Kayak Negatives????

[raw69]

I'm thinking of selling my boat (12' Lund w/electric only) and buying a kayak. I have read a ton as to their positive points, but what are the drawbacks? Also, what tips can you yakkers give me about buying a yak? Length? Beam? Equipment I shouldn't leave the shop without? Anything would be welcome. Thanks!

[Betty Hiner]

Oh, I don't know ... the fact that they can tip over in deep, very cold water, may dampen my enthusiasm towards them!!

[Gringo2]

And you can get run over by bigger boats....

[JohnScott]

Raw69 -

My suggestion is that you go to the "Paddling" forum and just start reading threads. I've done that several times and have picked up all kinds of interesting information on the various watercraft folks are using.

John

[sagefisher]

To begin with I have never been in a canoe or kayak, for the very reason that Betty mentioned, they can tip over really easy. But then, so do 12 foot aluminum boats upon occasion.

If you are seriously thinking of doing this you may want to check out the NuCanoe brand. They were on display at the Puyallup Sportsman?s Show and I was rather impressed with them. The one feature I really thought was excellent was that you can re-enter the NuCanoe from deep water, even when loaded down with heavy gear.

The price wasn?t all that bad and they had a number of different styles.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[dudley]

I've had a kayak for years and I've never come close to tipping
The main disadvantage as I see it is you're stuck in your seat for as long as you can stand it. That's about 3 hours for me, then I have to beach it and stretch.
I don't carry a lot of gear so that's no issue for me, but I could see where some folks would want more space.
Sorry....can't think of any other disadvantages
I love mine

[Eric-WD]

Having never been in a yak, I have to speak about canoes, some of which will apply to yaks.

They can be tippy but play around in one on a warm afternoon and you will get the hang of it. Buy one know for its stability not speed.

Advantages ( I own both a 12 foot boat and a canoe.)

I can carry the canoe to water, I'm not doing that with my boat which means I am not launch bound. I can fish in small ponds with out launch facilities that I cant take the boat into.

I can go places in the canoe that I wouldnt attempt to go in the Boat. for wildlife viewing etc it is much better.

I have thought of buying two yaks and geting rid of the canoe, the problem with the canoe is it is hard to launch solo, the yak would be much easier.
On the other hand I think that in a few years I will probably have grandkids to take in the canoe and I can't to that with a yak.

So I will probalby keep the canoe and add a yak along with the boat and the canoe.

[djo]

I have kayaked and canoed for 40 or 50 years and have never been dumped from one by accident. Earlier this year a kayaker went from Australia to New Zealand. That's 1500 miles of open ocean in a kayak - I doubt it could be done in a jon boat. You should, however, learn to get back into a solo boat in case you go over board - something that probably holds equally true for a motor boat as a yak.
In my opinion, a sit inside kayak is not good for flyfishing. A canoe works great and I suspect a sit on top (SOT) kayak would be fine. When you get in the market decide if you want a 1 or 2 person boat. Also make an honest evaluation of the weight you can comfortably deal with. Big SOT kayaks are heavy and not easy to get on top of the car or carry to the water. If you go wilderness camping you will see people portaging canoes, because of the weight issue. Just be aware. You can get fairly light weight kayaks but they do not tend to be SOT types.
The biggest disadvantage of kayaks is that there is no one boat does all jobs. If you get hooked on them (and a lot of people do) you will want to start accumulating a number of them to do different jobs. That tends to cost garage space and sometimes happy families.

David

[Big Bad Wulff]

The biggest............you propel them. It's quite a work out just going anywhere. Yeah you can graft a trolling motor to some. You may get more wet, especially when learning how to paddle! The paddle can drip all over you when learning(ask me how I know).
They can tip over. You may not be able to take as much stuff with you.

[HCR]

The biggest downside, as has been mentioned earlier, is your backside. I have to get out and stretch at least every two hours.

I have used my SOT for fishing salt water flats and it is marvelous for allowing me to sneak up on fish that would spook much faster wading, and much, much sooner when approached by a conventional motorcraft.

A sit-inside boat is much more tippy when not underway and so I agree with the post of the person who said a SOT is best suited for flyfishing.