Two friends and I are planning a one-way paddle to NH seacoast's Isle of Shoals. This is only an eight mile crossing from the coast, but weather can get "iffy" in the afternoons, and over-nighting is not possible. So we plan to leave early in the morning, and have a motor boat carry our kayaks back to the coast. As you can imagine, hiring a lobster boat to stow our kayaks for the return trip can get pricey. Is there an alternative? Has anyone experience with towing three kayaks behind a powered boat? I had been thinking there might be a way to rig the three kayaks together as one unit... perhaps with padded 2 X 4 board across the bows and sterns... then tow them (reasonably slowly) a good 50 to 75 feet behind a 25 foot Grady White 180 hp a family member owns. Is this remotely possible without damaging the kayaks? I hesitate to ask the skipper of a pleasure craft to tie three kayaks atop and perpendicular on his stern. Total weight would only be 150 pounds, but the kayaks are 14 to 17 feet in length. Thanks for your feedback! Tom LeTourneau Wells, Maine *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
=== At 2002-07-12, 06:30:00 Tom LeTourneau wrote: ======= >Two friends and I are planning a one-way paddle to NH seacoast's Isle of >Shoals. ...So we plan >to leave early in the morning, and have a motor boat carry our kayaks back >to the coast. ... > I hesitate to ask the >skipper of a pleasure craft to tie three kayaks atop and perpendicular on >his stern. Total weight would only be 150 pounds, but the kayaks are 14 to >17 feet in length. We tore 3 holes in the bottom of a 14' Folboat paddling through old stumps in the Santee Cooper Lakes once. Sunk it right to the bottom, which was fortunately only 2 feet down. We were rescued by a duck hunter in a 12' jon boat, who carried us a couple of miles back to the landing with the Folboat sitting perpendicular across his gunwales. Seems like a 25' Grady White could do at least as well. Steve Cramer cramersec_at_earthlink.net 2002-07-12 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Tom LeTourneau wrote: ======= >Is there an alternative? Has anyone experience >with towing three kayaks behind a powered boat? G'Day, In Dances with Waves, about halfway though the chapter "Carnsore Point to Dursey Island" (Page 80 in my copy), Brian Wilson describes in some detail being towed at 15 knots by an Irish fisherman. From his description of towing one kayak I think you might be better off towing the boats one behind the other. I found this chapter intriguing because it also describes navigation using song lines just like Australian aborigines can do. All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
I would be very leery of a tandem 3-boat tow behind a motorboat. If any of the three kayaks should capsize, rescue/recovery would be difficult (or at least very awkward) and slow, and a swimmer might be in danger of being hit by following boats. Probably the safest (and most enjoyable) option is the one previously mentioned, which is to make it a round-trip paddle with motorboat backup. Failing that, consider rafting the three kayaks side to side, with liberal padding between boats. Tie them such that any one of the kayakers can paddle forward to free the tow line (e.g., use a tow line with a carabiner at the end. Run the tow line through the deck lines at the bow, and clip the carabiner back to the tow line). AND -- VERY IMPORTANT -- TOW SLOWLY. bv > Tom LeTourneau wrote: ======= > >Is there an alternative? Has anyone experience > >with towing three kayaks behind a powered boat? > > G'Day, > > In Dances with Waves, about halfway though the chapter "Carnsore Point to > Dursey Island" (Page 80 in my copy), Brian Wilson describes in some detail > being towed at 15 knots by an Irish fisherman. From his description of > towing one kayak I think you might be better off towing the boats one behind > the other. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Bob wrote:- > AND -- VERY IMPORTANT -- TOW SLOWLY. G'Day, I'ld totally support this - the "Paddling With Waves" book description of towing at speed was worrying and wouldn't encourage me to have my boat towed at a rate faster than paddling speed. I've also heard of kayaks being lost by the occasional wave breaking a line during towing. All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Tom, There are local outfitters that run one-way trips to the Isle of Shoals. You may want to check things out with them. An alternative is to ask the folks at North Shore Paddlers Network. The trip out to the Isle of Shoals is only about 7 nm one-way and many people from NSPN do that trip (round-trip) with some regularity. You do need to be careful since it is open ocean, the boat traffic can be considerable, fog is not uncommon and an off-shore wind can turn it into a real slog but other than that it's not a bad paddle. I find open crossings boring but before I had paddled out to the Isle of Shoals a couple of times I couldn't stop thinking about it. In calm weather the Isles are not