There's a Kayak in My Future (Part 3)

Buy Kayak...



There she is in Ivory Dune as received from St. Louis Sailing Center via the UPS stork, although much dryer than the day received. Included are: standard Mirage Drive peddles, two piece adjustable paddle, high back deluxe seat with lumbar support, dry bag, one liter water bottle, bungee cord for rear deck storage (not shown), and an 8 inch drop in tackle tray with cover. Other items integral to the kayak are two 8 inch round sealed mid and rear storage ports, large sealed front hatch, two mesh pockets, two scupper plugs to keep the rear deck dry, two molded-in rod holders, flip-up rudder, and something the boys at Honda forgot to include in their S2000 two seat'r sports car offering... a molded-in cup holder. She's 13 ft 5 in long, 28.5 in wide, weighs 58 lbs empty, and costs the full 1,749 US dollars (oak leaf not included). You can search the world over and never find a cheaper price for a new Revolution. Believe me, I've tried.

Clif was on site during the delivery. I thought he was going to faint but he stayed tough. My wife arrived from work a few minutes later and just rolled her eyes at the two kids with a brand new toy.

Happiness is just around the corner.

There's a Kayak in My Future (Part 1)

Last year I spoke with Bill during a family gathering. I hadn't seen Bill for a over year. Among other subjects we talked of fly fishing. "Dave, you gotta get yourself a kayak. It's the new, hottest thing. You can get right up in the reeds, sneak up on `em real quite." Later when we were saying our goodbye's he rings in again, "I'm tellin' ya, kayaks are the way to go." The seed was planted and over the next few months I was obsessed with canoes and kayaks. I eventually narrowed my desire to the Hobie Mirage kayak line. In an earlier post a wrote about test driving one in Florida. So, yesterday I drove downtown and ordered a hitch for my Toyota Camry. I know what you're asking. Hitch. Kayak. What's the connection? Well, it's like this...

Buy car rack. Buy kayak. Be happy.

I was scoping out Yakima's car top rack system last month, but the `05 Camry limits the rack spread to only 30 inches, which limits the haul length to approximately 10 feet. And since I'm seriously considering the Hobie Revolution, which is over 13 feet long, the rack system would require the extender kit. Being an engineer I realized that the extender kit doesn't increase the foot print on the roof of the car. Lots of questions arose. Plus, I miss my truck. (That's a story for a different blog.) So I got to thinking, Maybe a trailer would be a better option. I can mount a storage box for all the "stuff" and add a rack for the kayak. I can also use the trailer to haul "other stuff" from Home Lowes-enards. I even have the boss's approval. It's all coming together

Next, a small flat-bed trailer. Stay tuned...