Need advice on dinghy size for my new 2018 R-27

Rob: My 1st mate has Parkinson's and terrible balance and lots of fatigue at times and that has to some degree grounded us as well over past 7 years. However, 1st mate will not allow that condition to really ground us permanently and looks forward to getting out on our new 2018 R-27. Health issues are a real bummer for sure.... just hope I can avoid them as well.

Thanks for the reassuring words about cruising in a planing hull in rough seas. Yep,as they say, it's always better to be in port wishing to be out rather than being out and wishing to be in port.
 
Barry, our 1st mates sound very similar in outlook. My wife was, and still is, much more angry with having to delay our trip than she is with the cancer diagnosis. In fact, she still wanted to go north but I told her I wasn't driving anywhere since timely treatment is best. She understands and grudgingly agrees, but is still pissed! We honestly expect full recovery so we will make the trip next year.

You know, as folks read this long string of messages between us they're thinking, "Don't these guys have anything better to do?" Well, we're talking boats and there is simply nothing better, other than being out in them on the water of course! 😀

Rob
 
Yes, chatting and working the boating issues takes time and is comforting to get advice from others. With 1st mate having health issues as I've mentioned I consider myself as a solo boater. Hence the attraction to the Sea Eagle which is far more easier for me to handle alone than any other inflatable I've recently reviewed.... and I thank you for stating it as an option for me. You've earned your paycheck these past few days IMO. 🙂
 
Rob:

I had the RT factory (Andrew) check the distance from the R-27s front eyebrow to the rear cabin wall. It's 12.5 feet. So this will be ideal for the Sea Eagle 365ft Pro 2 seater and it will not overhang the cockpit's canopy. 🙂

I had my oldest grandson review the Eagle on my computer today and his eyes popped out of his head and said.... "YES please..." and claimed with authority he could paddle a kayak. :lol:

You run a line from your Sea Eagle's bow to one of the bow rail stanchions. Is this a safety aspect to avoid the wind from trying to flip up the Eagle's forward section ? I suspect I will need to run a line as you've done if so.

I'm planning a trip up to our San Juan islands later this year. Will rent a waterside house on Lopez Island for a week or two that provides a private stationary buoy for me in the bay to tie to. I plan on using the Eagle to ferry people (probably 1st mate only and myself), luggage and food and things to/from the shoreline and then to the nearby shoreline located house. Some of my family will likely use the San Juan ferry system to visit with us during our stay and I will request they bring extra food items as we will not have any transportation on land to goto to any grocery store. If they aren't able to visit with us I can always go back to the boat and motor over to a nearby marina with a local store to stock up with food items or simply use the Eagle to paddle over to the marina which is not more than a 2 miles as the crow flies.

Sounds fun and a good way to get 1st mate and me out of the house for a nice period of time.
 
Regarding that bow line, yes you got it right. I simply do this to keep the boat as stable as possible fore and aft, plus to keep the bow from moving due to any windage effect. It's never moved but I still feel better tying it down. I tie to a cleat that is located just behind the stowed anchor. Your house plan sounds wonderful! Last August we spent 2 leisurely days anchored in Fisherman's Bay. It was great! Best part to us was watching the sea planes come and go. Such skilled pilots!

Rob
 
Rob:

I must thank you for informing me about the Sea Eagle 365ft FastTrack.

After several days communicating with you and talking with Sea Eagle I've decided to purchase the 365ft Pro Motor product. The "Motor" suffix is really because my grandson fell in love with it when viewing things with me on the Sea Eagle web site....plus I think it's a cool accessory as well.

It will fit very nicely on top of our new 2018 R-27's cabin's cross bars with it being inflated and secured in a similar method to what you mentioned for your FastTrack. It can also be deflated easily, if required, and stored in an included carry bag along with many of its accessories per watching several videos that confirm this.

At this time Sea Eagle is discounting their FastTrack product packages nicely, offering free S&H and provide a 180-day full refund policy if I'm not happy with the product.

Thanks for all your inputs. 🙂
 
Rob:

I have a couple/few more questions for you.... 😉

1) UV protection with FastTrack being on top of cabin and exposed to sun and weather ? I'm told the Sea Eagle 365ft does have some form of UV coating to protect against UV.

2) Have you consider having a cover made for the FastTrack with it on the cabin top ? Do you thing this is necessary ?

