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Kayaks

Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 10:44 pm
by jimlong
Was thinking of adding a kayak onboard the Ocean Dreamer and wondered what length size and where others carried them. Obviously there aren't lots of areas to store them so that got me thinking about inflatable kayaks. I've read that they don't have the speed that the hard shell ones do but I like the fact that they are easily stowed. If any of you all are using inflatables or hard shell I sure would appreciate your thoughts. I don't have any experience with kayaks but thought it would be nice to have some water toys onboard for visitors and these came to mind. Also can't decide between two single person kayaks or one tandem. Thx, JIm

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:18 am
by Bargain Bill
We use a double kayak (hard-shell, sit-in) on our PDQ 34, secured to the port rail amidship. At home we use sit-in singles, but carrying 2 on board is too much. The seats on the double adjust so it works fine with one aboard. Problem with a double sit-on (aka "sea-kayak") is that it doesn't work well with only 1 aboard because the seats are fixed and it is out of balance.
I store it on its side against the rail so it still leaves plenty of room to walk by. I use a brass 'J' hook with about 8" of line that attaches to the bottom of the stantion to just catch the bottom of the kayak standing on its side with the hull facing outboard. The top is secured using a couple of 2' lengths of 4/0 insulated wire wrapped once around the top rail and bent to a 'J' to catch the fore and aft seating area.
With lines securing the bow and stern of the kayak it has held well in some pretty rough water.

Easy to get on and off the boat - - just slide up/down the port steps into the water.

Bill & Fran Carlson
MV 34/029 Easy Riders

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 9:12 pm
by thinwater
We carry 1-2 hard kayaks on a PDQ32, but before I go into my preferences...

... The smartest thing you could do is to rent or borrow one or two from every group. You may develop real preferences. Some folks have the notion that sit-ons are better for beginners, but I have not found that to be true.
[*]sit-in hard. Lighter than sit-on, faster, more stable, best handling, easier to carry stuff. A little trickier to board but more stable once seated (your fanny is several inches higher in a sit-on, which they compensate for by making them wider and slower).
[*]sit-on hard. Easier to re-enter from the water, though I've never capsized other than in white water, nor have I seen any one capsize. Colder, since your legs are soaked ALL the time. Some can stack. Heaviest; some are a BEAR to lift.
[*]inflatable. Lightest, time to inflate, slowest, worst handling in chop or cross wind. Personally, I would simply take the dingy.

We carry them on the side decks if we are carrying bikes on a rack on the transom. If no bikes, the easiest place is on top of the davits, where we can easily stack 2. Look for a model 9 to 9.5 feet; shorter gets slow and non-seaworthy, longer is hard to pack and not much faster, from a sailor's veiw point. We're not sea kayakers, paddling 16-foot boats on multi-day explorations.

My favorite hard kayak for sailors (light, simple, comfortable, fast) is the Perception Impulse.

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:37 am
by amytom
We went with the cheapy a from BJ's wholesale. We can fit two stacked on the davits. We tried the inflatables but I swamped it out I'm only about 195 pounds, better quality inflatables are available now butim happy with the sit on top hard plastic.

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:20 pm
by jimlong
I will be fishing from it so with all the sharp points involved prolly not a good idea to use an inflatable. I looked at the Impulse 10.0 and like the lightness (44lbs) might just go with a couple of those. I don't have the room on the back as my davits have solar panels mounted there so will need to secure them up front on the sides, just hate to give up the space, will look into J-hooks like Bill mentioned. Thanks guys

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 10:17 pm
by maxicrom
We have a couple of Hobies, a tandem standard and a older fisherman with the pedals (flippers) - my wife loves the pedal model, and I have to admit it's hard to keep up with her paddling. They are well made and will last a long time - they take up a lot of room but do fit across the trampoline. We don't do much traveling so we load them if we are heading to a kayak destination.

Craigs List is the place to watch over the winter, we picked up the tandem for $300 and the fisherman for $400. We've gotten intop paddleboarding over the last year and figure if I build a rack it will be for the boards.

enjoy...

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:45 am
by jimlong
Thx Mike, yes will definitely be watching Craigslist

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 7:32 am
by danhaun
We have two Ocean Kayak Frenzy models (9 foot) stacked on the davits of our PDQ 32 and they fit and stack nicely. I added some fixed lash points to the davits using large SS U bolts some delrin blocks and fairleads. To further lock the kayaks together I made 18 inch "pins" of heavy PVC ( I think 1.5 inch) that go into the scupper holes of both kayaks then they are aligned properly.

These are designed to be surf boats but are fun to paddle and track surprisingly well on flat water.

Dan Haun
PDQ 32 TomKat

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 8:05 am
by jimlong
Dan, Thanks for the info, I went to their website to see if they had a model with back support and especially liked the Tetra Angler. I want to be as comfortable as possible while fishing for several hours at a time. So many choices!

Re: Kayaks

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 8:57 am
by thinwater
I should have said 10-10.5. I have one kayak of each length.

If mounting outside the rail, be wary of spinnakar sheet. That was a non-starter on the PDQ 32. Also docking.

----

The best choise depends a lot on intended use. I remember renting one kayak (no longer produced) that was just wonderul on flat water and a complete pig in chop. Borrow if you can.