Kayaks for tramping access
Been dreamin of getting a kayak that will carry me and a pack (and a dog?) for ages now. Anyone any thoughts on plastic sitons such as viking/ocean kayak vs collapsable / infatable such as advanced elements advancefeame. Inshore lake and flat river use mainly. Maybe sounds. ... ie not white water or surf. Advantages / disadvantages of each approach. Eg stability, speed, effort, duration and anything else i havent thought of.
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Sit on kayaks can still get flooded, in fact most sit ons do not have individual bulk heads so if the hull gets compromised you can risk the whole thing filling with water.
Not much difference in speed between sit on tops and sit insides, the fastest racing versions of sit on tops are competitive with the best sit insides.
Stability wise, if both boats use the same hull then the sit inside have the edge due to better bracing.. The seats in sit on tops are also often slightly higher which reduce stability even further.
Now lets jump to the interesting stuff...
Sit inside kayaks typically have better internal storage, but they also often have small hatches, which would make storing a pack internally impossible.
Some sit insides have internal storage, but many relay on external and bungees... So I suppose a pack inside a dry bag would work quite well.
I suggest looking at a boat around 5m long and say 60cm wide. That would give decent hull speed for punching into the wind, while maintaining good stability.
Cheers all. Pretty much decided on a rigid sit-on based on discussions elsewhere. @militaris - re lengths. I had initially been looking at longer kayaks for that reason, but the weight had started to put me off. You're talking 30kg+ by the time you get over 4.3m in length for the viking and ocean kayak brands, whereas there are several 4.1m boats around the 22kg mark (profish400, prowler13). 30kg+ sounds like a lot to be getting on/off roofs, to the water and in/out of the water on my own. Is the weight / handling really going to be an issue for me? Or am I worrying for nothing?
The sitins I've used up till now have been well under 20kg and the cockpit makes a good carry point which in something that seems to be absent on a siton.
Apologies for the basic questions which I could answer by just trying one, but there are no retailers locally carrying stock of the larger boats, so this is probably going to have to be ordered unseen either online or through H&F.
One of my kayaks is 6.55m long and only weighs 12kg... So long boats do not have to be heavy boats... Although, once you add accessories and extra width the weight does raise.
Many of the heavier Sit on Tops also have tons of fishing accessories added, which all add to the weight quite significantly.
Check out the Cobra Expedition. 5.5m long, 56cm wide, plenty of storage and weighs only 22kg... They come up on trademe Pretty cheap quite often.
Ok. Bought a Cobra Tourer in the end. 4.5m x 700mm @22kg - so shorter and fatter than the Expedition that @militaris recommends. But longer and sleeker than the squat fishing kayaks I had been looking at. Reviews on paddler.net were the main reason for this deviation from what was recomended here.
Really aiming for a compromise between stability&manoverability vs speed&energy-conservation.
Hopefully I've struck the balance right.
Just have to wait 3 weeks for the missus to bring it down from Wellington now.
Patience Pom.
Nice looking with a big hatch and room behind you for the pack or dog. I always found that the optional seat back was essential for me, with my rather weak/damaged back. If your kayak doesn't have one, check out that you can manage for a long time without that support. Maybe get one if you can't.
Got my first go in my Cobra Tourer today. Didnt use it for a tramp yet but took it 6km or so down the Kawarau / Lake Dunstan.
Very very stable. Only way I could tip it was bailing out & pulling it over with me. Getting back in was harder than expected - it sits very high in the water when empty & a real launch out of the water was required to get on top. Ok on the flat but not sure how re-entry will go with swell.
Very comfortable sitting position. Paddled for an hour all up with no discomfort. Glides effortlessly through water - 30 mins for 6km at a leisurely pace. Cutting across the Kawarau - with strong current it held its direction perfectly with no need to compensate. Sure there was sideways drift downriver but no fighting the current to stay straight. Rudder turns at speed were effective and course corrections required only a fraction of available rudder. Never needed to break my stroke pattern for a turn. When not moving it's a dog to turn - but you'd expect that.
Plenty of room for pack & dog on the deck. 3 not-so-dry storage compartments so drybags essential. All too small for pack so pack on deck.
Coped well with wind - front and cross with no effort required to maintain course. Side chop was the only disappointment - gives a loud slapping to flat undersides of the boat and completely kills any speed you had. Head on chop was no problem though.
Ill give a more full appraisal once ive had a proper use of it. But thatll be a while as off to the Antipodes for a month now so no kayaking (or tramping) for this pom for a bit.
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Forum | Gear talk |
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Started by | madpom |
On | 15 January 2016 |
Replies | 15 |
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