Hi from Cornwall (Kernow)

Knackered Sailor · 27 September 2017, 20:21

I'm an old guy who used to have a yacht but retirement and rising mooring fees and other cost meant moving on. I went from that to a motor bike for a few years then r/c model planes after which the pull of the sea was still strong so I went for a couple of kayaks. Great fun but dragging it up steep sandy beaches eventually became a chore so yesterday I bought a second hand Hondawave 3.6 along with a Yamaha 6hp 2t which I'm told works ok but has a bit of a blockage in the cooling system so a little work to do before I can try it all out.

Blew it up today and it looks a lot bigger than I thought and weighs a lot more too, maybe I should have kept the kayak

(not serious) We've got plenty of slipways here so my intention is to load it onto the car roof and get a collapsible launching trolley for the move from car park to water with engine fitted to save my back.

I'm sure I'll need to call upon the collective wisdom here before long but in the meantime I'll enjoy browsing for a while.

Fenlander · 27 September 2017, 22:07

Welcome KS. Funnily enough at this moment we have a load of tabs open researching a SIB holiday your way in 2018 (Fowey).

Like you I've been about boats a good while... many much larger than our current 3.8m inflatable... but the inflatable does a great job of getting us afloat at sensible cost with no worries re storage costs.

Is your Honwave an alloy floor 3.5m or the air floor 3.8m? Where do you hope to launch from?

Knackered Sailor · 27 September 2017, 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenlander

Welcome KS. Funnily enough at this moment we have a load of tabs open researching a SIB holiday your way in 2018 (Fowey).

Like you I've been about boats a good while... many much larger than our current 3.8m inflatable... but the inflatable does a great job of getting us afloat at sensible cost with no worries re storage costs.

Is your Honwave an alloy floor 3.5m or the air floor 3.8m? Where do you hope to launch from?

Hi FL. Thanks for the welcome; it's the air floor version. Lots of places to launch from down here and funnily enough I live not far from Fowey where there's a good car park by the Bodinick ferry with a slipway alongside. Often used it with the kayak, pleasant to go up-river if rough at sea or exploring the coastline when fine.

Fenlander · 27 September 2017, 23:19

If you are singlehanded the 3.8 air floor is pretty bulky... but it is light for a SIB of its size. Do you have transom wheels?

I guess if we are talking July/Aug that car park and slipway near the ferry is going to be rammed with folks?

Knackered Sailor · 28 September 2017, 10:52

Too right it's bulky lol I didn't realise until I'd blown it up so I'm thinking of getting a collapsible launching trolley so off the car roof, spin it round onto trolley, on with engine and pull to the water. Sounds simple to me but I bet it's not. :-D Re Fowey in Jul/Aug you're probably right we tend to avoid the tourist magnets then and wait for September to get our beaches back and generally speaking winters are fairly mild with settled spells for boating. I kayaked all year with probable exception of January.