3) To avoid the inflatable's seam(s) splitting, D-ring patches pealing off and other issues related to heat from the sun isn't it wise to partially inflate the FastTrack with it being on top of the cabin and completely exposed ?

4) Does salt water damage the inflatable's material over time ? Do you wash down your FastTrack at the dock when you've been out and about in salt water ?

I've ordered my FastTrack and decided on the $99 extra for the full 6 years of warranty for the boat. If seams split or any other unavoidable product issues arise I feel the $99 is a good investment. I hate spending extra for warranties, but in this case of never having owned an inflatable I wanted peace-of-mind.

Thanks...
 
Barry, some good questions that I generally don't have answers to. When we aren't out in the C-Dory the FastTrack is in the garage all packed up awaiting its next adventure. The only time it is in the sun is when we are crusing and realistically all the days totaled up probably amount to only a few months out of the year. So it generally gets little sun and we have no cover for it. When it is open and full of air it's usually sitting right side up in the water, especially if we're at anchor. If in a marina then I still like to launch it and tie it off next to our boat so it's always handy just to paddle around in. I love meandering thru marinas, just need to keep a sharp lookout for incoming and outgoing traffic. So the boat isn't usually on the cabin top for days on end. This being the case, it is the top side of the kayak that gets most of the daytime sun. We've now owned the kayak for 2 years and it still looks great with no signs of wear, stress, or leaks. I do take the opportunity to wash it down before packing it up, most certainly if it has been in saltwater or muddy water, but if we're going to be out cruising for several weeks I don't routinely wash it down during the cruising unless it gets usually grimy, which hasn't really happened. By the way, I did tow it behind the C-Dory once, probably at a speed of ~6 knots. It did OK and rode the wake, but I am much more comfortable having it up on the rack. Towing it I was afraid it would take in water from spray and wakes. It really didn't but I was still nervous about it. You also asked about inflation pressure when in the sun. Haven't had a problem with much variance. While we live in a hot desert environment not far from Lake Mead, we don't use the kayak down here so haven't had experience with big temperature ranges. In the northern lakes and the San Juans I never noticed much deflation. I usually filled the boat to the recommended pressure and that was it.

Rob
 
RobMcClain":6l0stan3 said:
My wife and I own a 23' C-Dory and our dinghy is an inflatable Sea Eagle 385 FastTrack kayak. I use a power inflator and fill the boat laying it across our small cockpit. It fills in just a few minutes. Weighing in at only 32 pounds it is very easy to move around, which for us includes both storing it up on the cabin top, as well as dropping it down into the water. The FastTrack is very well built, incredibly stable for a kayak, and fast thru the water. It also holds an enormous amount of weight. The weight capacity of our 12' FastTrack is 600+ pounds and the 14' model (which is built to hold 3 people) is significantly more. Granted, both models are much longer than you had mentioned, but the light weight and narrow beam make it is so easy to work with. I encourage you to consider a kayak, and the FastTrack specifically. We love ours and have enjoyed it in many venues, including during a lengthy cruise throughout the San Juan Islands last summer.

Rob
Click to expand...

Rob: I received my 385ft FastTrack yesterday and have started to examine it, getting used to inflating/deflating it and checking for leaks, etc.

I'm very impressed with every aspect of this kayak so far. I really appreciate you suggesting this kayak to me.

I will be making this Sea Eagle 385 FastTrack a sharable resource for my family. I have two families and 5 grandchildren within 1 mile of my home. We all will share this kayak and I'll have it onboard with me when required.

I did also buy the trolling motor accessory to go with this kayak so that will be fun to setup and use. I did find a reasonably priced 50 Ah Lithium Ion WaterBlade battery to power the motor. The battery weighs 10 Lbs and measures 5.5"W / 9"L / 8.5"H. Gosh... S&H Lithium batteries is expensive (HASMAT requirements presumably).

