Kayak decision

[Kristi2k]

Old Town Loon 100

Old Town Dirigo 106

The loon has a keel while the Dirigo does not, but the Dirigo has more compartments. Does anyone have any experience and or advice between these two?

I'm not going to purchase any other brand or model.

 

[Kristi2k]

No one kayaks?

 

[Amplifier]

hi i own kayaktraining.com

 

[DrPizza]

A lot of good kayak shops are located adjacent to water; they'll let you test drive them.

You didn't mention what type of water you'd be on, etc. Then again, those two are pretty similar.
Given only those two choices, I'd get the Dirigo. Having purchased 4 kayaks for myself and family, and having tried out many different kayaks, I'd say that it's important to take them for a test run.

 

[Kristi2k]

I'd mostly use the kayak on a lakes and ponds, some calm rivers as well.

 

[Amplifier]

106 if those are the only two choices and i lied my dad owns kayaktraining.com i just wanted to be a bigshot

 

[Kristi2k]

Why the 106? I've read that having a keel is best for traction and control.

 

[DrPizza]

106 because I hate our yellow kayak at home

In all honesty, although you don't want the advice, I'd recommend one of the longer Perception America kayaks for such water and for a first kayak. I believe my wife's is either 13 or 13.6 feet. On flat water, I prefer hers over mine by a long shot. (I have a 10.6 America). However, I prefer mine on narrow streams because of its increased maneuverability. IIRC, my wife's was about $450 just a couple of years ago.

Still, see if you can find a place that demos kayaks... try out one with a keel and one without. I personally don't care if my kayak has one or not... except it's easier to kayak backwards without it.

 

[sunase]

My family just bought one of those 10' Dirigos recently. We just got into kayaking a little over a year ago and started with a pair made by Dagger. The ones we got are either 14' or 16', I forget which.

Anyway, we were short a boat one day and didn't want to crowd too many people in the canoe we also bring along. So we went and bought the Dirigo really quick without talking to the people at the shop much. We were thinking a smaller boat would be lighter and thus faster. Big mistake, the thing is a lot slower than the daggers due to its short length and greater width not cutting the water as well or something like that.

It is good for giving to the fastest person in your group, though, in order to slow them down closer to the speed of the rest of the fleet. I guess the moral of the story is to always talk to the people at the kayak shop before buying, heh.

 

[DrPizza]

From sunase's story - my kids, when they were 13 and 14 years old, could both blow me away in their kayaks... their's were only a couple of feet longer than mine. Just this past weekend, I went on a 30 mile kayaking trip with a bunch of friends... I of course took the longest kayak. If I had my shorter kayak, I'd have really slowed the group down or fell far behind. Sunase's idea of giving the fastest person in the group the slowest kayak is a good one... but you don't seem to have a group, just yourself. Around here (western NY) there are several kayaking clubs where up to a couple dozen people all get together on some body of water and kayak together.

 

[BoomerD]

In a lake setting, a keel will help keep you going straight, but in moving water, it will slow your turns. In white water, you do NOT want a keel, as you need the ability to turn on a dime, and a keel will slow that way down, plus, if you have to tack across a current, the keep will give the water something to hold on to, and push you around much more. It's been a LONG time, but I taught canoeing at Boy Scout camp in Washington for 3 summers.

 

[Kristi2k]

The Old Town factory, where I am planning on purchasing the kayak is not near a river... No one I know that has a kayak has a keel so I can't test it out.

Basically, like I stated before, I'll be doing mostly medium sized lakes and ponds, MAYBE some calm rivers.

Last weekened I used my dad's which did not have a keel, when the wind came up I was blown sideways a little but was able to compensate with the paddle. That wasn't a big deal unless I was trying to take a photo, which I will be doing a lot of in the fall. The reason why I wanted a shorter kayak is because it fits in the back of my car. I suppose a little longer kayak would do fine as well.

 

[DrPizza]

The long kayak fits on the roof of my car just fine.

Hint: Instead of blowing $100 or more on a stupid roof rack, just get some of those 4 foot swimming pool "noodles" that cost $1 or $2 in the toy section... put a couple of those across the roof, set the yak on top, strap it down, and you're good to go.