hi. i am finding I am becoming biased towards kayaks more on their ease of beimg lifted rather than features, which I will need for sea kayaking.
the boat I liked the most was a nimble perception 12footer at 45lbs. easy to lift. the 15footer felt like a millstone, 57lbs.
Do you remember feeling this way about your first kayak? with time did your arms just get stronger & you got used to it? thx
You can get a longer kayak at 45 lb. or less. What does happen is length makes it harder to handle even though same weight. When you swing or turn a longer boat it has more momentum or leverage as it moves on your body. You do learn tricks to lift and control your boat. Like weight lifting you will get stronger if you do it a lot. I have a Current Designs Solstice 17-6 and a CD Extreme 18-10. Probably within a pound of each other in weight but longer is a bit harder to swing around. Now if it’s not super windy I can and have to pick them up then extend them straight up on one arm and spin to launch it they way I want to. I have to keep it Hugh and level or it hits the chain link fence. If I feel good and I am working out and or doing it every few days it’s not bad. If I haven’t done it in a while it’s a struggle. Then I add a few pounds with gear and deck bag and boats go from 48 to 55 maybe. Few pounds even in near center and I feel it.
I have spent years paddling Tarpon 160. Allegedly 85 lb, sometimes feels like 150.
While never carrying it around by myself, I could basically handle it on and off the truck.
Those days are gone.
If you are going to keep paddling, buy the lightest boat you can afford.
You will get stronger as you paddle more but those aren’t lifting muscles. The gym can help that
I am now looking at considerably lighter boats.
Randall, you’re looking for a sea kayak at less than 57lbs is that it?
To me a sea kayak is no less than 14’, preferably 16.5 or longer. To keep in your desired weight range you may need to eliminate polyethylene boats and look at thermoformed or composite boats. I’ve got a 14’ poly boat at 54lbs, a 14’ much wider thermoformed kayak at around 44lbs. and an 18’ carbon Kevlar coming in around 45lbs among others.
I used to have an old school poly boat that at 4 meters came in around 40 lbs, but it was devoid of the bulkheads, comfy seat, deck rigging, hatches etc. of today’s boats.
Buying high end boats used is the way to go! If you don’t like them, you can probably recover your investment for the next purchase.
I’ve had heavier boats but decided to let them go. It’s no fun hauling around a 60+ pound boat.
T
There are other options for lighter weight. Wooden kit boats (like Pygmy, Guillemot or CLC) or skin-on-frame kayaks (Cape Falcon Kayaks or Unicorn, for examples) are half the weight of similar dimension plastic or even composite boats. Even if you don’t feel up to building one yourself, there are people that make them for sale. My 18’ long skin on frame kayak weighs 31 pounds. Folding sea kayaks, like the Pakboat Quest 155 or XT-16 are under 40 pounds. I’ve been using folders for 15 years
Longer boats can actually sometimes be the same weight as shorter ones because, being longer, they are narrower. Many of us find them simpler to handle and load than shorter boats because a longer boat gives you more leverage in lifting onto a tall roof rack. At 5’ 5" I also find a narrow sea kayak easier to balance on my shoulder for carrying to the water than a wide shorter boat.
You don’t lift, you get a rack and tools and slide it up. And a cart to move it over the ground. Your back will thank you.
OK, sliding up 65 pounds is still more than sliding 40 pounds. I deal with less heavy boats these days when I can. But if it will take the 65 pound boat to keep me safe on a trip, I can handle that too.
Unclear what you have in terms of vehicle, rack etc. But if you spend long enough at this, this stuff is part of having a kayak. Did you say Great Lakes in a post about backbands? If so, sea kayaks will be a lot of what is ont he water.
Celia has it right. The biggest issue with boat weight is getting it on your roof rack, but don’t assume you have to “lift” the boat to do that. I’ve written a bunch of different posts explaining different ways of getting your boat onto a high roof rack without any need for overhead lifting of the full weight of the boat with your hands being higher than your waist, and I don’t have the inclination right now, but Celia has already mentioned the principle that’s involved. Find some way to slide it up there. Don’t lift. That said, lighter boats are still the way to go if your wallet and possibly a need for extreme durability will allow.
Do you spend more time lifting the kayak or paddling the kayak? Which is more important to you?
@Overstreet said:
Do you spend more time lifting the kayak or paddling the kayak? Which is more important to you?
But no sense buying it if you can’t load it by yourself.
Even if you get one end up leaning on the vehicle or rollers you’ll still have to lift near or over you head unless you have a Corvette. Granted it won’t be the entire kayak but it could be 70% of the weight. Besides lifting the weight a big part is control. Have help while practicing and you’ll get better after 10 times. As stated above longer does give you more leverage to get it on so it;s not as bad as it looks.
