Darryl asked: >>>>>....I have a friend who is trying to find a boat. He is, in one sense of the word, a "big" guy. But he's big across his .. uh .. derrihre, his stomach and he has large thighs. I'd guess he's about 250-275 pounds. He's only about 5'10" or 5'11", so boats that he can fit in, like the Seaward Navigator, or just too high and/or long to be able to get his knees locked in. ..... The Nimbus Telkwa made him happier than his current Navigator, but even that gives him issues trying to get his knees locked in to the thigh braces in bumpy water. Anyone care to offer any suggestions of boats that his body type might be better suited to?<<<<<< The Nimbus Telkwa Sport has a slightly shorter cockpit than the Telkwa but it is only 1/4" narrower (and recessed down more to fit shorter paddlers better). I can highly recommend the Telkwa's for bigger paddlers. If it is not too low to fit his thighs that might be his best choice. The older Nimbus Seafarer from the 1980's fit bigger guys. Several Necky Kayaks fit bigger guys. Probably because Mike Neckar himself didn't, shall we say, fit the physical profile of most other world class athletes. Besides the Kyook (first introduced in 1991--Necky's first plastic kayak), there are the Nootka (1986) and its update a few years later called the Tesla). In 1998 the Tesla NM came out and it was widened to 25" and made especially to better fit bigger guys. In 1997 the Necky Pinta came out for the truly huge paddlers. I suspect it will be too big and wide (27") for your friend though. Another plastic Necky that may be suitable is the Eskia that came out in 2001. Pacific Water Sports made the Thunderbird in 1991 for truly huge guys but a year later made a cut down version called the Thunderbird LP for shorter big paddlers. Still at 28.25" wide it is a pretty wide kayak for someone your friend's size. I talked to someone who wanted to buy another Thunderbird (because he liked the high stability for kayak sailing) and when I asked Lee Moyer about it he told me (a year or two ago) that they can still be made. Sometimes a kayak with a wide enough cockpit doesn't have a big enough seat. It is usually relatively easy to remove the original seat and replace it with some foam seat or seat pad. Wayne ?somebody? used to post a list of big guys kayaks he fit in on the internet. I think he was also on Paddlewise back in the 1990's. I looked to see if I had made a copy of his webpage before he closed it but couldn't find one. I once had a list of big guy boats (and also small person kayaks) posted in the back of my shop in order to help folks who's size made the kayak selection available to fit them rather small. I looked for it in my computer files but only found what I had written to someone on Paddlewise in 2000 (see edited version below). I'm sure others have come out in the last ten years as well. ....At your size some kayaks that I am pretty sure you will fit into and that probably will be stable enough are (in roughly alphabetical order): Current Designs Pachena Current Designs Breeze (plastic Pachena) Current Designs Solstice GTHV Easy Rider Seahawk Easy Rider Eskimo 17 (or 18-6) Eddyline Wind Dancer Necky Pinta Necky Tesla NM Nimbus Seafarer Nimbus Telkwa (or Telkwa HV) Northwest Kayaks Pursuit XL PWS Sea Otter 500 GP (or Expedition) PWS Thunderbird Seda Viking Wilkinson Boat Enetai HP Wilkinson Boat Polaris II Wilderness Systems Sealution XL I'm not recommending all these, some of them I really detest, but these should all fit you and be stable enough (at least once you become relatively skilled). Novice paddlers tend to overate stability and tracking stiffness to their detriment later but there does need to be a certain minimum stability or you will never get comfortable with it. Be careful of a smaller paddlers experiences or judgment concerning what is a good kayak here....... *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
MATT MARINER BROZE wrote: > Darryl asked: > > > > ....I have a friend who is trying to find a boat. He is, in one sense of > the word, a "big" guy. But he's big across his .. uh .. derrihre, his > stomach and he has large thighs. I'd guess he's about 250-275 pounds. > He's only about 5'10" or 5'11", so boats that he can fit in, like the > Seaward Navigator, or just too high and/or long to be able to get his > knees locked in. Coming in late to this, Darryl, but your big guy may find that a little creative outfitting/redesign of the seat will enable him to enjoy a wider range of boats. For example, the Eddyline seats of an older vintage (pre-1998 or so) are best removed and replaced with minicell custom versions, or maybe a Redfish kayaks custom seat, both for comfort, fit, and to lower the derrihre an inch or two, which allows the thighs to fit under the deck and/or thigh hooks for a good tight embrace. My Eddyline Wind Dance, perhaps the prototypical example of a "high volume" boat in the nineteen eighties and into the nineties would not fit him, despite its presence on Matt's list, for that reason. He may not want to cut and carve on a new boat, but an older Wind Dancer (or similar), if he can find one, might be a cost effective way to get into the game, and with the assistance of a person handy with tools, he can make the boat fit him. Links to help him out: http://www.redfishkayak.com/seats.htm http://www.kayakfit.com/ Sympathetic anecdote: Matt probably does nor recall this, but I stumbled into his shop back in the summer of 1992 and asked about his boats, my first venture into this game. He quickly (and mercifully) passed me on to NWOC next door, where they had boats more my style. On the NWOC float, twenty minutes later, I had shoehorned my 220 lbs into a boat that on paper was just right for me, and while struggling to get back out (this is on the float, mind you, *not* in the water!), I asked the Gen-X attendant what was wrong. He sized me up (after extraction) for a couple seconds, blinked twice, and said, "Ohhhh! You need a *high volume* boat!" I stepped into a Wind Dancer and that was it for me. I'm on my second one, and it is a pig to paddle in the wind, but is a ginormous cargo hauler, sometimes labeled "the slowest boat I've ever paddled" by folks I loan it to. Works for me. And, your buddy, Darryl, can always use my throwaway line when people harass him subtly or not about his "shape:" "Oh, yeah, I'm a big guy in the cockpit area!" Heads always turn when I toss that out. Some of them even turn my way ... [wink] -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** 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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