Old Town "Loon"T130 any good?

Hi, I am buying my first kayak. I have rented a few times and love it. My fiance and I are trying to find one that we both like and was wondering if anybody knew anything about the Old Town "Loon"T130. It’s a two seater sit inside style. Also, if anybody has any idea on what a reasonable price for one would be, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

Where do you plan to paddle?
Paddling ocean adds different considerations about the boat than paddling smaller quiet lakes and rivers, and both are different from the way you think about a boat for moving water.



Is this boat used? I was trying to see if it had two cockpits or one big one, and couldn’t find any shots of one.

Things to look for.
The Old Town Loon can be a pretty good boat, because they were built pretty stout. But any polyethylene boat whether new, or used should be carefully checked for warps etc. It’s so common to see poly boats that have been left out in the sun and often have warped bottoms and slumping decks. Some of that can be fixed, but if the boat is bent from stem to stern, I doubt it can be salvaged.



The tandem Loons I’ve seen have one long cockpit with two seats. This can be a good thing, because if the seats are adjustable enough, the boat can work for a single paddler as well as tandem.

A casual paddler friend of mine…
has a single Loon 138. Heaviest boat I have ever encountered. It is certainly stout, but beware of injury when it comes to loading it up or portaging (esp. if you’re old like me).



It is also incredibly wide. So wide, that my J-cradles are just barely long enough to support it to the midline of the hull.

Heavy but sturdy I think its Polylink3
Super slippery over rocks and even resists holes from dragging on the ground. I paddled the solo from a Livery and considered buying one myself. A great boat for knocking around or paddling rock gardens. Needs the right outfitting.

Loon 138
I have a single Loon 138 at my summer place. It is wide, slow, heavy, and indestructible. The last is key as it is “common property” used by dozens of folks and owned only by me. The question that is not being asked is do you really want a tandem as opposed to two singles. There are significants advantages and disadvantages to both. You might decide that he increased flexibility of two singles out weights the increase in cost.

David

I have two Loons
A 138 single, and a 160T tandem. As other have said, they are heavy. They are boringly stable. I have to almost dive half out of the 138 to get it to go over, and both my wife and I have leaned on the cockpit coaming and looked into the water with out a hint of the boat going over. I’va also had my daughter and one of her friends standing on the decks with it still being very stable. Not saying it will never happen, but you have to work at it, or be really unlucky. And once they do swamp, good luck. The 138 is pretty easy to move around, your not winning any races, but you can go all day. My 100 lb daughter can paddle it with ease. She just can’t lift it. I’ve also had it out on some pretty windy days, and had it do just a little surfing when going down wind.

The tandem is different. The cockpit is big and open, more canoe like. Plenty of room for two with a cooler and other stuff for a day on the water. Paddling a tandem takes practice, and making it go straight can be a challenge in a cross wind. And it’s a two person job to cartop it. I use a trailer when I need to take them both. They are both very sturdly built, I don’t worry if the kids want to beat on them.

IMHO, I’d seriously consider getting two singles instead of a tandem. My wife and I enjoy it more when we are in seperate boats. Except at night.