Inflatable canoe to get to swing mooring?

[fireball]

Hi All,

A few answers; Yes I am agile

I have canoed before, but not for a while.

I already have a proper tender.

The Mooring is sheltered, 200m from shore 2 sides, as it is on the south end of Hayling Island, inside Chichester Harbour - just outside Sparks Marina.

People seem to be split between "yes its a good idea" and "your are mad".

Ah - now I know where you are - it's easier to answer - a sturdy blowup canoe should be fine a lot of the time. With twin paddles you'll have to practice coming alongside - especially with wind/tide. Depending on how far out you are you may struggle on spring ebbs with a southerly wind and I'd be a bit more careful when the easterlies come in as you're far more exposed.
The Thorney bank is a long way away and you'll get next to no shelter from it so anything in the N-E-SE arc is going to be more interesting - but at worst you'll be blown up onto the hayling bank - assuming you don't get swept down by the tide having fallen in! This may be grandmother and eggs - but paddle up next to the bank before striking out to the vessel - you stay out of the tide and therefore out of the larger waves.

Inflatable canoes can be quite sturdy - but there are times I wouldn't be happy about taking one out - normally the spring ebbs and a F6+ southerly - then I'd prefer to take a solid tender with a reliable outboard - and that'll be a wet experience...

 

[Bajansailor]

I used to have a hard plastic sit-on (rather than in) kayak, and and I now have a a Wetline 1.8 m. roundtail inflatable, and have used both for paddling between shore and mooring (about 300 m) and the round tail wins hands down for sure.
Even in our warm water where you are not too bothered about hypothermia if you do get an accidental dunking.

It was hellishly difficult standing up on this (very tippy then!) kayak to climb on board the yacht (no sugarscoop, small transom with a swimming ladder, not so suitable for boarding from a dinghy) when alongside.
Whereas the round tail is very stable, and has no inclination at all to be tippy.

The round tail came with 3 plywood floor boards and a substantial plywood thwart for the rower, but I took these out to save weight when carrying down and up the beach. This does mean that the floor is a bit floppy to stand on, and I cannot then stand on the thwart when climbing on board, but that is only a slight disadvantage.

I have a small portable icebox that I use as a seat for rowing, and this also keeps some drinkies cold, and in there I can also store camera, phone, meter and any other things that dont like water.
This roundtail fits in the back of a Suzuki Baleno estate with a bit of air released, so it is then only a few mins to pump it up with a foot pump.
The kayak did fit inside - once - shoved it in from the back and the sharp nose made contact with the windscreen lower left corner..... ouch! Didnt break, but some big cracks, which are not MOT'able here, hence they are still there, and this was 6 years ago..... yes, I will need to get a new windscreen sometime.....
Last I heard of the kayak was that it had made its way to New Zealand on a friend Centurion 32, and they loved it.......

As the saying goes, 'whatever rocks your boat'......... !

 

[nmeyrick]

First of all a disclaimer, I know that what we have won't work for everyone but I just wanted to give some balance from personal experience to the claims that a kayak won't paddle and won't work with a boat. We carry onboard a Wayland 2 man folding sea kayak, a polish copy of the German Klepper kayaks as used by the SBS, and which have also crossed the Atlantic. It consists of a wooden frame with a hypalon and nylon skin stretched over, with an inflatable tube running down either side to tension the skin and add buoyancy.

These tubes, together with the wide hull make it very stable, completely unlike a regular hardshell kayak, and almost impossible to roll. It has a massive cargo capacity - they are used for long distance unsupported expeditions - so shopping and water cans are no problem. We can carry larger loads like folding bikes in the cockpit when paddled by a single person.

Sure, this won't be for everyone, apart from anything else they're not cheap, although we got ours second hand on eBay for probably around the cost of a hypalon duck. For us this was SWMBOs treat for coming sailing, as she is an avid kayaker, and when we make it to the scillies this summer it should be good for paddling around the islands and possibly even taking a tent and leaving the boat on a buoy for a night.

But having it on board I've found that it is immensely capable; we can paddle it with far more speed and control than the dinghy, and whilst I haven't tried it yet in a big swell I'm pretty confident in it's capabilities. At the moment I would still be wary of taking the yak as my only option, and we still have the duck in the cockpit locker, but didn't need to use it last summer.

In terms of practical use of a kayak, we have found that the easiest way to board it is by tying a painter to either end and taking these to the bow and stern cleats of the boat. This means that the kayak will sit nicely alongside under our midships boarding ladder, which is less affected by swell than the stern and means you can get some shelter from the hull of the boat. It is easily lifted onboard with a loop under either end taken to a halyard, and stows nicely along the side deck where it creates less windage than a dinghy.

For offshore journeys and transport it packs down into two bags and can be stowed in a forepeak bunk, or will fit in the boot of a car no problem. Building and dismantling it is no harder than a flat pack table, and takes about 10 mins. It is easier on a flat surface, but i can just about do it on deck at a push.

http://www.wayland.com.pl/en/produc...mazon-ll-expedition-prezentacja-produktu.html

 

[ghostlymoron]

You say that 2 advantages are related to the outboard (getting it out of your car/risk of it not starting) - why not use oars? For a 200m trip its not worth using an engine. My advice - get a really ropey but seaworthy dinghy that no one will want to nick and leave it where you can access it and ROW to your boat.

 

[gregcope]

You say that 2 advantages are related to the outboard (getting it out of your car/risk of it not starting) - why not use oars? For a 200m trip its not worth using an engine. My advice - get a really ropey but seaworthy dinghy that no one will want to nick and leave it where you can access it and ROW to your boat.

The dingy storage bill would be painfull!

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I'm shocked at the language used, isn't it the Innuit nowadays, innit ?

It used be thought a bright idea to harpoon whales ( not the one with the ears, the other lot ) from small open boats, but just imagine how many pages the Risk Assessment would take up; nowadays it would be considered polite form to 'Do the Decent Thing' with a revolver and save the impact on the rain forests.

Only in Canada - and some of the other Arctic people regard Inuit as too parochial (after all, it just means "The People" in ONE of the various languages spoken in those parts). Eskimo is regarded as perfectly acceptable in Alaska; Greenlanders don't want to be called anything but Greenlanders! And the same people in Northern Siberia all have their own tribal identities.

 

[vyv_cox]

How the hell is a roundtail dinghy 'unseamanlike' ?!

Unstable, especially fore and aft. I often read that people carry 5 gallons of water in the bow to keep it down.
When I made the mistake of owning one it back-flipped with a small outboard on it.
I have lost count of the number I have seen flipped in quite moderate breezes. My transom one has never flipped.
Very poor to row. Last season I rescued someone trying to row his against wind of about F5-6. I was rowing mine and easily towed him.
Soaking wet. I've yet to see one that had decent tube size.
Mostly poor rowlocks, although this is probaly manufacturer dependent.