MacGregorSailors.com

Yaks are another passion of mine also! After many years of renting, or just borrowing them I settled on just two!

I have a Necky Dolphin, 14' solo SOT, with a rudder. And for bigger adventures I have a Ocean Kayak, Cabo, 16' tandem SOT, rudderless, but 600LB carrying capability.

Neither one can do rapids, but handle ocean swells and large wave beach landings and takoffs are easy!

In Yaks, things can get easily confused. There are those who prefer SINKS (Sit Inside spray skirt required) or my favorite the SOT (Sit On Top) I have used inflatable SOARS, nice boat, pricey, but worth it, and many others!

As stated, they can be specialized, and I am thinking of getting a few tandem Sevylor dive inflatable yaks also. Although the Admiral says what we have is just fine, as they do both have SCUBA tank wells built in and do work well! What I want, is something to take on our Fly-In vacations, rentals sometimes can be sparse. And we hope to dive the Great Barrier reef next year!

I suggest trying different lengths/widths, and hulls before you buy. I got both of mine less than a year old for nearly half of new retail, by asking if they had trade-ins at yak dealerships. I then went hog wild with high-quality carbon fiber Yak paddles, The highest back rests/seats I could find, best thigh straps, paddle leash's, and dry bags. We use handheld GPS's and VHF's and personal radio's and cell phones. All in there very own waterproof bags. About 2 grand total, and worth it, as I have spent at least that over the years in rental fees!

Initial stability is terrible in both of these yaks, but this is a good thing for diving actually! But it does require a certain 'dance' to mount and dismount from our Mac, they tow at 16 knots well, and I never bring them aboard. I guess there are two camps, those who'd rather have their dinghy aboard, or those like me that drag!

Get a Yak, it's fun, and keeps the mid section from bulging....it's great excersize!

Wow, IMHO we have a change to combine two threats here. There is this Kayak threat and there is also a threat about compensating too much heel and someone added this link for extra water balast on the opposite of the heeling site
http://www.maximarine.com/index.html
Rather expensive though. Maybe we can use our Kayaks for this. Just fill up the one hanging on the oposite side of the heeling with water.

I have a decent little sit-inside kayak which I bought for the exercise of paddling, but I damn near kill myself getting into the thing at a beach and no way I can get out of it without being very wet.

There is no way I could get in and out of it from the stern of my Mac without going swimming.

So, I have an 8' port-a-bote which is easy to car-top solo and seems to tow very well as long as you put a little ballast in the back.

- AndyS

Guess that answers my question. I had considered the inflatable but would never get Jim into one. Gators have big teeth. I'm looking for something that tows good while motoring. I dont really want to store anything on deck. The folda boat works well for that but you have to put it together everytime you want to use it. I saw some kayaks on the St Johns River and thought they'd be fun to use in the side channels. What problems have you had towing them. I wonder if 2 side-by-side would work.

Idle Time wrote: I saw some kayaks on the St Johns River and thought they'd be fun to use in the side channels. What problems have you had towing them. I wonder if 2 side-by-side would work.

It might work, but I tie end for end...OK, it may look strange, (can you envision a barge ) but it works well, and they track well that way. I believe side by side would be noisy, and the tow lines would get ya into trouble if they tied their own knot underway, fouling the whole mess! As with towing my dinghy, a 10' Avon inflatable, I pull her in tight when getting into traffic, or docking, backing, etc. I said this before, and it works for me, in that I lash them off the rear stay. Never had a problem, it aids in keeping the painter/tow rope out of the prop!

Of course, maybe lashed with a duo of masts and configured into a Mac Trimaran would be an answer also, both ana's abeam.......

OK, I have my sanity folks.....just jokeing!

Watternwaves,
If your concerns are: 1. Reducing scratches on the Mac and the kayak, 2. Stability, 3. Storability, 4. Ingress from the mac; then the way to go is an inflatable which will excel in all of the above categories. It will give up something in the way of performance which may or may not be a big deal depending on how far you wish to paddle it.

