Following contributions to this thread I couldn't help noticing that most people have a lot of trouble with these devices. Even when a system has most of the wrinkles ironed out they still require much time and effort to be kept in full working condition. I would argue that (for me personally) the effort of maintaining an electric pump in a sea kayak would completely cancel out any slight advantage over say a foot operated pump which (in my boat), requires zero maintenance (apart from flushing with fresh water when laying up for winter). Some other points... on a long trip of say 2 weeks or more, would you have complete confidence that the batteries would last regular use? If you then carry a backup of some sort - then why bother with the electric version in the first place. If I wet exit my boat then my partner can virtually empty all the water out of the cockpit simply by lifting the bow out of the water when up-side-down. These is a minimum amount of water left in the boat when I get back in. Even when practising with a lot of water in the boat the foot pump empties all the water in a very short time. I personally take a minimalist attitude to sea-kayaking. My philosophy when out on the sea in not to have any battery powered toys to hand at all - they all seem to need more looking after than is repayed in whatever function they deliver. This includes GPS and, perhaps controversially, VHF radio. Where I paddle there is not full coverage to land based stations and I would not like to have to depend on a gadget in any kind of emergency. I once watched a colleague try to use a hand-held VHF in a big sea - it was a waste of time - no clear signal and very difficult to take a hand off the paddle to use it as well. I much prefer to be 'self-managed' where the team looks after itself and is self-sufficient. If you are relying on someone else to come to your aid when you can no longer cope then it begs the question as to why you are there in the first place. I know there are many different folks on this list who paddle in different conditions and for different reasons. I am just a little anxious to put the case for the 'non-gadget' minority it would seem, members who might be feeling a little left out... ;) Happy paddling! Keith *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:12 PDT