I Almost Sank :0
 

Fishing out of Dana Point in my Outback my son and I paddled over to Salt Creek area. Swells were to big for my taste yesterday morning off Doheny so we had to switch it up and made the trip over to the kelp hoping to snag a few Sheephead. Well at some point I had not properly closed my rear hatch...ya thats bad. So over the course of the day I was taking on water. Not much at first but as thing got choppier (especially on the way back in the holiday boat traffic) I took on more and more water. At one point I'm thinking to myself, why is Josh so far ahead of me, why can't I catch up? Finally I opened my center hatch and I see several inches of water. Uggg. Well at that point I was about 1/2 mile from the harbor entrance. Luckily I was able to make it to the launch area where I drained some of the water and made it back to Baby Beach.

Friends, please think about this. If you don't have a manual bilge pump learn from my close call. I will be ordering mine tonight. It could have been disasterous. Anyway fishing sucked, we only got a small one. It was a beautiful day on the water though and it was my first time over at the kelp off Salt Creek. Very nice :)

Check out the video retracing my steps https://youtu.be/sEQnc8-leRI

a sponge works well if you do not have a bilge pump

Thanks for the heads up and the post.

Glad you are alright.

While reading I kept wondering, why your son was not asked to close the hatch properly. Once you discovered the issue?

When I realized I was taking on water it wasn't until I was about half way back to the harbor. I didn't know how it was getting in. It wasn't until I got the kayak on dry ground and started draining it that I noticed the rear hatch was loose (closed but loose so it was hard to spot). Anyway at the moment I felt it best to just high-tail it back into the harbor since I was pretty close.

Pro tip now that you'll have a bilge pump on board. I keep mine tied to a line to my center hatch lid. This way, if I ever need it I can pull it to me by the rope without having to move around much further destabilizing the boat. Always good to check your bilge throughout the day as you never know until it's pretty late in the game.

Put pool noodles in the hull. 6 should do. If it does take on water and “sink” it won’t go to the bottom and will be recoverable. I was able to help save a kayak because of this. We emptied it of all gear and manually bailed water until he was able to get back on and sit on it to finish the job.

All Hobies come with floatation inside the hull and will not sink unless you have negative buoyancy attached in excess of the weight of the hull plus 10%. It's a European spec I don't know if any other kayak companies comply with and I believe is also one of the reasons Hobies were the only NMMA certified kayak on the market.
All that being said, still better off checking all your stuff frequently and having a hand or electric pump on board cause you aren't gonna be staying upright or moving along too easy with your boat flooded if you don't secure you hatches/plug.

Glad you made it in Ok and have learned from the incident.


A Hobie rep in my area has a story about a guy who sank his PA and was rescued by the coast guard. The foam became standard on the next year's models. The newer models warn about removing the foam, but the older models had no such warning stickers and there are many who have removed the foam to make space for other stuff. Be cautious if buying used. Added pool noodles can't hurt. Also note that the bucket in the front hatch also deters fast flooding and had I kept it in, definitely would have saved some hardship when I flipped my PA offshore.

None of my hobies came with foam. Although they were all pre 2014.

My first Hobie had foam, and it was a 2014, so guess that might be the year it became standard.

Yup....I have a 2014 PA and it has black foam blocks inside the hull.

I have a manual bilge pump and may get an electric at some point.