Now here's a thing Rob.
The last time Hamish and I fished Loch Assynt, down at the river mouth at the east end the wind was blowing like a bandit and H was on the oars and pulling like a Viking. I was standing in the bow and making short casts.
My "stiff" Access 104 was really happy doing 15 to 20 foot casts (line trapped under index finger of the casting hand, line drawn back, rolled out and direction changed in the air). Now that was fun! Cast, draw, roll, cast. The rod did it all really well. In fact a softer rod would have made it harder - the crisper rod fired the roll easier in the wind, drew the line in better in the stiff breeze (!) and afforded better line control.
From a tube the rod is even better but that's a different story....
And an SLX helps...
Some stiff rods fish too...