Once you have actually used this method and done it properly it will be clear that once you reach the point in the loading process where overhead lifting is necessary, you’ll only need to lift a very small percentage of the boat’s weight, to the point that even with a heavy boat, you could easily do it with one hand. So forget the Corvette example. Unless you have a full-size van or tall camper shell on a pickup, you’ll get the boat at least halfway onto whatever sliding surface you are using while your hands are still only as high as your waist, and probably farther than halfway. Then, if you really wanted to, you could keep sliding the boat forward so that the back end will literally lift itself since more weight is forward of the contact point than rearward. In reality, you’ll be happy enough pushing the boat forward to the point that once you need to raise your hands shoulder-high or more you are lifting only 15 pounds or so. I’ve been loading boats this way for more than 40 years, all on vehicles that are relatively tall (one was a full-size van, and the boat in that case was a 12’ aluminum Jon boat that weighed more than half as much as I did at the time).
@Randall said:
hi. i am finding I am becoming biased towards kayaks more on their ease of beimg lifted rather than features, which I will need for sea kayaking.the boat I liked the most was a nimble perception 12footer at 45lbs. easy to lift. the 15footer felt like a millstone, 57lbs.
Do you remember feeling this way about your first kayak? with time did your arms just get stronger & you got used to it? thx
I’m a canoe person so others can advise you better around which sea kayaks might best fit your personal needs but overall I encourage you to get a boat that is light enough that you know you will never hesitate to use it. If you are already worried about the 57 pounder then don’t get it…unless you have high confidence that you can handle it (at home and at the put ins you will use) using “lift one end” techniques and a cart and whatever. I think you’re actually stronger than average when you go to the store and test paddle and test lift boats…a bit pumped up and optimistic.
Unless you are already doing regular weight lifting the boat isn’t going to get any lighter for you.
Boats 7-10 pounds more you can really feel if you start moving them around or rotating.
@PaddleDog52 said:
@Overstreet said:
Do you spend more time lifting the kayak or paddling the kayak? Which is more important to you?But no sense buying it if you can’t load it by yourself.
You can fix loading problems. But a plastic tub will always be a plastic tub and paddle poorly.
Our demure Korean paddler saw a you tube video on making your kayak cart into trunk rollers and she rolls her 17 ft yak up the trunk an on to the top of the car. There’s always a way to take a good boat.
@Randall said:
Do you remember feeling this way about your first kayak? with time did your arms just get stronger & you got used to it? thx
Not really. My first boat (10’ x 28") weighed 43 pounds. My current boat (16’ x 21") weighs 47 pounds. I like light better than heavy when it comes to kayaks and paddles.
The video above shows what I have been doing for years. We failed on creativity and paid bucks for the Amagasett Roller Loader rather than making up our own, and it has gotten pricier. But over a decade later I am still using it to get sea kayaks on the roof of cars which have gotten taller voer the years. I assure you I have not (gotten taller). So I figure it was worth whatever money it cost.
Yes, I also have a Hullivator on one side. But there are trips where I take two bots, one in that and one in saddle and glide pads, and I am not certain that the Hullivator process is as fast as the roller to the glide pads. Where it saves a lot of time is tying down.
@PaddleDog52 said:
. Granted it won’t be the entire kayak but it could be 70% of the weight.
Well it’s more like 42% of the weight. Here’s my 12 ft sot veteran. It weighs 70#. Lift up one end you lift 30# . Put that end on the car. Lift the other end it’s 30#. See these pictures in no particular order. I’m out of here to dinner.!(https://d3s3k13islrvw7.cloudfront.net/original/2X/4/4695ee308d2d6bfd68db29ca07d16f96fb95931d.jpeg
Actually, Overstreet, you are being very conservative in taking your measurements that way and it would be easy to show much greater reduction in lifting power than that, at least for the overhead lifting, which is what really matters. In that video you posted, though the person demonstrating did start out by lifting one end overhead, there was no need for him to do it that way, though it many have been easier than holding the whole boat at waist level and on a tilt. The main thing is that once the boat was on the rollers, the balance point was all the way to the halfway point and beyond before the real need for hands-above-head lifting came about, so the lifted weight at that point was virtually zero or even negative. In the video, you could even see that the rear end of the boat was simply pulled up by the overhanging front portion, and no overhead lifting at all would have been needed if a person chose. So, you are right, but an even stronger case for greatly reduced lifting requirements can be made here.
Get a proper trailer and your high lifting days are over. Also learn how to lift the boat so you don’t strain something. You will get stronger if you work at it.