I created an Album which I will add to to show how I mount/dismount it on our R-27 boat.

http://www.tugnuts.com/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=49009

Here's a quick view showing the two black high-back seats in the inflated kayak.... 🙂 BTW... these high-back seats are very sturdy and comfortable indeed. They have firm spongy seat cushions that fit snugly between the pontoon's lower edges and stay in place nicely with very rigid but comfortable back rests and side arms that cradle you nicely. They are certainly well designed and constructed.
main.php
 
When I ordered the FastTrack kayak I also included 6 extra D-rings that includes glue/adhesive kits. I'll use two for being able to add a third high-back seat closer to the bow (for a small child) and the other four will be evenly distributed to allow bungie cords looped along the gunnels to stow paddles when not needed when underway with the Watersnake Venom SX electric trolling motor. Fun times ahead for sure.... 😀
 
knotflying":sq823kj4 said:
Hey Barry,

You are supposed to use those in the water, not while watching TV. :lol:
Click to expand...
He just wants to reduce the chance of getting wet!! 🙂
 
knotflying":27yvhbgx said:
Hey Barry,

You are supposed to use those in the water, not while watching TV. :lol:
Click to expand...

...but what a better way to watch "A perfect Storm".... :lol:
 
Hey Mike,

You watch TV while in your boat (illusions) so Barry can watch TV while in his boat (Sea Eagle)! Sounds fair to me, at least he is sitting upright! 😀
 
Barry,

Glad you like the boat. Funny, I have a very similar photo to yours. Like you, as soon as our 385 arrived I inflated it in the living room and kept it up for a couple of days. My wife even approved that! Not a big deal since we generally live in our family room. We were both impressed by the quality we saw and puttered with the boat on the floor just to get used to it. We remain very happy with it. Enjoy!

Rob
 
Rob: You and me are, or must be, kindred spirits. 🙂
 
Today I wanted to ensure my trolling motor mount would assemble correctly on my FastTrack kayak (in my living room no less :lol: ). It sure is prudent to check things before getting out on the water.... as described below.

1) I found the two holes in the motor support platform were too small for the included bolts.
2) Having the motor mounted on port side causes a problem with the proper placement and alignment of the brackets and supporting block for the motor mounting.
3) Having the motor mounted on starboard side was a better arrangement and things lined up as they should. I did have to drill out the small holes to make them a bit larger for the included bolts. (no big issue)
4) No matter, the aspect of things not being correct for a port mount was a real issue and something Sea Eagle needed to address, along with the platform holes being too small for the included bolts.
5) There were no instructions in the motor support platform box to assist me in figuring out how to assemble the motor mounting components. Even the Sea Eagle online video that shows how to assemble the motor mounting was drastically out of date and not close to what I had to do to assemble things.

I took several photos of the 'misgivings' and contacted Sea Eagle's Tech support. I spoke with a fella named Nick who was most anxious to check his motor mount stock to see if my issue was accurate. It was and he agreed about the holes being too small for the included bolts. I Emailed my photos to him and in short order he fully understood my frustration and apologized earnestly. We discussed things and it was agreed that Nick would use the phoos and my commentary to have the various things that needed to be updated to be corrected.

So at this time, I'm OK with the situation and will except that my trolling motor will have to be mounted on the starboard side at stern of the FastTrack kayak. No big deal as it should be easier for me to control steering using my right arm any rate. 🙂 If I want a port side install all I have to do is drill two properly sized holes as for the starboard mounting assembly.

All in all I was please to have found the issues in my living room as apposed to on the water and that Sea Eagle will ensure future customers do not face the same issues as I had today.

BTW.... To accommodate various seating configurations I anticipate using in the FastTrack I will be attaching 4 new D-rings for the black-high back seats to attach to. The idea is to allow having 3 high-back seats at times rather than just the two that come as standard.
 
I made a few test runs with the WaterSnake trolling motor attached to its motor platform that's placed across the two pontoons behind the rear seat, and connected it to my 10 LB 12v 50 Ah Lithium ion battery.

The battery showed it had 12.5 volts with my multi-meter after being fully charged with its supplied 15 amp charger. It took only two hours so I was unsure what state of charge it came with to begin with.

With the motor attached to the kayak's motor platform on starboard side and with a shaft length set to 24" I raise the stern up and supported it high up so the prop was clear of the living room's floor. 🙂

I then placed the battery which is only 10 Lbs in weight behind the rear black high-back seat on the inflated floor and pushed it gently to be adjacent to port side tube to help with balancing the weight of the motor hanging down on starboard side. I lifted the stern and kind of sensed the side to side balance and was quite pleased with it. I now lowered the stern down to rest securely on a wide seat stool I had.

The next step was to ensure the motor was in neutral and then connected the red/black cables to the battery.

The WaterSnake display showed a 12.4 volt battery level. Great..... 😀

I now slowly rotated the tiller speed control fro neutral to 1, then 2, then 3, then 4 and finally 5. It all worked well and the motor was extremely quiet.

