PAKYAK Review
Portable Kayaks
I love kayaking, but storage and transportation make owning one a challenge. Even a small kayak would be an overly prominent feature of my one-bedroom apartment. Even if I had a place to keep it, my 2011 Ford Fusion is hardly the correct car to transport a kayak. My plan was to wait until I had a house and a bigger car. I ditched that plan when I learned about portable kayaks. Suddenly, both of my problems were solved.
There are three different types of portable kayaks:
- Inflatable kayaks such as the Intex Explorer.
- Foldable kayaks such as the Trak 2.0 Ultimate and the Oru Lake.
- Modular kayaks such as the PAKYAK Bluefin 142 and the Point 65 Martini GTX
- The PAKAYAK is a unique in this class by being a nestable kayak. This means that the modular pieces fit inside each-other which reduces the size of the packed kayak.
Inflatable kayaks are pretty much just pool inflatable that have been beefed up by a few pieces of hard plastic. They are also, by far, the cheapest option for portables. You can pick one up for less than the cost of a normal hard-shell kayak. They're also extremely portable, often packing into the size of a microwave. I've seen them on the lake. It looks like they work well enough. I decided against these. Ultimately, they had too many downside. Chiefly that you have to be careful to not puncture them. They also don't track very well, and I didn't want to deal with an electric pump for inflating/deflating them.
Foldable kayaks are made of a thin outer layer that is made ridged by a collapsible internal frame. Without the frame, the outer layer of plastic either folds or rolls into a much smaller bundle. Because they're ridged when assembled, a folding kayak is almost as good as a real one. For me, there were two reasons I didn't buy one of these. First, they're still quite a bit more fragile than a hard-shell kayak. Second, I learned that recovering from a roll in one of these can be difficult and I'm not a good swimmer
Modular kayaks are hard-shell kayaks that have been divided into attachable sections. In my opinion, there's a lot to love about these. They're almost identical to a hard-shell, so you're not sacrificing performance. Plus they all have multiple bulkheads, so taking in water isn't a huge problem. For me, the only real downside of this type of kayak is that they aren't as portable. Even when packed up, they're the heaviest and bulkiest of the portable kayaks. In fact, they're usually heavier than an equivalent sized hard-shell kayak.
Bluefin 142
The PAKAYAK Bluefin 142 ended up being my choice. Mainly because I wanted a hard-shell kayak and this one would fit in my car the best.
The delivery came only a week after ordering. Immediately after getting it, I assembled the kayak in my apartment. It came with printed instructions and links to video instructions, but everything ended up being intuitive. The pieces have one obvious way of assembling and dissembling/packing. As an engineer, I have a huge amount of respect for the user-friendliness of this design. I wish the user interfaces I built were as easy to use! Putting it together for the first time took about 15 minutes. Taking it apart and packing it took only about 5 minutes.
Once assembled, the kayak feels pretty solid. It feels like one solid piece. Like I mentioned earlier, it is heavy. At 60 lbs. and 14 ft. I prefer having a person at each end to carry it. Thankfully, once it's in the bag it's a bit easier to move. There are wheels attached to the base of the bag for level surfaces. For staircases, you can use the provided straps to wear the whole bag like a backpack.
Because the kayak is over 13 ft long, I had to register it with the State of Iowa. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing this will be necessary in most states. Anyway, it's nice to have it registered because most states will temporarily recognize an out-of-state registration.
When it's time to go out, I slide the kayak onto the back seats of my car. There's no room left for any passengers. I think it might fit into my trunk, but that's where I'm storing a bunch of fishing gear.
Launching the Bluefin 142 is a breeze. Because it's basically a hard-shell I can just leave part of it beached and then push out into the water. I'm guessing you'd have to be more careful with an inflatable kayak.
On the water I'm very pleased with the tracking and performance. With it and my carbon fiber paddle I can quite easily move at a brisk pace. Unlike an inflatable or foldable, this just feels exactly like a normal kayak.
Inside the kayak, all 6' 2" of me fits comfortably. If you're shorter, there are adjustable foot pedals. For me, they're pushed all of the way to the back. If you're taller, you might stii fit, but I'd recommend looking elsewhere. The included seat is sufficiently soft for me, but I find the backrest to be a little lacking. I'll probably end up adding some more padding to it.
For me, the only remaining test is to see how long the PAKAYAK holds up. With 5 seals there are plenty opportunities for things to go wrong. It wouldn't be fun to develop a leak out on the water. Because of the three bulkheads, I wouldn't sink, but it would still be a bad day. On the bright side, the seals and clamps can be replaced. Anyway, I fully expect to get many years out of my PAKAYAK before I have to start thinking about that.
If you're thinking about picking one of these up, I'd highly recommend it!
