Inflatable Boats, Anyone?

[daft]

Has anyone noticed a quiet revolution in inflatable boats due to the new drop-stitch technology? I don't mean those blimpish motor dinghies, but more like kayaks, small sailboats, or stand up paddleboards. They use thin, high pressure panels that are flat rather than bulbous and can even form a conventional looking canoe for instance.

This has allowed me to "moor" quite a fleet of these collapsible things in a tiny apartment atop a high rise. I hardly know any forum to discuss these... I just see new products popping up from google searches or youtube. I thought some might want to know what inflatables are becoming available, such as sailing/pedal power kayaks from Hobie, surfing/white water kayaks from SeaEagle or Aquaglide, standup paddleboards from many sources, and planing sailboats from Aquaglide and some French source I forget. Fun and rugged!

 

[madscientist451]

Has anyone noticed a quiet revolution in inflatable boats due to the new drop-stitch technology?

Interesting, do you have an inflatable kayak? How do you like it compared to
a regular hard kayak?

 

[The_Bishop]

Any links to examples? You've got me interested.

 

[lurker18]

Google Sea Eagle inflatable boats, they have all sorts of things like this. I am looking at one for fly fishing small lakes.

 

[daft]

I have a 12' Hobie i12s kayak with pedal power (much more powerful and relaxing than paddling). They have larger and smaller sizes, but I need this big rear deck to carry disassembled sail kit, air pump, and the roller suitcase for the whole package. Fast at a price. There is no boom, so the sail works better upwind than down where it can lose it's shape.

I have a Seaeagle Explorer 300x with 16 self bailing drains to shrug off any whitewater dumps, as well as a surfing fin. Note their inflatable seat which I recommend you buy regardless of what brand craft you get... the common strap supported seats give poor back support. Superfun in surf.

Above kayaks have blimpy sides for stability but hard flat bottoms. Note Seaeagle.com has new kayak and canoe models that have even the sides made out of the thin dropstitch inflatable stuff almost like plywood. They do not have the inherent buoyancy to be self bailng though.

I have Creek Company Osprey and Laird Big Boy SUP's. I don't fish and can hardly surf yet. These require 4 times the pressure to stiffen up, so are exhausting to pump up in peak summer heat... focus on them later.

I have drooled at the fast inflatable Tiwal sailboat

but am pursuing a new model of the Aquaglide Multisport which can sail, windsurf, paddle, or be towed. A coming dropstitch version will give a stiffer planing hull. Aquaglide.com also has many models like Seaeagle.

I also have a modular Point65 Tequila GTX kayak which slips thru the water in a more streamlined fashion, but I miss the long open cockpits of the inflatos where I can stretch out any old way.

 

[WhatsHoppening]

I have a 12' Hobie i12s kayak with pedal power (much more powerful and relaxing than paddling). They have larger and smaller sizes, but I need this big rear deck to carry disassembled sail kit, air pump, and the roller suitcase for the whole package. Fast at a price. There is no boom, so the sail works better upwind than down where it can lose it's shape.

> FYI - The images above and below are awesome. Are these commercial Hobie marketing images? If not, they should be, as I could see them being very effective for their smaller trade show booths, assuming Hobie does trade shows which I would guess they do. Just seeing the actual boat is great, but seeing it in use as in these images really makes me want one, and makes me want to be where ever these people are. <

I'm really intrigued by the pedal-powered (wind assisted) Hobie inflatable kayak. How much is it and what is the packed size?
This thread title reminded me of growing up and the "inflatable boats" we had back then. They were just overinflated truck inner-tubes we'd use to float down the river (the Truckee river just above Reno. The river water came out of Lake Tahoe (snow melt) and was usually pretty cool, so we could tie a six pack on a rope and drop it over the side to keep it cool. You just had to remember to haul in the six pack before you hit any rapids.

 

[Zuljin]

I see them on kayak fishing boards sometimes. Most people who use them are on the open parts of lakes or near the shore in the gulf. River and creek folks have concerns about tearing them on sticks and rocks.

There's an inflatable raft in my shed. It was left here by a friend and never gets used. Scared of popping it.

 

[bfish]

Drop stitched was use in whitewater raft floors in the early 90's. Dropped out of favor due to high cost (ie labor intensive) and inability to be repaired easily. Also some of the less expensive drop stitch floors would have issues with over inflation (sun/heat causing expansion, which led to blowouts or stretched materials, even with pressure release valves).

I am suspicious of drop stitch being a long term option. Everything I am seeing is from newer companies and/or newer product lines.

