I need to get a skirt for my loon 120… Any thoughts are where I should look for one at? Any suggestions on what features I should look for?
thanks in advance
JEREMY
I thought I remembered this
You asked earlier for a boat to grow with, and your answer was that you’d want to hit some WW down the road.
Are you asking a skirt to make this boat a good choice for WW, or just to help keep things a little dryer for flat water paddling? The first is less than ideal, and pricey because of the size of the cockpit. You could spend almost as much getting a skirt for the Loon that wouldn’t implode as getting a used creeker that was tuned for WW and would accommodate a bigger sized person.
If you are just talking flatwater and staying dryer, a number of coated nylon skirts would be fine as long as you avoided really heavy downpours.
But a skirt can’t make up for having the wrong clothing for winter paddling. You live in Ohio? It might be best to worry about the clothing on your body before a skirt for a boat you could outgrow very quickly.
thanks
I’m going to keep this boat for the flat water… Just think I need a skrit to keep some water out off me. next year I’m going to get me a liquid remix xp 10 for the white water, and flat water… Then this loon will be my wifes. I hope to get the whole family into kayaks. My son gets the next boat… Getting him a remix xp 9. Wish I could buy all the stuff at once. I’ll get a dry suit down the road as I’d like to kayak all year.
JEREMY
go to Seals skirts website
Use their fit guide to find the correct fit for your Loon based on how old it is. www.sealsskirts.com
Made in the good old USA!
Get a nylon skirt with implosion bar
That’s a fancy way of describing a skirt that has a stiffener in it, often just a sewn in strip of plastic, that will hold the skirt up so that it can’t pool enough water to drop into your lap.
One other option you can find that has a similar effect is nylon skirts that have some padding so they are warmer, but they are pricier and harder to find. For the purpose at hand, I think that the basic coated nylon skirt with implosion bar/stiffener is a better idea. You’ll be spending plenty of money on clothing and gear alone by the time you try to outfit a family, no reason to break the bank of a skirt for what will be essentially a pond/slow river boat.
cheap option
Depending on how old your Loon is your cockpit is probably 17 1/2" by 43" (if it was made after 2005). There is this skirt on Ebay, for $30, the right size but lacks the stiffening rib Celia recommends (and I agree). But the price is right and you might be able to add a stiffener of some kind by sewing a tunnel across the deck and inserting a flexible plastic strip or rod. Just seal the stitching with a bead of Aquaseal.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kayak-Spray-Skirt-fits-cockpit-39-X-20-42-X-22-/330642952929?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cfbdb12e1
I do have nylon sprayskirts without the stiffener for a couple of my boats, and it is a bit of a pain that they tend to collect a puddle after a while, but you can pop up your knee every once in a while and get it to drain off. Not a huge inconvenience.
thank you
everyone for the information. I put a bid in a the cheaper one from Ebay. Figured that would be a good start, because this is going to be a slow river and pound boat…
thanks again
jb