Kudzu Posted September 5, 2015 Report Share Posted September 5, 2015 Wife and I got the chance to take out one of the Field Stations tandems today and we hated it. The boat was an old Necky, the rudder pedals in the boat were garbage! The way they were set up was awful. Boat was a barge. We paddled in the marsh in a bit of current and the winds were AT LEAST 20 mph and I am sure gusts were 25+ mph. We got the boat sideways to the wind a couple of times and could not make it turn up or down wind! I just all but refused to turn! I had a very hard time getting used to the sliding footrests and getting the hang of steering a boat with a rudder. My wife (and me to) kept going into reflex mode and trying to turn the boat with paddle and leaning while the other was trying to go straight. I ran right into a 4x4 post, ran over a couple of things, total NewB mistakes but despite the comedy of errors we never had a cross word and only crossed paddles once. We actually liked paddling tandem! Just no in THAT boat!! My problem with designing a tandem has always been the fear that it would not be used. I need a prototype but I don't need more spider housing in my shop. But after this experience we have decided we can tandem and I am going to work on a tandem design. That will take a while so don't start asking for plans any time soon. I will have to build it and paddle it and work out the bugs. But this is officially on the To-Do list. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwhip Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 Back in '78 I had a kayak date with a cute little girl in a Folbot Greenland 2 tandem barge. During the float, I clubbed her in the back of the head with the paddle, and I swear to this day that it wasn't intentional. Well, she ended up marrying me and today (really) we're celebrating our 34th anniversary. In our case, the tandem ended up being a marriage boat. We kayak solo now, just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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