Thread: Comparisons!
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Old 09-07-2009, 06:05 PM   #4
flydigital
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 192
Fishing a WS Tarpon 160 for the past 5 years here, I'm 6'1 and 230lb and it fits comfortably, fast, yet tippy compared to the wider yaks. But I never have a problem with the stability, never rolled it through thousands of waves and breaking wake encounters even while hooked up. Tried rolling on purpose once to try self recovery and it needed to be about 45deg of lean before it went over, so its quite stable just feels a little tippy if you're not used to it. A great fast ship that cuts through chop much better than most yaks. I can cruise through hard wind and chop at a comfortable 3mph while many yaks barely make any headway (1-2mph). In calm conditions 4-5mph is normal cruise in calm conditions and it can do 7 at max (not for long).

Downsides: heavy, over 70lb I think, limited transportation options (sticking it out of a bed of a truck won't work, its too long). I use the truck extender hitch t-bar with a portable bar over the cab. Its slow to turn, about 30 seconds to do a 180 rotation starting at slow speed. I have a rudder installed but don't use it very often, it doesn't help that much anyhow and lines tend to get caught in it. Yet, after getting used to it I feel I can manuever just as well as a small yak although with more effort required.

I've paddled 10' through 16' and I prefer the 16, gives me confidence in potential bad conditions and handles more like a boat vs. a kayak.
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