It weighs 25# + bike 30# = 55#.
check www.shuttlebike.com
and
http://www.catsailor.com/bb_files/67017-SetupDay2.jpg

Now I have to figure out how to put a sail on it.

Has a Tuna or a Marlin ever hit that Mirage Drive! You must customers gettin launched all over the surf by all manner of gamefish?

I was just thinking of versatility. 16 foot is real long for small river running. I've been using a 12 foot and that seems a might long for playing around. A kayak on a lake, other than the BWCA, sounds boring. Unless you add some sails and a ama's of course. Speaking of the BWCA, what does one of these weigh? Can't use the sail up there, but the pedal drive would probably go unoticed.

Man am I dumb, I really thinking about getting one of these.

Yes, my experience is with conventional kayaks. The water is too cold and the elements too harsh here for sit on tops during winter. In summer and during autumn it can be OK, but I still prefer to stay dry inside the **** with the skirt on. The inability to roll a sit on top kayak is still a serious flaw for any kayak in my opinion. You can argument that there is a risk for getting trapped inside a traditional kayak, but the risk is relatively small with proper training. Everybody should get proper instruction before going for a paddle anyway. I believe the recreational market, which IS the kayak market here, is 95% traditional kayaks. But we are quite traditional in this country, just look at multihull penetration..

It was a nice video. Not what I call rough, but a very nice surfspot. But you were using a pretty traditional paddle, not the Mirage drive which I wondered how you could brace with? Is the Mirage only installed in very wide and stable kayaks? For reference, some of the pictures from the Alter Cup is beginning to be rough in my opinion. Smallish waves tough. Have you tried reentry in conditions where the wind combined with chop or waves have thrown you over?

You are probably doing just the right thing with your kayak producs for building a healthy business. Question is how long the current kayak craze will last..

Matt,

I actually did some white water kayaking when I was younger and about 5 years ago I played for several days in the surf on a Hobie sit-on-top kayak (there was no wind). I found the difference to be rather big. Maybe your sit-on-top is a newer improved version but the one I had then wasn't to great in wave riding and I found it to be pretty unstable in the surf and hard to do recoveries on. I've used a plain polyethyleen (rotomolded) closed kayak a lot and that one was very easy to surf and control. Inuit rolls were a breeze in that kayak.

Personally I would love to have a kayak again for those storm days that we seem to have more often over here. I found it to be a nice addition to having a sailboat.

Wouter

Yeah, I surf for the exercise and fun.

Rolf, you can use "thigh control straps" on a sit-on-top to brace or possibly do a roll. I would rather just pop out than get my head banged on the bottom though. There are a lot of sit-on-tops designed just for surfing and "surf skis" that are more surf board than kayak. Mine is a Maui.. that seems to work really well in the surf. I go out with a bunch of guys on surf specific boats and I catch as many or more waves. The Maui is like surfing a long board as compared to surfing a short board. Easier to catch waves, but less maneuverable. For actual surfing, I don't prefer the MirageDrive, but they are to good get out and back in thorugh surf. For surfing you have to pull up the rudder and use a paddle to brace into the waves so you can slide. The Maui also has a harder chine that allows me to stay on the face of the wave.

Fish hits? Don't think we have had any big fish take a bite out of the MirageDrive fins. These are likely the hottest item in fishing these days. We have a whole separate market there. The Mirage allows you to hold a rod and fish while pedaling, grab a drink, shoot photos, bird watch... whatever. We say "hands free" because you certainly can't do all those things while paddling. We have guys going for big fish (Black Marlin) on them. Charter boats are carrying them to spots and dropping fishermen in to be on their own. The kayak fishing craze is amazing. We are seeing kayak fishing tournaments that draw hundreds of kayaks and the Hobie's are starting to take over due to the better function for fishing, wind and waves.

Rough conditions? Story after story is told about Hobie Mirage kayaks pulling paddle guys back upwind and out of trouble. Yeah, they work in rough and windy conditions.

Wider boats? We have all styles. Long and fast like the Adventure and short and wide for fishing (like the red boat in an earlier post). More stable and better **** layouts are possible with wider boats.

Oh yeah...

Gary, just like a cat when pushed too hard, the lee hull can bury. You either sheet out or under it goes. The beauty of the Island is you can infinitely reef quickly and easily. The mast rotates like our Bravo rig. Just furl a little if the hull is pushing down too much and you actually go faster. Guess that is like using the main traveler on the cats. Eases the load and the boat goes faster.

It weighs 25# + bike 30# = 55#.
check www.shuttlebike.com
and
http://www.catsailor.com/bb_files/67017-SetupDay2.jpg

That looks like what I have been thinking about, except I never thought to make it inflatable. Any idea where I can find one in the US and what it costs? Looks like fun and not too much trouble to set it up.

web page

Pedal Boats (hydrofoils too!)

GARY

Wow, that is some great stuff Gary, thanks! I really liked that foiler, second to the last picture. OK, who's going to build me one?? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

A couple years ago it was $900. Bought direct from Italian manufacturer with Paypal.

And how well did it work?

A plastic pedal kayak with training wheels and a toy sail is the future of sailing? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I thought this was the future of sailing.

Um....no. That's a monstrosity of fugliness.

That looks more like the future of mega yacths when we run out of oil!

As for the original post, that looks like the future of kayaking, not sailing, but hey, if it brings more people into sailing, it's all good. Much rather see a bunch of those on my lake than more Jet Skis.

I'm going out to ride my bike around the lake again, I'll be daydreaming of one of those pedal hydrofoils! That would be nice.

Oh no, he's right, I googled it too, you get pictures of the clipper yacht <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

If that is the future... I am taking up golf!!

Toy? Isn't that what they were saying about cats a few years back? Actually some are still saying it.

Thought I'd stick in my .02, there was just a big study by the bike industry, and they were baffled by the fact that despite bikes getting better, there were less people getting into it. After a lot of focus groups, they realized an underlying problem; their product development people are enamoured with high tech, but the customers are intimidated by too many gears. So with this boat, maybe there is a whole world of people out there who might like sailing, but are intimidated by the thought of stepping a mast, or just plain don't enjoy going too fast! For me, I love being on the knife edge of control with the rudders screeching through the water, leaping from wave top to wave top, and enjoy the physical challenge of stepping my 6.0 mast single handedly. Is one better or worse? No, and I bet if you put 100 random people together and gave them a choise of setting up and launching a Tiger or the Adventure Island, a lot more would pick the A.I....