Sea Canoe as tender?

[Bob Stay]

Greetings, Bob Stay here. I wonder if anyone has used a sea canoe as a tender, I have had inflatables and find them useless for exploring, prone to punctures and UV damage, and a big faff to pump up and deflate, I want to give up inflatables totally. I don't have roon on deck for a hard dinghy, but a canoe might fit on the rail somehow. (11 m cruising yacht)
Not a novice canoeist, just no experience of sea canoes.
Can you carry a shopping or a jerrycan in a sea canoe? Do they tow behind a yacht ok? How much to buy a 2nd hand one to use as a tender?
A lot of questions I know, thanks in advance!

 

[GrahamD]

We have gone down the inflatable kayak route, and so far it has been OK. Rigid canoes are far more capable though, and would be great for exploring

A sea kayak is a big and quite heavy boat, generally about 5.5m long and could pose a few problems if operated from a yacht. It might be best to borrow one first, possibly talk to a local canoe club, to see if you can
(a) actually stow it on board without it interfering with the operation of the yacht
(b) launch and recover it from the yacht- I assume you are either a single hander or the rest of the crew are not interested in going ashore
(c) easily get in and out of the seaboat when it is alongside (also perhaps in rougher water). Standing up in a seaboat can be hazardous, and it is a long step up to a yacht unless you have a sugar scoop transom

Some seaboats have quite good storage in the hull which could easily take bags of shopping, but jerry cans would probably have to be tied to to the top of the deck and would make it a bit more unstable. Loading the kayak on the beach would be easy, but offloading alongside the yacht could be more difficult and potentially hazardous

I would imagine that a seaboat could be towed easily on a short tow line (or double from each quarter) and especially if there is a small skeg on the stern. You would probably need to have a blank spray deck to stop it filling with water from splashes.

I'd be interested to hear if you can make this work

 

[Tranona]

Greetings, Bob Stay here. I wonder if anyone has used a sea canoe as a tender, I have had inflatables and find them useless for exploring, prone to punctures and UV damage, and a big faff to pump up and deflate, I want to give up inflatables totally. I don't have roon on deck for a hard dinghy, but a canoe might fit on the rail somehow. (11 m cruising yacht)
Not a novice canoeist, just no experience of sea canoes.
Can you carry a shopping or a jerrycan in a sea canoe? Do they tow behind a yacht ok? How much to buy a 2nd hand one to use as a tender?
A lot of questions I know, thanks in advance!

Buy an older Avon made out of Hypalon and an electric inflator and your problems will be solved.

Canoes are unstable, difficult to board from a yacht and not good load carriers. They can however be fun for exploring, but as a supplement to a good tender. There are sound reasons why inflatables are the most popular form of tenders.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

The kids now have a Sevylor inflatable 'kayak' (it's actually a long inflatable open canoe) and I've been amazed at how stable it is compared to a normal kayak or canoe. For example, it's pretty well impossible to tip over when you're in it, and even stays upright when you climb into it from the sea.

They'e an easy one-man lift, and bundle into a relatively small bag. They wouldn't be massively robust, but they're very useful boats and I could certainly see them as an option for a tender.

http://www.coleman.com/sevylor-kayaksandcanoes/

 

[Seajet]

Bob,

first of all, welcome to the forums.

If you intend to be on here long and are not a promoter for a Swiss clinic, I'd suggest you have a rethink about canoes, inflatable or rigid.

For a tender to and from a mooring nothing beats a rigid 8' + tender, as long as there's somewhere nearby to securely store it - for onboard the boat, a roundtail inflatable is easier to stow.

A few very fit chums ( inc mountaineer types ) have tried inflatable canoes and they've had nasty experiences !

 

[Uricanejack]

I've been contemplating an inflatable paddle board.
Kayaks and canoes are just to tippy when you try and get on and off the boat. I have carried a full 17ft expedition kayak. Great for exploring anchorages but a bit of a PAI on deck.a I intend to start carrying a short recreational kayak. 10ft or so should be fun for exploring..
PS I use kayak from dock or two by tender to beach.
Tender for tendering.
Kayak for kayaking.
My neighbor often uses a pedal kayak to go from his mooring to shore and back. it looks pretty cool. of course it has outrigger.

 

[LadyInBed]

If I went in the kayak direction I would be thinking more along the lines of two surfboards bolted together catamaran style. A platform to sit on and carry shopping and maybe an electric OB.

 

[stranded]

I am hopefully picking up an inflatable canoe tomorrow, though as a supplement to the Inflatable dinghy rather than a replacement. Mainly for use in warmer water where we won't mind falling in but expect to give it a tryout in Bembridge at the w/e when it might give us a better chance of getting to the stern in the middle of a raft. I'll report back.

 

[Capt. Clueless]

I only have a 7.1 mtr boat. I use a bic sport yak 213. only weighs 19kg and should stow on your boat ok.

