I live next to the Sea of Cortez in an area with lot’s of islands and remote coastline. I started paddling a few years ago as a “transport” out to good spearfishing spots. I quickly learned that I love the paddling as much as the diving/spearfishing, and I started doing overnighters on the islands. I purchased a well-used Cobra Tourer… 15’ SOT, tons of storage for gear… SOT because very easy to get in and out for diving.
I’m moving to NW Washington state… great rivers, estuaries, bays, islands… cold water! I’m hoping to find a single kayak that is good for Class3 river rapids, open water bays, closed water estuaries. My experience is SOT touring… what design qualities would you choose, and why?
I’m hardly an expert but your description sounds like at least 2 boats. Class 3 and open water are two different worlds.
You’ve come to the right place for advice.
The good news is that where you are going there are a LOT of used kayaks. So you will be able to choose the 2 completely different boats that you will need for your planned outings.
For Class III you want short (9’ or less), round or planed hull and some rocker for quick turns and popping through holes.
For Pacific coast, estuaries and open water you want length (15’ to 18’), narrower beam, a vee hull, possibly multi-chined, and a skeg or rudder.
There are lots of recent designs for “cross over boats” . Dagger makes two you might find interesting the Stratos which is fun in the surf, rock gardens and waves, has a drop down skeg so you can paddle flatwater and at 14 ft is OK for lots of class III paddling. The Axis is a shorter boat whose focus is easy whitewater and good for beginners, it also has a drop down skeg for flat water. No boat is going to excel in both coastal, flat and rocky class III, but you can likely find something to get you started and then decide where you want to focus or buy two boats later on. Lots of us on paddling.com have a lot of boats we have acquired over time for different types of paddling and we forget you have to start somewhere and decide where you want to focus or how many boats you can collect for a quiver.
Hi String, I love the idea of launching on the Nooksack or Skagit, paddling 20 miles down to big water, and wandering the estuaries for a few hours… all in one wild day. Silly man, right? All design is compromise… what would you choose for this great day on the water?
Thanks Willow and Marshall, I understand the differences in use… Sea Dart, that’s exactly the kind of idea I was hoping for… compromise with a non-ideal boat, focus on either whitewater or flatwater. My experience is open water and I love it… but I’m slobbering to get into some fast water and feel the difference. It would probably be best to take some lessons in whitewater on a river kayak, then decide. Always fun to think about boats.
Where padding on flat water like the Sea of Cortez is somewhat intuitive, padding white water (even class I) is not. And class III is a higher level that takes some learning and experience to grow in to from the class I-II that people start learning in. Before settling on a boat for white water, strongly recommended you take some white water classes. That class should include all the gear you’d need in the class.
I regularly paddle a Stratos, like what @SeaDart mentioned. I used to have a Jackson Karma RG, which is similar to the Axis mentioned.
The Stratos works well on the bay and ocean, even with tidal currents and waves. I’ve considered taking on a multi-day camping trip down the Sacramento River from Reading to Chico, which has some class I ripples, but would not do class II or beyond as it is not maneuverable enough. But even on flat water, it is a tradeoff as it is not as fast as a longer boat, so it limits me to shorter distance paddles and to not paddle with people in fast boats. The max distance I’ve done in a Stratos is about half the max distance I’ve done in longer/faster boats. I’ve not paddled the Cobra you have, but would suspect that the Stratos and the Cobra are similar in speed, with the Stratos maybe being a touch faster.
I have used the Karma on class I-II rivers, and it worked. My skills are not good enough for class III so never tried but likely would want a full on white water boat instead of a crossover if I did. When used on flat water, the Karma was a total slog. I used it to play in rock gardens, but would only want ones that were reasonably close to where I put in. Max distance I’ve done in the Karma is about 2/3rds that of the Stratos.
If the objective is simply to run rapids without playing around, any boat will do – if you have the skills. Here is a guy running a 3’ drop (class II+, almost III) in a surf ski.
He made it through fine, ran three other drops and finished with one the of the best times in the race. I’ll guarantee you that it was a straight run.
To me that is not what whitewater is about. Whitewater is about playing in the rapids – using the current for eddy turns/peal outs, ferries, surfing, etc. You can do that in one of the shorter cross-over boats, but it will not be as much fun as a dedicated whitewater boat, and it will be miserable on the flats. You can also do it in one of the shorter touring boats (14-feet), which will be much better in the flats, but not as responsive in the rapids.
If it was me and I could only have one boat I’d go for the touring boat – especially if you are going to paddle 20-miles down to the bay. I’m a long way from WA, but took a look at American Whitewater, and it looks like there is some rapids on the Lower Skagit (Sauk River to Sedro-Woolley) and on the So. Fork of the Nooksack (River Mile 25 to Saxon Road), but there is still a lot of flatwater between there and the bay.
The section that I would like to paddle is the II/III section of the Skagit from Goodell Creek to Copper Creek - that looks amazing. They all look beautiful, and there is some big water coming down from those mountains.
Been higher up on the Skagit ( s bends) and nooksack. Didn’t paddle the gnarly stuff on the nooksack. Kept it class 3. I did both n a ww boat. Wore a drysuit in july, water is cold. You could paddle estuaries in a ww boat but you will be slow and tire quickly. No perfect boat but assuming you have the skills you learn to make do ww boats are designed to turn, not an asset on open water.