particularly interesting we've done the round trip version in less than 5 hours taking our time. At any rate the address for North Shore Paddlers Network is www.nspn.org One more option is to paddle out and back but with the motor boat within radio calling distance as a safety. Good Luck, Jed Goffstown, NH -----Original Message----- From: Tom LeTourneau Two friends and I are planning a one-way paddle to NH seacoast's Isle of Shoals. This is only an eight mile crossing from the coast, but weather can get "iffy" in the afternoons, and over-nighting is not possible. So we plan to leave early in the morning, and have a motor boat carry our kayaks back to the coast. As you can imagine, hiring a lobster boat to stow our kayaks for the return trip can get pricey. Is there an alternative? Has anyone experience with towing three kayaks behind a powered boat? I had been thinking there might be a way to rig the three kayaks together as one unit... perhaps with padded 2 X 4 board across the bows and sterns... then tow them (reasonably slowly) a good 50 to 75 feet behind a 25 foot Grady White 180 hp a family member owns. Is this remotely possible without damaging the kayaks? I hesitate to ask the skipper of a pleasure craft to tie three kayaks atop and perpendicular on his stern. Total weight would only be 150 pounds, but the kayaks are 14 to 17 feet in length. Thanks for your feedback! Tom LeTourneau Wells, Maine *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>From the responses it seems everyone is assuming the tow option has the paddlers in the boat. I guess I misunderstood - I thought the paddlers would be in the tow boat and empty kayaks towed behind (rather than stowed across the transom due to space concerns). If towing empty kayaks, I can offer a little experience. When tromping around the areas north of Queen Charlotte Strait (a beautiful area) in my father in-law's trawler we usually towed two kayaks between anchorages (it was a huge pain to haul them aboard, tie them down, motor for 5 or 6 hours, and redeploy once we reached the next anchorage). Keep in mind this boat cruises at a whopping 7 kts. Our little towing flotilla consisted of a 13' FG kayak (a Tyee 2, I believe), a plastic gypsy, and a 12' RIB. The RIB was centerline on a long leash. The kayaks were towed from either stern "corner" on shorter leashes (to not interfere with the RIB). As long as everything stayed "straight back" they all towed happily. However, the kayaks had a tendency to wander - when they would reach the wake they balanced precariously, threatening to broach at any moment. Through playing with the various lengths of towlines we could get them to mostly behave (well enough for short distances), but had to keep a close watch. So, observations from that experience: - with no keel to speak of (although the Tyee does have a permanent skeg) the kayaks tended to be "squirrely" and could have easily turned into a big sea drogue if they swamped. - the drag of the kayaks was greater than expected (observed by pulling on the tow rope while underway) - We did not try towing them inline (one behind the other); this seems like an approach with merit. - Our towboat was not a planing boat, and I would be VERY leery of trying to tow ANYTHING at planing speeds. To avoid the "catch a wave and swamp" issue, the idea of turning the two kayaks into a simple catamaran seems to have some merit as well. However, the stresses involved in the cross members can be huge in all but the calmest of conditions, so I don't know if you could do this w/o some sort of permanent mounting hardware (likely not desirable). At the very least I would think one would create a cross-braced frame that was rigid on its own, then attach the kayaks to it. --Jason Pringle Vashon, WA _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
(Moderator's Note: Content unaltered. Excessive quoting (i.e. headers/footers/sig lines/comments from previous posts, etc.) have been removed. Please edit quoted material and list footers when replying to posts.) I have good success in towing kayaks behind a power boat in the Whitsundays of Australia. I had to move 3 24 foot double kayaks 25km for a photo shoot using a 4.5m centre consol runabout. I towed the kayaks in a line behind each other centred behind the boat with the tow rope coming of a bridle. Now this is the important part. I tied a long free trailing rope with a large knot in the end behind the last kayak, this acted as a self correcting rudder and kept all the kayaks in a perfect line behind the boat. It was an absolutely perfect day so I was able to tow them at planing speed which looked really good as each kayak got up onto the plan with a big rooster tail coming off the knot behind the last kayak. I also would be hesitant to try this at speed in anything but perfect conditions, but it would work in anything but the worst of conditions. Cheers Colin Bartley Hamilton Island Australia *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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