 

[Hydrozoan]

One needs to distinguish between open canoes and kayaks. We have two very small, lightweight inflatable kayaks for use only in sheltered waters, for which they are quicker to inflate than the Avon and fine to nip ashore in the right place and conditions with a small bag for light shopping etc. And fun to use: Mrs H wanted to carry a smallish rigid on our 32ft boat, but I jibbed at that and we got the inflatables as a good compromise for our modest purposes. But even a small jerrycan sounds risky if not impossible in (rather than on) a rigid sea kayak, which AFAICS are relatively narrow - our rigid river touring kayaks might I think struggle to take a gallon can behind the paddler (whence extraction could be tricky and risky) even though they’re as big as some sea kayaks. I’m with the sceptics regarding dinghy replacement - and if you are still tempted to try, do take care!

 

[onesea]

I have been using an inflatable Kayak on and off for about 8 years... Nothing I would not do in it that I would not do in an Avon Redcrest by oar...

First one was cheapy from Ebay second one is Sevlor of one kind or other, easy to inflate light to carry daughter loves it.... Not without its issues can be little windblown light, although with a bit of a sea that means you do not get the waves on the beam...

I would caution with solid Canoes and Kayaks that climbing in and out along side a yacht can be difficult, particularly if none to sober :ambivalence:.

 

[[3889]]

I do a lot of sea kayaking and would not consider using my boat as a tender. I have boarded at the shrouds but it is a precarious business.

 

[seumask]

Greatly enjoy the paddleboard on the yacht however it is not as capable as the inflatable tender and like a canoe you must be prepared to get dunked although this rarely happens and is conditions dependant usually! Had a reasonable inflatable canoe and much prefer the inflatable paddle board, which much like a windsurfer when inflated is stored along the guard rail's.

 

[Bob Stay]

Bob here, all your comments are very helpful, much obliged. I'm going to do an introductory sea kayaking course to get a feel of them.

A quick internet trawl of the IK sea kayak schools suggests the courses are eye-wateringly good value compared to RYA ones!

Not holding out any great hopes of replacing the pesky flubber any time soon though.

 

[Bob Stay]

To Quiddle, I just cottoned that was a link..what an elegant vessel!

 

[stranded]

Said I'd report back on the kayak. In the end, a bit later than promised, we received our Sevylor Ottawa, and have just used it extensively on our trip down to Cornwall. Overall, we are really pleased. As it is our only experience of a canoe/kayak of any kind, we cannot compare with alternatives, but we have been very pleasantly surprised how stable, versatile, easy and just how much damned fun it is.

Blowing up with the dinghy Bravo 9 is a cinch, with just three chambers. We used the supplied gauge the first couple of times but then just guessed. Didn't sink or explode.

Stability for both entering and exiting was better than I expected. I probably could tip it if I stepped onto the side, but I (15 stone of me) can step anywhere onto the floor and stand up without drama. Obviously it will slide sideways very easily so the boarding splits are always a possibility, but with a helper or a sail-tie securing for and aft, it's a doddle.

We chose the (biggish) Ottawa for load carrying ability. It is designated 2 adults + 1 child but we quite happily used it as a tender for myself plus wife, adult daughter and occasional couple of bags of shopping around Fowey harbour It's probably dryer than the dinghy from bow spray in a bit of harbour chop, though as a newbie I hadn't bargained on the drip off the paddles which means delicate stuff that won't fit under the storage under the bow and stern spray skirts would be best in a dry bag.

The most 'extreme' conditions we used it in on this trip were the good wife and me from the visitors moorings in Dittisham across to Galmpton in a stiff F5 and against the tide both ways (duh). Had feared from reading that the wind would be a major problem but it really wasn't. It would blow you off course if you dawdled but as we wanted it for exercise as much as anything (and boy is it good for that - swear my moobs are three inches higher off the floor than before the trip!) and once we found a groove (took a few clacked paddles and raised words) it was no problem maintaining speed and direction. I also took it out solo against the 3/12 tide on the way from off-town Salcombe to the bar, again with no difficulty, including some decent swell and mono washes. At no point did I regret not wearing a life jacket.

Definitely a great purchase for us, which I hope combined with bicycles will keep us reasonably fit once we move aboard and set off on our travels. Would I carry it instead of a dinghy? Probably not unless I knew I would always be in sheltered waters. But we are thinking of upgrading to a bigger dinghy and o/b for the longer journeys, confident we can generally just use the kayak if we just want to tender from a mid river mooring. Build quality seems fine for the very reasonable price, though when we wear this one out we will look also at more expensive options now we know it is something we will get a lot of use from.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Glad you're impressed with Sevylor boats. The Ottawa looks very good. It's hard to believe they're so stable, especially compared to ordinary canoes.

 

[Cymrogwyllt]

adding to the 'falling in' bit.

I've fallen in getting in or out of a kayak far more often than normal 4* stuff

 

[[3889]]

To Quiddle, I just cottoned that was a link..what an elegant vessel!

Thank you. The white boats look particularly nice, IMHO, but as a sucker for a discount I ended up with a red/yellow deck. It grows on you over time....so I'm told.