Inflatable kayaks and canoes

[Nekton73]

I have been using one of these for the past few years.
https://canoeboat.ca/products/palava


Gotta say I'm pretty impressed. It certainly doesn't track or paddle as well as a hard shell canoe but with a bit of attention to good posture and a solid j-stroke I can make good progress even into a stiff wind, and it's quite stable in short choppy waves.
If I'm only going a short distance I lay it alongside the cabin top and secure with its own painters. Longer distance or bigger wind I deflate and fold it up and strap it to the front of the cabin top, or just toss it below. Takes 5 min to inflate with a good high-volume double action pump. Carries two people plus a day pack each easily, or solo with lots of stuff.


I remember reading a review from someone who put a skeg patch on the bottom and it improved tracking significantly. I haven't done that yet but for someone who doesn't have a lot of paddling experience it might be an easy fix and make it a lot more enjoyable.

[GordMay]

An inflatable kayak, that can [safely] hold more air will, be more rigid, which will hold its shape better, allowing it to track straighter, and turn quicker.
Some manufacturers will tell you how much air [in PSI] a kayak can hold, although not every company discloses the spec, so you may have to do some research, to find it.
Most boats will inflate to at least 1.5 to 2.5 PSI.
An exceptionally rigid model can reach 2.5 to 3.5 PSI, which should hold a straight line, in open water, and hold an edge when paddlers lean out, similar to what you’d get from a hard-shell kayak.

[Grith]

I recently purchased secondhand a virtually unused canoe which has drop stitched high pressure floor and sides and comfortably accommodates two and gear. It paddles fine with a fin under the stern and has foot operated rudder steering which whilst an optional extra it came with the canoe but I haven’t bothered to fit it yet.
I did however modify an old plastic paddle head by attaching an outboard rail carrying plate to then add a cheap small electric outboard. This works really well.
I also use an inflatable SUP as quick and dirty shore transport carried in SUP racks on my trailerable cruising yacht and the canoe can carry in these inflated as well as this.
The inflatable canoe was purchased however not for our yacht but for our slide on truck camper which is impossible to load a hard craft onto its very high and covered in solar panels roof.
This vehicle is used separately as our on land touring/adventuring platform but also tows our trailerable yacht to distant cruising grounds at 50knots up wind. 🙂

[Grith]

I recently purchased secondhand a virtually unused canoe which has drop stitched high pressure floor and sides and comfortably accommodates two and gear. It paddles fine with a fin under the stern and has foot operated rudder steering which whilst an optional extra it came with the canoe but I haven’t bothered to fit it yet.
I did however modify an old plastic paddle head by attaching an outboard rail carrying plate to then add a cheap small electric outboard. This works really well.
I also use an inflatable SUP as quick and dirty shore transport carried in SUP racks on my trailerable cruising yacht and the canoe can carry in these inflated as well as this.
The inflatable canoe was purchased however not for our yacht but for our slide on truck camper which is impossible to load a hard craft onto its very high and covered in solar panels roof.
This vehicle is used separately as our on land touring/adventuring platform but also tows our trailerable yacht to distant cruising grounds at 50knots up wind. 🙂

[Mike OReilly]

We carry two inflatables on our boat: Advanced Elements 13 and 15 footers (I think...). They're pretty good kayaks for inflatables. Lines aren't as fine as fibreglass or even plastic boats, but they're surprisingly good. And they track decently well. We can paddle fairly long distances with them, and even load them up with camping gear if we want to take an extended paddle.


The downside is that these boats do take some time to set up and get inflated. Takes me at least an hour to fill. And even longer to disassemble.