verticle and the boat's draft will determine the waterline of the kayak, i.e. how long is the boat at the waterline. A boat with less draft and more rocker will be effectively shorter than a boat with the same draft and less rocker. Of course, there are kakak techniques to improve a boats turning ability, called edging that makes boats seem more manueverable than others but that is just technique.
Jay