driving costs
3000 miles from Washington’s Monument to the Bellingham Ferry Terminal
130 gallons (25mpg) at $3.50 plus $1-$2 per mile operating costs
times 2…
Folding boats and suits
Wow, lots to think about, and much more to research.
I will certainly be looking into both dry suit and wet suit. I have found on some bargain sites such as “The Clymb” wetsuits for only ~$100-140. If I could grab a used or on sale dry suit for just a couple hundred then I could see myself buying both and using the many months ahead to test them out to see which I would prefer for the full length trip.
Thanks all for the great site references, I will certainly be checking out the used feathercraft classifieds. I had some serious sticker shock on their website when I saw the K1 retailing for $5,800…jeez, I don’t even have a house to mortgage yet.
If I could find a well kept K1 in the $2000 to $2500 range then that would be a serious consideration. Otherwise, lots of reviews surfing seems to lead me to Folbot models such as the Yukon ($2250 new with spray deck). I could see myself spending that much with the rationalization that I would have this boat for potentially decades to come and it would make long distance trips just that much more feasible on a more regular basis. Does anyone here own a Folbot and can personally attest to their durability/performance?
I also recently visited the Nautiraid site and was impressed with their fleet. I am having trouble finding pricing though. Does anyone have a link to help with this? I have seen the terminology “competitive pricing” but haven’t actually seen any numbers.
Sorry for the delayed response to everybody’s help. Keep firing away! I can always use more feedback.
Ouch…pricey
Man, both those options are both expensive. Definitely not road tripping as I would rather spend that month of transit paddling. I have found round trip flights for just over $600 from the DC area to Juneau/Sitka area. Not too bad.
Nautiraids
I just visited the site…awesome stuff. Definitely demands my attention, only issue is that I can’t find pricing anywhere. Am I just missing it or is it a call and find out kind of deal?
Great info
Thanks again for your input. This info has helped me with a few things. I have been thinking a folding kayak is going to be the way to go, and your reviews/advice has helped solidify that concept.
I love the idea of a K1, but still find it hard to stomach the $2000-$3000 price tag for a used boat from the late 90s early 2000s. Are feathercraft of such a high quality that a 2002 K1 is still a better choice than a brand new Folboat Yukon or Kodiak? Interesting debate going on in my head now, very curious to see what you think.
Which suit to wear
So, I was thinking, I routinely see wetsuits on those discounted sites such as Steep&Cheap or theClymb. So far, I have seen some suits that retail at $300 or so on sale for ~$100-$140. I have done some searching for reviews and they seem to be well liked and high performing. If I could pick myself up a suit for just over $100 and then find a lightly used dry suit for a couple hundred then I could put them to the test in the saltwater of the Atlantic over several weekend trips over the course of all 4 seasons to determine if there was one I preferred. What do you think?
Thanks for your help.
folder cruiser
experience counts: notice how Alex managed to get wheelbarrow on the plane. Amazing
http://goo.gl/nc5vyL
Wouldn’t go with Airline
I was a pilot for US Airways for 15 years. And I can tell you your going to run into a number of problems if you try and put your Kayak on the Airlines.
First: There is a very good chance the Airline won’t even accept it as baggage (You’ll have to check with the airline your flying). The problem is most Passenger Aircraft simply aren’t set up to handle cargo of these dimensions. A 747, 767, A330, A340, should be able to accommodate a package of this size but anything else if the ground crew was even willing to try they would be hard pressed to fit the boat though the cargo doors…
Second: If there is a problem where bags are going to be left behind (weight, space, what ever) and there is a decent chance that happens guess what the first piece of cargo the captain is going to tell them to pull off. This is a simple numbers game, I can piss off one person (you) buy pulling off your boat or I can piss of the 20 people who’s bags I had to bump to accommodate your boat… Add to that your going to Alaska so this is an even more likely scenario than if you were going to, say the Caribbean, where cargo loads tend to be lighter… Oh, and if your boat does get bumped, I wouldn’t plan on seeing it any time soon because the airline isn’t going to pay Fedex to ship something that big, so your going to have to wait until they can accommodate it on one of their flights…
Third: Even if everything else falls into place, it isn’t going to be cheep. First your going to pay an overweight cargo fee (some where in the vicinity of 100 to 150 bucks), then your going to pay and over sized fee (This varies wildly between airlines but at a guess this would probably be something like 100 bucks for for every 9 cubic feet (3 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft) of space it takes up beyond the ‘standard’ bag size (about 3 by 2 by 1)ft and your going to have to pay this both ways… so at a guess I’m thinking your looking at a 1000.00 bucks additional at least.
Forth: Please note I’m not knocking the ground crews here, they have to handle a lot of cargo, in a very short period of time, with a high degree of accuracy in getting it on the right plane… I wouldn’t trust anything I wasn’t willing to deal with damage to, to the cargo hold of a passenger aircraft. Not to mention there is a decent chance the ground crew simply won’t have enough time to wrestle your boat into the cargo hold. The average ground time for an aircraft is a little less than 40 minutes… That means the ground crews have around 30 minutes (or less) to unload several hundred bags, then reload several hundred bags, fuel and cater the aircraft and insure the aircraft is airworthy and so on. It is difficult to understand the controlled chaos that is an airport ramp. To be honest, I’m amazed anything gets anywhere…
My recommendation, spend that money on a nice folding or inflatable kayak if your going to be doing a lot of air traveling trips. Or just rent, you’ll be far less stressed and save money to boot.
Good luck and have a great trip!
Ugg
Sorry for the spelling and grammar errors… was in a hurry!