I guess this is too far away from you, but it might at least give you an idea of what you could find if you are patient and keep you eye out.
OP lives within a short walk to the St. Mary’s River in the U.P. and in another thread, noted they will be in Petoskey in the near future, which is about 1.5 hours to T.C. It’s a nice drive along the shoreline.
Also noted they will be at the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium next month. Unsure if they’re attending or visiting; there will be demo boats there, but nothing under 14 feet.
Magooch-- we are definitely not going to do the WalMart specials etc. If we were to do a trailer, it would be designed for kayak hauling. Roads up here are mostly high speed federal/state or in many cases still stone/dirt once you get off the few majors.
Because of this, form really needs to follow function.
Willowleaf-- the van actually came with a factory hitch, but no roof rails. I have only found two places in the whole UP east of I-75 that sells roof rails. One is Dunhams but it is mostly online order( a few misc pieces and parts in stock, probably from returns). The other is the Ford dealer but will only install Ford OEM, the quality of which the Transit Van forum finds a bit suspect. I do need to dig further and find out what is recommended on that forum.
Rookie-- we are still planning on the Great Lakes Kayak meeting-- just going as onlookers. Hope to get a lot of questions answered though.
Doggy Paddler–thanks for the CL listing. Emphasizes that we really need to decide what we want to do for transport.
We have found an outfitters in the Les Cheneaux island area- Wind and Water(rough guess an the name without pulling out my notes) that rents sea kayaks, but only after you have taken a part day training course with them. The price of the training course is then subtracted from your first rental. It teaches water re-entry and much more. We definitely want to do that,.
I am still under the influence of moldly lung illness, so anything other than a slow lily-dipping drift is not in the works----yet.
I’m pretty sure that doing a paddle in a sea kayak will convince us to go to the next level of boat or at least do a longer rec boat. Which takes us back to the transport issue.
Is a drive to Madison Wisconsin a possibility? http://www.rutabaga.com/ These guys have everything. They are friendly helpful people if you look on the site for a phone number.
get a short ww boat and just toss it in the van. Actually it’s better to wedge it in so it doesn’t fly through the windshield. No need to worry about navigation or shuttles… You’ll just paddle it in circles.
If you do go for a solid hull - apparently kari tek isn’t the only one making easy loading roofracks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f79udf-4rw though that one does look a bit sturdier… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVtdBZaDnmg Don’t know if they ship to the Americas but from my experience with English vendors ( managed to get a Nova Craft 16 footer to this country at little extra charge from the UK dealer ) is pretty good…
@RedPaddler said:
Don’t know if they ship to the Americas but from my experience with English vendors ( managed to get a Nova Craft 16 footer to this country at little extra charge from the UK dealer ) is pretty good…
Interesting product, but the Thule Hullavator is readily available here in the U.S. Does a terrific job lifting 40# of the boat’s weight. A wonderfully engineered system with nice attention to small details, like providing pockets in the cradles to store excess strap.
I actually paddle inflatables, hard shells and folding kayaks. My inflatables set up in 10 minutes and are light for carrying and slower but just fine on the water. I leave my folding kayaks assembled and carry them on the roof rack if not traveling. They vary in lightness and performance but like my inflatables, can be taken to far off places easily.For most of my paddles, I do prefer my hardshell kayaks on large open water. No needed extra expence of racks or trailers with inflatables but a 12V pump would be nice
@RedPaddler said:
Don’t know if they ship to the Americas but from my experience with English vendors ( managed to get a Nova Craft 16 footer to this country at little extra charge from the UK dealer ) is pretty good…
Interesting product, but the Thule Hullavator is readily available here in the U.S. Does a terrific job lifting 40# of the boat’s weight. A wonderfully engineered system with nice attention to small details, like providing pockets in the cradles to store excess strap.
Hmm nice one that - hadn’t seen it before. Looks very well thought out and produced but a touch more pricey ^^ Still lots of thule vendors and buyers out there - better chances of picking one of these up over yonder on sale or sec hand
If you decide you want Hullavators that Craigslist deal I posted above is very good. $650 for two – anytime one around here gets listed for near the $300 mark it gets snapped up pronto!
I have the Sea Eagle Razorlite 473RL tandem/solo inflatable, and my son has the Razorlite 393RL. We find these inflatables to have good performance for the type of paddling you described. The setup is quick, takedown is also quick, but a little longer to wipe the boat down. We both live in NE Wisconsin. If you are close by we could possibly get together and let you look at the boats.
I own both inflatables and hard shells, if you purchase a quality inflatable ( I own Advance Elements) then you won’t be disappointed. I can throw the bag in the back seat of my Wrangler and be off to a paddling site in no time. No extra racks or trailer needed.
I think many commenters here are merely expressing their own preferences, rather than considering your situation. A trailer is expensive and hard to maneuver at launch sites, and unnecessary anyway. Since you and your partner are both of moderate size and will be lily-paddling, you have no need for long boats. Since you have problems lifting things, you do not want a “recreational kayak” made of plastic. The obvious answer is short, ultralight boats which fit into your vehicle. The alternatives are folders like the Pakboat Puffin, or an ultralight canoe like those made by Hornbeck and several others. I have a Puffin and leave it assembled throughout the season, because assembly takes time and requires crouching uncomfortably on the ground, unless one can find a platform like a picnic table.
Speaking of folders, there’s a Trak entered in the ongoing Race to Alaska (R2AK). Here’s a blurb from today’s update about that kayak:
“Gear: Team TRAK Kayaks bounced off of a rock in False Narrows and put a hole in the fabric of his folding kayak. Sitting in a slowly growing puddle of water he called TRAK Customer Service who told him to just bring it into his nearest dealership—which just so happenened to be two miles away at Qualicum Beach. Repair affected and Team TRAK is back with the pack of human-powered boats, and a few miles back from Team Torrent… who is only a couple of hours behind the pace of Karl Kruger’s record-setting SUP time in 2017.”
