Kayak help

wintermute said:
Alright, I bought my kayak. here's some quick thoughts to the process:

I went to the dealer fully expecting to buy an OK Prowler 15 for a decently discounted price - thoughts being it's fast, a good fisher, lighter than the Tarpons. What could go wrong? Went into their warehouse to see how well I could lift it (it had a rudder) - way too back heavy, which made it very awkward to lift. Didn't even bother checking out the Tarpon 160. So it came down to the Prowler 13 and the Tarpon 140, both with rudders. Surprisingly, they were about equal to lift. Although the Tarpon was heavier, it was more equally balanced. Onto the water...

Performance-wise, the Prowler got up to speed better and had decent glide. It had a little side-to-side motion with my strokes, even with the rudder down. The Tarpon took a little more to get going, and was a little "heavier" feeling to paddle, although faster. Straight as an arrow, no side-to-side with or without rudder. Tons of glide. Well behaved without the rudder.

So, I felt through all that both boats were equal. I came down to ergonomics and the little things. The Prowler's seat was a joke. The hatches are rubbermaid-type. very difficult to get off in the water and the small hatch took on water. The rudder system was difficult to pull up and down and to do so, you had to tug on bare polypropylene rope, which doesn't feel none too good. The combination of footwells and rudder pegs was a bit annoying, and the cockpit was too busy.

The Tarpon's seat was very supportive, has nice easy adjustments for back height and thigh support, and locks down for when you mount it upside down on your car. The rudder was easy to deploy and you grab nice soft rubber toggles to do so. Plenty of room in the cockpit, no footwells to bother rudder operation.

Tarpon 140 it was. I felt it would've been fine without a rudder based on the handling, but i figured there would be times that I wished I had it, so I got one.
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Nice buy. I love my tarpon 120, I just wish it was the 140. They seem to be fast 14 footers. A friend had no trouble keeping up another friend in a 15 foot OK scupper pro TW, which is a fast boat, while I was lagging a little in my 120.
It looks like they removed the rear hatch on the new models. the center hatch looks bigger but I wish more manufacturers would put rear hatches on their kayaks. There is all that great storage space that you cant access. Mine has a small hatch right behind the seat. Its not much but you can store a big dromedary water bag for multi day trips.

Look at these.
http://www.malibukayaks.com/fishing_kayaks.asp

The reason I like the prowler(trident) is primarily for the rod hatch(But again no rear hatch.) It is a pain trying to remove the rods from the front hatch. I really dont like to remove the front hatch, while being far enough forward to get my my poles out in high seas. I would hate for the nose to dip into an oncoming swell and flood the kayak. This isnt really a problem if you always have a flat entry point but I have been end over end in mine, so I like the ability to store my gear before hitting the beach.

I wish I could combine kayaks from different manufacturers to make my own.

Just some extra info. The tarpon 120 will still float when it is pretty close to full of water. It paddles like a log. Tap Plastics makes a great plastic epoxy that sticks to poly kayaks. You just have to quickly run a torch over the plastic first. Its good stuff to keep around for emergency repairs.

Did you get the tarpon Sasha?

Matt

P.S. Was this always in G&G.
 
Hey Matt no i didnt get that tarpon it was sold in less then 30min after being posted lol.. No i posted this thread in the wilderness section. It seems that anypost that dont have a knife in it get moved over here lol.. Im still trolling craigslist everyday for a good deal and this saturday im going to try a kayak for a few hours in the ocean maybe meet a few other kayakers that scuba dive.

Sasha
 
Just a note. I tested my kayak out and it was not cracked, so Im lucky there. Just wanted to update yall.
 
Lucky man you are Wildman. I never let no one ride my motorcycle or my car. Same time i never borrow anything from no one just in case something happens and then i need to buy them a new one.

Sasha
 
Hey WinterMute how about pics of the new kayak????? No pics it never happend!!!!!!!
 
It's sitting under a tarp on the blah side of my house. I just got it home from the shop last night as it was getting dark (had to wait for the rudder to be installed), so no photos. I plan to bring it with me on a camping trip up in the Catskills this weekend. I'll try to take some pics then.
 
well went to look at some kayaks in the area. Found a used Okuma kayak which is actualy made by Cobra and is a navigator Its 2 year old with all the hatches installed seat rod holders everything for 800. Does anyone has any exp with it???is it good for a new guy???

Sasha
 
Check out this video:

[youtube]6E9PSS6Nyvo[/youtube]
 
yesterday i got my hands on a malibu stealth 14. Realy nice kayak but damn its a workout to get it up my VW camper roof and down again. For now it been only to a pool but hope that in a week or two im going to get it in the ocean.
 
sasha said:
yesterday i got my hands on a malibu stealth 14. Realy nice kayak but damn its a workout to get it up my VW camper roof and down again. For now it been only to a pool but hope that in a week or two im going to get it in the ocean.
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Congrats on the kayak, Sasha!

Do a Youtube search for "kayak loading aids" or something like that and you'll find all kinds of neat tricks and do-it-yourself projects for gadgets to make loading your kayak a lot easier.

Good paddling,
desmobob
 
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