Sawyer Loon ok for 155 lb paddler?

S/N: SAW13826B696.
I received the following info from the seller this morning: S/N: SAW13826B696. Cockpit opening is 22-3/4" W x 89-3/4" L and OAL of kayak is 17’8".



Was 1996 a good year for Sawyer’s in general?



Thanks.

Got the four way, huh. OK, then I would

– Last Updated: Jul-13-07 2:04 PM EST –

recommend something like this for ease of use and absolute minimum weight and storage: http://placidboatworks.com/portageyoke.html

If you are going to buy one of Plsacid's Fabric Portage Yokes ask about weight rating. They make good products I do not hesitate to recommend. But keep in mind your Loon is probably 50# plus and the Placid boats are more like 20# minus.

>:^)

Mick

BTW: A RapidFire is 67" around the middle and a Loon is 7" more, or 74" around the middle (portage balance point).

You’ve got pics Mick, Eric & Wildwater.
Eric, feel free to post them to your web site an post a link here.





Happy paddling.

Some 2004 Sawyer Loon Specs:
From Topher’s webshots album.



http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1236521726043393545IIbToV



Boat at Blue Mountain Outfitters (BMO):



Length…17’0"

Max width:…28"

Waterline width…25"

Weight…55 lbs (Fiberglass)

Mfg. Sug. Capacity…400 lbs

Sawyer Loon photos.

– Last Updated: Jul-15-07 2:42 PM EST –

I'll post them as I find them on the web.

http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=1965161&forward=browse

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1236499834043393545UJPzAJ

Small World. Just talked to the guy that
I believe now owns that very Loon. He was having it strenghtened and outfitted for some long Great Lakes paddling this summer. It needed an additional layer of Kevlar inside and a few well placed reinforcements as the last Sawyer Loons made were a bit on the light side. They tended to oil can. Good looking boat.


:^)



Mick

Hopefully the 1996 Loons were built
sturdier and stiffer than the 2004 Loons. If not, it will probably still be ok for my usage. I wouldn’t have the money to have someone reinforce it.



That blue an white 2004 in the pictures is pretty indeed.

getting rid of the zephyr
When you are ready to part with it let me know. I might be interested in it if the price is right. My wife would love to have one, and I wouldn’t mind either.

Have not heard of any earlier Loons
being built to thin, so as to oil can.


:^)



Mick

I’ll add you to the list.
You’re welcome to check it out if you’re ever in the Urbana, IL area.



It’s tough to let go of such a unique boat even when it’s a kneeler and I’m a sitter and I prefer vinyl or aluminum gunwales rather than wood gunwales, but I do need the space. Something’s got to go. If I had the space, I’d keep them all.

Transport the Loon hull down or hull up?
I’m planning to pick it up soon and have been planning to place it upside down with the coaming on the rack load bars like I do my Phoenix Vagabond http://pokeboat.com/Vagabond.htm. Is this ok with the Loon, or would it be better off hull down on some of the foam kayak transport blocks?





Thanks.

Best way to store the Loon?
On edge like my kayaks, or coaming down across the supports like my canoes?



Thanks.

Answers to both trans and storage
The Loon, and all the Kruger boats, were designed to be transported and stored on their gunwales like most all good canoes.



You will find it easier loading, to tie down, creates less wind resistance (better gas mileage), so-on-so-forth if you trans and store belly up.


:^)



Mick

Have you come up w/ portage yoke
solution yet?


:^)



Mick

Thanks, that’s what I thought.

Not yet.
I haven’t asked Charlie yet if his web yoke will work with boats that heavy.



To make my own custom yoke of wood, I need to have to boat available for precise measurement of the coaming width.



The seller will help me carry the boat to the water across the road from his house for the inaugural paddle and will help load it the first time.



I’d love to have a simple to use, light weight, one handed clamp on unit like the CVCA units available for Wenonah boats with the sliding seats. They’re very comfortable and quick and easy to install and uninstall from the seat’s sliding tubes.

A clamp on canoe yoke with plastic
clamps works just fine clamped on to the coaming with the clamps coming from the outside edge in. I bought a used one earlier this year.



I carried the boat with this yoke for over a hundred yards from the take out to the parking lot without too much difficulty and I had the skirt, a kayak paddle and canoe paddle stowed under the seat while carrying.



The boat appears to be kevlar and pretty close to the 52 lbs that the seller advertised.

Picked it up yesterday in Orchard Lake,
MI. A 760 mile round trip and, so far I think it was worth the trip.



The boat appears to be kevlar and pretty close to the 52 lbs that the seller advertised. It came with a skirt that has both a perimeter bungy and snaps. The snaps are pretty difficult to snap on. There are nylon strap grab loops at each snap for easy removal. The skirt in front of the paddler opens via two zippers, which open up about a 12" wide and 18" long flap to access a little gear or spare paddle or let air circulate. The water does pool a little when using a 225cm paddle at high angle and drips through the end of the zipper on the left side right on to my leg. Also included was an old blue shaft, red blade fiberglass Werner that’s shaped similarly to my Camano blade but about an inch wider. Man, that paddle is a lot more work than my Epic Relaxed Tour, which is what I used most of the time yesterday and today.



So far, I’ve paddled it mostly without the rudder and using the Epic Relaxed Tour set to 225cm, which seems to work great, but does drip a lot of water either on to the skirt (which starts pooling) or into the boat if the skirt isn’t on. I also tried it a little with the 47.75" Zaveral bent shat with the rudder down and it worked pretty well that way too, but I’ve preferred it with the Epic kayak paddle in the first two outings.



Yesterday’s inaugural paddle was on the lake that had a launch just about a mile from where I picked the boat up. It was a medium sized lake with homes all along the shore and several boat pulling skiers and tubers and making some nice wakes to play around on. The boat appears to handle very well in the boat wakes. It feels very comfortable in the waves. The bow did start to bury a little in the closely spaced wakes when I was pointing down off the back side of one when another came in, but it popped back up nicely. The boat is VERY maneuverable with the rudder up. I can turn 180 degrees very quickly by just dropping a hip and paddling on the low side a few times. It kind of reminds me of my Phoenix Isere in the that respect. It will also spin on me when I stop paddling to get a drink of water or use the binoculars etc. It seemed to be very easy to keep tracking (without the rudder) and easy to keep moving a cruising pace. Very easy to control in the boat wakes. Very comfortable seating and seemed to encourage good forward stroke technique.



Today I paddled on a very familiar local lake in flat conditions with a moderate breeze and it handled well on flat water as well. I can’t really tell if the Loon is faster than my other relatively fast boats (fiberglass Sea Lion & Caspian Sea and Sawyer Summersong), but I did seem to feel better pysically at the end of today’s paddle than I usually do with the other boats.



Next, I want to take it out on a lake with Chuck_IL or cooldoctor1 in their sea kayaks and see how much problem I have keeping up with them.



I suspect that it will handle pretty well on rivers too, but I’m not realy eager to slide it across the boulders or gravel bars in our often shallow and bony local rivers and streams.



I think it would be a good choice for next years Great River Rumble (seven consecutive days and about 130 miles on rivers) because of it’s comfort and apparent ease of handling.



Now to decide which boat(s) to sell to make space for this one.

Suggestions to make skirt snaps easier
to snap? My fingers get sore trying to get these to securely snap. I got them all yesterday, but today I left most of them loose and relied mostly on the perimeter bungy.


Suggestions for regluing black trim?
The black trim that runs along the outside of the hull/deck seam is starting to come loose in some places and I may do some pre-emptive regluing before it actually comes off anywhere.


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