In the distance today while out paddling I saw two pedal-powered kayaks
(Georges River - Sydney Australia). Interestingly they both had a pair
of fixed wheels sticking up in the air behind the cockpit. I imagine
that they are some sort of transport system for when on land.

Does anyone know of a model like this?

One of the kayaks had a big "Shimano" on the side so I'm wondering if it
was a sponsored prototype or something.

RockyRoad

--
Rocky Road - in Oz

I don't know about the wheels, but Boston Whaler makes a "kayak" with pedals,
which turn a paddle wheel which sits below the kayak.

One of the obvious problems with this is it takes a lot more depth which
restricts where you can peddle. Personally, I wouldn't call this a kayak.
Maybe, since I last saw this model, they added the wheels.
Lynn

In the distance today while out paddling I saw two pedal-powered kayaks
(Georges River - Sydney Australia). Interestingly they both had a pair
of fixed wheels sticking up in the air behind the cockpit. I imagine
that they are some sort of transport system for when on land.

Does anyone know of a model like this?

One of the kayaks had a big "Shimano" on the side so I'm wondering if it
was a sponsored prototype or something.

RockyRoad

In the distance today while out paddling I saw two pedal-powered kayaks
(Georges River - Sydney Australia). Interestingly they both had a pair
of fixed wheels sticking up in the air behind the cockpit. I imagine
that they are some sort of transport system for when on land.
Does anyone know of a model like this?

In the states there's a pedal-powered kayak made by Hobie. Works by
moving two flippers from side to side below the kayak. There's a lever arm
to the rudder. It's a sit-on-top design and the whole pedal mechanism can
be lifted out.
There was one on a trip I was on in the NJ Pine Barrens and the flippers
flipped back neatly as the kayak went over shallow logs or sandbars so there
was little restriction due to water depth.
Haven't seen permanently mounted wheels but not a few paddlers have
them, often carrying them on the back deck...

Joe P.

RockyRoad wrote:

Interestingly they both had a pair
of fixed wheels sticking up in the air behind the cockpit. I imagine
that they are some sort of transport system for when on land.

My guess would be that the wheels were simply a stern hauler portage
cart that they had inverted and left attached to the stern. A
peddle-kayak probably weighs enough to merit the use of a portage
cart.

In article ,
"Joe Pylka" wrote:

In the distance today while out paddling I saw two pedal-powered kayaks
(Georges River - Sydney Australia). Interestingly they both had a pair
of fixed wheels sticking up in the air behind the cockpit. I imagine
that they are some sort of transport system for when on land.
Does anyone know of a model like this?

In the states there's a pedal-powered kayak made by Hobie. Works by
moving two flippers from side to side below the kayak. There's a lever arm
to the rudder. It's a sit-on-top design and the whole pedal mechanism can
be lifted out.
There was one on a trip I was on in the NJ Pine Barrens and the flippers
flipped back neatly as the kayak went over shallow logs or sandbars so there
was little restriction due to water depth.
Haven't seen permanently mounted wheels but not a few paddlers have
them, often carrying them on the back deck...

Joe P.


Thanks for the reply. I am however, unfamiliar with the phrase "not a
few". Would it mean something similar to the phrase "quite a few"?

--
Rocky Road - in Oz

this summer. while passing an apartment building, I spied a discarded
kid's pedal car in the rubish corner which got me thinking. I came back a
couple of days later and ripped the pedals out of the toy and took them
home. I playied around with the dimensions and some ideas. The main
obsitcal is to get sufficietn clearance inside teh boat for the pedals and
feet the axel has to be mounted 10" - 12" above the bottom. Not only is
that too tight a fit for teh interior of a kayak, but the height means the
feet are held up at an awkward, tiring angle. The peddler would have to be
sitting well above the bottom of teh boat to be comfortable peddling. The
boat I would be intsalling the peddals in is a narrow boat without a deck
with 10" fo freeboard on 12" topsides. I could perhaps iostall a seat 6"
above the bottom to use the peddals.

I would also not use a paddle wheel as they mostly just stir the water
into a froth. I would use the peddals to move a longer paddle through the
water, one shaft with a paddle on each end. A posting in the
rec.boats.building newsgroup on the dyanamics of paddles confirmed its
effectiveness. This also solves the shallow draft problem as the paddle
can be brought to rest parallel to the and above the waterline. I've
worked out the dimensions of the paddles.

I only need to scrounge a few materials to make and test the paddles but
I'm currently more interested in working out the math for the design of a
solo pocket cruising sailboat so I doubt the paddles will get made for
some time.

many who lurk in this newsgroup will be delighted to read that the paddles
would not work well with sponsons, at least on the boats I have.
--
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On 1 Oct 2003 13:32:16 GMT, (William R. Watt)
wrote:

... The peddler would have to be
sitting well above the bottom of teh boat to be comfortable peddling.
...

I would have thought sales location would be much more important to
peddling.

Galen Hekhuis NpD, JFR, GWA
A penny saved gathers no moss

Galen Hekhuis ) writes:
On 1 Oct 2003 13:32:16 GMT, (William R. Watt)
wrote:

... The peddler would have to be
sitting well above the bottom of teh boat to be comfortable peddling.
...

I would have thought sales location would be much more important to
peddling.

piddling

--
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homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
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In article ,
(Mike McCrea) wrote:

RockyRoad wrote:

Interestingly they both had a pair
of fixed wheels sticking up in the air behind the cockpit. I imagine
that they are some sort of transport system for when on land.

My guess would be that the wheels were simply a stern hauler portage
cart that they had inverted and left attached to the stern. A
peddle-kayak probably weighs enough to merit the use of a portage
cart.

Yes, I'm thinking that's probably it.

--
Rocky Road - in Oz

Thanks for the reply. I am however, unfamiliar with the phrase "not a
few". Would it mean something similar to the phrase "quite a few"?

Yep. They're pretty much equivalent.

Joe P.