I now slowly returned the tiller speed control back to neutral and then slowly to reverse settings 1, then 2 and finally 3. This worked without issues.

Looking at the WaterSnake's battery voltage display during this is momentarily lowered to 12.2 and then quickly raised back up to 12.4 and stayed there.

From this testing I felt things were working AOK.

I'm very pleased with my 12v and 10 Lb Lithium ion battery and its smallish size compared to a regular 12v deep cycle battery.

This kayak is going to be really enjoyable.... 😀
 
Today I made my task to be adding 4 extra D-rings to the FastTrack. When purchasing the FastTrack I had the intention of ensuring I could have three seats (an extra one besides the two stock ones). So I had purchased from Sea Eagle an extra seat which was a used one for $20 off full price and six extra D-rings along with the glue/adhesive kit.

I wanted the extra D-rings for providing multiple options for placing the black high-back seats and in particular having 3 seats rather than to stock setup of two. I checked the current D-ring placements and found that the two D-rings used for each seat were spaced 16" apart. The boat comes with a total of 18 D-rings. Four are used at the bow and four at the stern for bungie lashings to presumably hold/secure gear. another four D-rings are placed just forward of the stern's anti-splash shield and are there to support the motor platform when a strap is japing between each set of two on port and starboard sides. Thus, the remaining six D-rings are placed three per side to accommodate the stock two black high-back seats.

What I decided to do was to add four more D-rings (2 per side) to provide attachments for three seats. The two stock seats attached to D-rings that were placed 16" apart. So what I did was to add two extra two D-rings to each side to provide a total of five D-rings per side with them being spaced 16" apart.

Before starting I read the glueing instructions several times to get acquainted to the glueing process. I must admit, I was somewhat hesitant doing this glueing task on my brand new FastTrack for fear I would make a terrible mistake and melt or damage the fabric rendering the FastTrack close to being useless. 😱 No matter, the instruction made it clear that the glueing task was quite straight forward and so I proceeded. One of the final tasks before making the final attachment of the D-Rings was to heat the pontoon areas I wished to attach the D-Rings to and the D-ring material as well to 160ºF and a hair dryer was recommended for doing this. I wasn't sure how to ensure I heated to 160ºF with the hair dryer but thought I would try this technique nonetheless.

I carefully marked where I wanted to place the four new extra D-rings, applied the glue to the pontoon and D-Ring, waited for the prescribed 5 to 10 minutes, then applied a second glue coat and waited another 10 minutes and then proceeded to heat the pontoon area and the underneath of the D-ring with the hair dryer for maybe a total of 5 minutes holding the hair dryer's nozzle some 1" from the glued surface. I then carefully aligned the D-ring to the pontoon area and pressed firmly over the whole area to ensure a good adhesion and to smooth out any errant bubbles/wiggles. This aspect was repeated for the other 3 D-ring installations. All went well without any mishaps. I used a small modeling paint brush I use for painting my model boats to apply the glue.

Note: The glues, once exposed from the tube gives off a distinct smell and my Fox Terrier started 'sniffing' and I had to ask 1st mate to hold onto him for fear his nose might end up glued to the FastTrack. 😱 :lol:

The whole task too me around 45 minutes to complete.

I now have to leave things alone for maybe 7 days to allow the adhesive to thoroughly set before applying any load on the new D-rings. This will be just in time for for when our new 2018 R-27 is delivered and then to install the FastTrack on top of the R-27 cabin's cross bars using a set of kayak carrier brackets.

The FastTrack will be installed right side up and the two stern located drain ports in the floor will be left open to allow any water that may get into the FastTrack to drain out easily.

I took a few photos during this task and can be seen here... http://www.tugnuts.com/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=49133
 
I bought a used Sea Eagle SR14 a bunch of years ago. My first boat. I had that inflatable for 23 years, then seams started to fail. After 2 years of gluing various seams and parts I decided it was time to call Sea Eagle. They were suprised a 25 year old boat was still in service. They said it'd be less expensive to buy a new hull, rather than rebuilding the old one, so I did.
The moral of this story is, you do not have to worry about getting the life out of your Sea Eagle. I would not have spent the $99 for the ext. warranty, you won't need it.
Do you think the 385 motor mount would work with a 12 lbs Cruise N Carry gas motor?
 
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