Electric Kayak?

Hi



Interested in adding an electric motor to my Liquid Logic “Tuxedo” kayak. Does anyone have a suggestion for an inexpensive (Maybe home made?) way to mount a motor & battery? Recently I saw that Ocean Kayak has the “Thrust” kayak. That is a SOT with a scuttle behind the paddler where a short drive motor can be easily inserted. The selling point is that the motor & battery can be added after the kayak is launched. The idea of modifying the hull of the “Tuxedo” with a scuttle is pretty scary. Maybe something that hangs a trolling motor off the side of the cockpit & has the battery in a box would work. Thanks in advance for any help.



Don


Look elsewhere
This site is mostly for paddling folks. The folks who most often use trolling mototrs are kayak fishermen. Google at Topkayaker, Coastal Kayak Fishing, and Kayakfishingstuff. On those sites you’ll find a lot more information. I strongly recommend from personal experience that you attach one or two outriggers to help stabilize the boat in turns. What you’ll end up with won’t really be a kayak anymore but it may suit your needs perfectly.



After all my experiments I found I could paddle a kayak farther than a battery will last and I end up carrying less gear and paddling safer without the motor. Still it was fun to tinker with. These days I’m trying to sail a kayak which is a bit harder than sailing a canoe well.

Bassyaks

– Last Updated: Jan-19-10 2:45 PM EST –

Bassyaks has kits that should match what you are looking for. I am not sure if they have any specific to your yak, but I do know a lot of yak fishermen who swear by them.

Native Watercraft
Makes an electric kayak.

electric trolling motor
I saw a homemade kayak once that had a modified rudder with the bottom of a trolling motor mounted on it. The power cable ran up into the rear hatch where the battery was stored. The kayak could be steered by using the rudder controls, which would swivel the motor, then it could be raised up out of the water when not being used. With a little ingenuity I think you could probably retrofit something like that.

I wish I had a link I could show you, but I cannot find the pic.

laws…
be careful about sticking motors on watercraft…some states require registration as soon as you motorize a boat.

motor
I’ve often thought this would be fun. Kayak should just about fly with a tiny trolling motor. The littlest MinnKota should work fine, though it’s awfully tall for a yak. A car battery in a boat battery box will work, needs strapped down somehow and I’d put it towards to bow to balance the weight of the motor. A simple cross bar could be fairly easily strapped with webbing strap around the bottom of the boat to hold the motor on.



Btw, for those dismissing this, perhaps if you’re not willing to offer help you could just ignore the post rather than being a smart a**.



Bill H.

What did you do?
Did you ever motorize the kayak? My research seems to show that bassyak is a nice setup allebit expensive. Just curious.