towing kayaks

Advice
#1

I am thinking of using a small motorboat to tow two kayaks a few miles into a remote spot on a large lake, then camping and kayaking a few days. Has anyone had any experience trying this? would it be easy to do, or would the kayaks flip over easily? Would it be better to use 2 ropes, or tow the kayaks one behind the other in a single line? Any advice would be welcome. Thanks.

#2

Make a catamaran
Maybe lash them together side-by-side to prevent them from overturning? No idea, but that’s what I would try.

#3

towing kayaks
Just be aware of the attachment points on the towed and towing boat. Attachment to the power boat should be higher than the kayak, this will help stop it flipping. Probably worth making a yoke or harness as just clipping to the bow can create a very high centre of gravity. Atach a line to one deck line a third to a half way between the bow and cockpit, pass it under the kayak and attach it to the deck line on the other side, tie a loop at the mid point of this line and use this as the attachment point. This will help lift the bow of the kayak which will reduce the chance of capsizing the kayak and help it ride over the wake of the power boat.

#4

if you’re really concerned
you might put a cockpit cover on them

#5

have done that many times
You’ll NEED to have enough line out so ya don’t flip or sink em , minimum 20 ’ , cockpit cover is helpful but NOT nessecary. No need to build anything and ya can tow em one beind the other . Always good to use floating line as that will not go where the prop is . Can you get into kayaks from the boat ? Load em too ?Think it thru …

M

#6

One rig I saw
had a length of PVC pipe with a rope from each end coming back to the stern to make kind of a bridle. The kayaks were tied to loops on PVC (very close). Seemed to reduce the tendency to flip. This was an outfitter who routinely towed 4-8 kayaks upstream on the Colorado River in Texas.



Mark

#7

How fast?
This might be a dumb question, but how fast are you planning on towing the kayaks? From what I’ve heard, kayaks don’t like to be towed at a fast pace.



Pedro Almeida

#8

towing
Done it a few times with canoes but easier to run the rope. You’ll want to run the rope from each side so it is centered behind the motor. So off each rear handle to a centre point like water skiers do. The rope should be long as mentioned so it sits well back behind the wake of the boat. You don’t want your kayaks climbing the wake all the time. You want the bottom of your harness/rope/loop to come up at the bottom of the kayak. So when it is pulling it is lifting the front end up a bit. If you can wrap the rope arond the cockpit and have it comming off each side running to the front of the kayak and tied there there is less stress on pulling. One attachment can ripped out/off if not strong enough. Does that make sence? Sometimes I don’t know the proper words to use. You could run the rope down the left side of the kayak to the rear. Tie a loop around the hull and run the rope back on the right side so when it pulls it will be pulling fron the hull. You’d have to attach the rope by a carabiener to each other in the front of the kayak to get the pulling from the front but the stress near the rear hull.



RR

#9

Have done it
We’ve done it when it would take too much time to load them all on the boat to get going to the next destination.



Here is what it looked like, and the boat we used to tow with.

#10

Thanks
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will probably try a couple of different ones and see which works best for my purposes. Will try different speeds too