New Kayak Appropiate for Surf?
 

Hi All,

I just purchased a 13' Clear Water Designs Inukik kayak and wanted to get your thought on whether or not it would be appropiate / safe enough to troll tubes in southern RI. Very stable in freshwater, but the ocean is a different ballgame.

Thanks!

- Scott

Nice kayak! Being a SIT (sit inside) I have no experience with them but I would reccommend you go to newenglandkayakfishing.com and do some research there and ask questions!! Good luck with that yak...shes perty!!:uhuh:

Kayaks are sheltered water fishing crafts. They build kayaks for open water, but they have small cockpits that cover your knees to keep you in when you get rolled, round chines to let you eskimo roll back up without needing to drop out, and usually more length than 14 ft.

Open cockpit kayaks are more stable, but a large open cockpit like you have will ship water on all but the calmest days, so you need a skirt, and once you have a skirt on you can't get to the stuff you store in your cockpit to fish. Launching open cockpit kayaks through any kind of surf is a disaster waiting to happen.

On nice calm days or in sheltered bays you'd do fine, but if the wind comes up it gets hairy quick.

I have a small open cockpit kayak and have scared myself enough that I don't like using it on the ocean. I've also rolled and dropped out of kayaks playing in the Nauset surf decades ago and I can tell you that being in the water with a kayak full of water is no picnic.

Thanks for the feedback. Do you think I would run into issues in some of the breachway ponds like Quonny. And I quote "If you drown because of that kayak I'll kill you" - The wife

No, I think you would be fine anywhere there is shelter from wind and no fetch (ie major distance over water for waves to build). Bays, harbors, creeks, and rivers (except the mouth) all great water for that.
Periods of prolonged NW wind might flatten the ocean enough to make it safe as well, but be careful and stay in close, particularly as the water temp drops. Be prepared for fog as well.