 

[daft]

I'm really intrigued by the pedal-powered (wind assisted) Hobie inflatable kayak. How much is it and what does is the packed size?

I think list price approaches 2k without the sail and the recommended oversize fins and rudder. The 12 footer goes into a roller bag about 2' wide by 3' long and roughly 18" thick. When new it is a stiff fit, but with use the bag will accommodate many accessories too. You can get more specs on their web site including for the 9 and 14 footers.

Normally sold thru Hobie bricks and mortar with generous assistance and warranty support. They may have last years unused models at a discount because there were improvements this year. The pedal power fins are a game changer, and you can pedal a certain way to keep them from descending much toward a shallow bottom. Or leave them stuck down as a sailing keel... or switch back and forth in seconds, including to use their paddle.

So far experience suggests it is very rugged, although I bent a fin mast. The complex rudder mechanism needs tuning from time to time, and you should remember to lock it down rather than just lower it. Hobie does have a forum for it, and there is occasional mention about finding air leaks (easy to fix, but sometimes hard to find since parts of bladder is faired in by a sheath).

 

[daft]

I am suspicious of drop stitch being a long term option.

Well, the two kayak options I showed had conservative use of drop stitch floors at low 3-5 psi. I believe the Hobie one has a long track record with Hobie even picking up the tab for some problems outside of warranty. My SeaEagle kayak was so cheap and superfun that I would feel ahead of the game even if it needed yearly replacement. There is an Aquaglide whitewater version (Klickitat?) which is even cheaper with more aggressive pressured floors which would be interesting to monitor for durability.

I should concede I will have to redo some cover stitching on SeaEagle's inflatable seat, although it's D-S bladder isn't failing. I rarely return things for defects, especially when they overcharged me for shipping in the first place (they could have put it in a flat rate box, but erroneously list the deflated seat as too large). BTW it appears you can get a discount if ordering SeaEagle boats thru sailboatstogo.com and omitting their extra (rather heavy and complex) sail kit add-on.

The others I list aggressively use 15+ psi, and show in advertising pictures an unbelievable density of internal stitching... probably a new technology. It is expensive and may well prove troublesome. My Laird SUP seems to be a high quality gem at very affordable half-the-listprice, but maybe because it was a prototype with an inconvenient way of fin installation. The Creek Company SUP seems overpriced and over engineered for my purposes at the moment. I hadn't mentioned my affordable Airhead SUP that seems of horrible quality, whose valves can't stand up to high pressure, and whose drop stitch coverage appears lumpy.

Using the new drop stitch over a large area must be expensive. I had ordered the queen mattress sized Aquaglide Multisport in low pressure mode, then while still waiting for shipment 10 days later I saw the drop stitch version being quietly announced. I may have been rash in cancelling my order to wait for the new version at horrendous price rise... maybe needed to get the new tech to work right. As it was, the sailboat was almost disposable at the price, although a heavy sailor appeared to sit in a puddle of water on the saggy deck. A stiff drop stitch hull may only be worth it for me because I am willing to skip all traveling on vacations for this gem which can give me the thrill of planing-type sailing near home. However we almost always have strong offshore winds which may blow it over the horizon after a month, and I will be sorry!

 

[daft]

Oh man, I can hardly believe there are practical looking inflatable catamarans for sale. This one is the smallest of a Ukrainian line of "Ducky" inflato-cats and has some thoughtful features. The mast has NO rigging, so you can just let go of the mainsheet and the sail can flap loose in any direction if the wind gets too strong. Unlike the inflato Hobie, there are battens holding the sail shape in even downwind mode. There are videos showing quick assembly from 2 small packages. I think I would have trouble with the draft it needs for a centerboard and tiller, but food for thought:

 

[daft]

> FYI - The images above and below are awesome. Are these commercial Hobie marketing images? If not, they should be, as I could see them being very effective for their smaller trade show booths, assuming Hobie does trade shows which I would guess they do. Just seeing the actual boat is great, but seeing it in use as in these images really makes me want one, and makes me want to be where ever these people are. <

I missed the above question which was buried as if it was my own text. Anyway the pix are often undownloadable at mfg web site, but their resellers post copies or similes that show up under my google image searches. You can see their origin by quoting my post.

I will post one last line of inflato-cats from Russia. Like the Ducky line, this Minicat company does seem to have a US sales rep with web site. This line omits a daggerboard which solves my shallow water problem, but in both cases their smaller craft lack a foam ball to keep the mast from turning turtle. It comes with many sail/jib options that look very fast on video... maybe oversailed. Crude photos:

Oh, vid works:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6xqJq5q2bw[/ame]