PaddleWise by thread

From: Andy Johnson <carljohn_at_usc.edu>
subject: [Paddlewise] towing kayaks
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 10:19:26 -0700
<Has anyone tried towing kayaks behind a power boat? I'm assuming they
would be empty and with cockpit covers. What is a maximum reasonable
speed to tow a kayak (or rule of thumb)?  What happens if you exceed
reasonable
speed, can a kayak "plane" or does it just start spinning and
thrashing on its tow rope as it self destructs?

We towed a couple of sit-on-top plastic kayaks behind a 51 foot sailboat in
calm waters in NZ last February, 4-5 knots tops. No problem. But I didn’t
feel comfortable towing them in open sea conditions so didn’t try. I wouldn’
t venture towing anything other than plastic SOTs.

Andy





***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not
to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:16 PDT