If you are looking for stability with safety, good storage capacity, but good speed and handling then the way to go is a fiberglass (or kevlar, carbon, etc.) double with at least 25" beam such as the one shown above in Duane's post or my 20' Eddyline with 28" beam. We can even get an ice chest into our center cockpit! I don't believe it would be easy to tow such a boat however, but if the fine entry of the boat could be lifted out of the water, maybe a way to tow it on the flat stern could be worked out, something like the Dinghy Tow system in reverse.

In my experience the polyethylene boats are slow and not much fun to paddle. They do have a price advantege over the glass boats however.

Pouw,

I have had several Yaks, been doing that for 33 years...lol. started Kayaking and sailing in the same year....
In fact have taken kayaks on deck of the Mac when heading up to the Queen Charlottes off of the Coast of British Columbia among other places...

So I have had yaks of pretty much every construction..from 5 different manufacturers, skin boat, kevlar race beast, Fiberglass, wood, sport boats, sea cruisers, polyethylene, and I do attend the kayak symposiums in port townsend Wa. every year... and with easily a thousand hours in seats..I have developed a few bad habits.... lol

as far as the eddyline...or other soft chined boats, are not my
preference... ever.. I am an aggressive paddler, and spend time on edge..

and as far as speed and carrying capacity....and comfort....try the Necky Nootka Tandem.... The Nootka outfitter was discontinued this year. but the other nootka models are still in production..(and the center cargo bay on the outfitter carries the portapotty, cooler, coleman stove, lantern, one tent and 2 dry bags) .but as far as I know, watching the races in BC and along the west coast here for years now., the Nootka is still the fastest production boat series.....wins week in and week out , the version I lost in my last divorce was the Outfitter, for the doubles, cavernous....and at 23 ft.... Fast.... hurt much more to lose that one than the Amaruk tandem we played in the surf with....but lost that one also..... (terrible losing 3 boats to one Ex-wife)

Anyway, I have towed them on occasion with the Mac, I dont recommend towing any kayak while motoring, the yaks dont stop like boat does.

I agree that if you take a yak with you, it is still a sailing trip.. for me..I needed a place to sleep in the mac.... camping on the beach for 2 months was out of the question....lol

and as such, a poly boat is slower than an equivalent glass boat.. however, poly boats can be beached anywhere, The west coast is mostly rock, ant 14 ft length of the zoar is good tradeoff for speed,payload and robustness... And I will be the first to admit....a well designed poly hull is very close to the speed of a poorly designed glass hull.. If speed is what you want.....spend time in the NEcky's

I tried carrying my Eskia "(16 ft) , and others Pygmys, Perceptions, and CD... but they just took up too much room, so I chose a smaller boat.....to piggy back, and yes I carried a dink on the bow also .. makes for a very tight deck. and one inflatable on board is enough...lol

and as far as speed, I'll just have to paddle faster..


But the Seattle boat show starts today......lol.. so the forward deck payload of the mac will probably be changing this weekend again....hehehhe,

Anyone know of a good deal on an new E-tec 90???/

Fair winds and interesting Waters to you all!!!

Went to the Seattle Boat Show today and met the designer of a rudder system for the Sevylor kayak. Bought it for $80. It is a "sock" that slides over the pointed aft end of the boat with straps led forward to buckles to keep it on. The top of the sock is metal onto which is attached a very nicely shapped rudder. Lines run through padeyes to pedals that are installed on the centerline of the boat replacing the existing foot rests. I don't think this beast will win any races, but perhaps we can keep it going in a straight line! Model no. is SVXK Rudder Assembly.

so am I right in thinking the main reason for not towing is the fact that they dont stop as fast as the boat? If so...then maybe a piece of PVC or similar on the tow line would stop it from hitting. I wouldnt be doing any real long distance traveling without the MacX..I dont think...who knows. I bought the bags and tent for the motorcycles.....but....