I won't be portaging this boat anywhere but at least I've learned to safely load and unload on my truck rack alone. A little heavy but I'll trade that for a boat that can bring the kid plus the lab or my wife depending on who is behaving best
I estimate we loaded her at 420lbs today. Purposefully brought much more gear than needed including a 30-40 ice chest just to see how the boat would perform. If anything, it felt more stable. Paddled 2 miles upstream fishing a little but mostly just cruising around. Lil'Chili wanted me to explore every little creek so that 2 miles on the map was probably more like 4 for paddle strokes. Finally turned around when we encountered some gun shots that were way too close for comfort.
One the way back I worked on paddle technique for this boat and maitaining a good cruising speed. Lil'Chili kept commenting on how we'd never gone so fast in my old yak (Cobra Marauder)
Some things I learned for this boat and the next one:
1. The prototype seat for Lil'Chili is a good design but we both need padding on the next round of seats I build. Got 4 sore buns between us
2. I had kept the seat design low on this boat because some had written it could be a little squirly. Not true, at least for me. I want to raise the seat mount up about 3 more inches. Hoping that will give me a little more clearance to keep from banging my paddle. As is, I've had to adjust my paddle style to something that does not feel natural to me. Maybe this is just a SOT to SIK transition? Anyway, I'm very confident in the boat so I see no harm in going up with the seat some. Lil'Chili stood several times today and we never once felt like we could turtle.
3. Move her seat to the back. I liked the idea of having her where I could see her but there are some good reasons to put her in the stern. First, passing drinks, rods, etc is a little tricky for her. It would be much easier for me to be the one turning around. Plus, when she brings a fish along side it will be easier for me to boat it if I'm in front of her where her rod tip is.
Also, the boat was trimmed just right today but if she scooted up a few inches, it really lost efficiency. She sat riding backwards on the front "dash" some and while tracking held true, glide per stroke went way down. When she moved back and we had the bow just barely wet, the boat would really move out.
I'll post up when I start the next round of seating. No fish today but here are some nice nature pics from Luces for fun. Lots of trees presumably knocked down by Ike. Some are a little scary to paddle under, leaning toward the water and look like they could fall any minute.
And why the sam hill weren't you at the Roundup at Inks Lake instead of Luce, anyway?