| Review: |
I have been kayaking for
most of my life.
Started out white water
kayaking and did most of
the rivers in the southeast
but this is my first
fishing kayak. I did a ton of
research before
buying the 4.7. Here are my
observations of this
boat.
Boat is somewhat heavy, and I
am a healthy guy,
but I still am able to load it
by myself on my
truck rack. The boat is fast,
and I mean fast. It
handles well despite of its
overall length. I use
it in the bayous of Louisiana
and open water as
well. I have had this boat for
about 3 months and
used it a lot so I’ve had the
opportunity to see
various weather circumstances
and conditions.
I’ve found the boat to be much
more responsive in
the turns without using the
rudder. I usually do
not employ it in cramped
areas. I will say that I
could be considered a “basher”
of those who use a
rudder to make up for poor
paddling skills but I
must say that the rudder is a
huge advantage in
windy weather on open water. I
also use it running
with the current or running
downwind to steer the
kayak while fishing and it
works great. I bought
my wife the Ocean 13 angler
and I like the way the
rudder cables tie into the
rudder body better than
the 4.7. The 4.7 uses a
threaded u clamp and even
though I tightened it down
really well, I lost one
the second time out and used a
plastic tie that
seems to work even better.
The boat is really thought out
well with the 4 rod
holders and the central
storage pod. I like the
center hatch but do envy the
Ocean 13’s rod
storage under the seat area on
my wife’s. The
live bait well would be
awesome, since I use life
bait a lot, but for some
idiotic reason Ocean does
not make that available here
but only in new
Zealand or there about. This
is the same company
right? They do have planes
that fly out of their
country and they do export
things out of that
country right? geeeez!! That
is unacceptable!
The seat that comes with this
boat is very good
and comfortable for a day on
the water. The boat
is stable at 29 inches but
when it gets in
“nervous water”, with 2 foot
ways boat gets a
little squirrelly at anchor,
once under way rocker
helps boat stay stable.
Definition: water in 2+
waves with VERY short wave
duration, less than 3
seconds between crests.
I am getting water from
somewhere inside my
boat. I suspected the hatch,
due to complaints on
this in older models, but I
have run a water hose
over the boat section by
section and could not get
any water. I am concerned I
have a small split in
the hull that opens up under
wave pressure. I’m
still investigating this. It
seems that when I am
in high waves there is MUCH
more water in the
hull. 2+ gallons, which made
me almost sure it
was the front hatch But I was
in it just this
past week and no water got
around the front hatch
area and still had some water
in the hull, not as
much, but some water is still
bad water. I don’t
like the way the front hatch
was molded into the
boat. They basically created a
well or pool area
that just holds water towards
the rear. The design
on the Ocean 13 is MUCH
better. I see no benefit
for the way it is designed
anyway. To say I am
not concerned about this
intrusion of water would
be a huge understatement.
Don’t get me wrong, the
boat is not going to sink but
it slows the boat
down considerably. A gallon of
water weighs 8.35
lbs. that’s over 16 pounds of
moving weight in my
boat, not good.
I also bought the ice chest
pod and it is a
really nice addition. It has a
very low profile
that really drops the center
of gravity. The
insulation is not all that
good though, as ice
melts pretty quickly.
I really like the skid plates
on the rear of the
tail fin. That was a smart
idea; I just wished
they would do something
similar on the bow. Back
in the day we used duct tape
and replaced it after
several trips to keep the
scratches off the nose.
The bungee on the front bow
is awesome for
holding your paddle for quick
retrieval. The ones
on the side are difficult to
strap so I will most
likely be changing them to
clips in the future,
although this is a concern for
fishing line to get
caught on.
I find the middle hatch to
be somewhat flimsy. I
initially mounted a Scotty
mount for my fish
holder on it so I could use it
for live bait while
I was fishing something else,
but when I had a
fish hit that line it almost
torn off the hatch.
Way to flimsy for anything
that will give it ANY
torque. There is an area in
front of middle hatch
for this mount but it’s really
tough to reach,
making it really useless. I
have since mounted my
rod there and bought a Scotty
extender for this
and it really does work well.
It does require a
little fore thought prior to
getting in the kayak
to set up due to the way
Scotty mounts are
adjusted but it’s workable and
will take some
torque.
I made up my own anchor
trolley, which you will
most definitely need, due to
the fact again, Ocean
does not sell one to fit this
boat in the US,
stupid, because it comes set
up to accept the
blocks on the bow and stern.
All in all, not hard
to make a good one out of some
local parts
gathered from some chain
stores.
Overall, this is a nice boat,
but one that needs
to see some bigger water. If I
was on lakes,
bayous or other smaller water
all the time, I
would opt for the ocean 13. If
you have a lot of
water to cover and you visit
some water beyond the
breakers, you will not beat
this boat other than
if you use a touring yak.
The only reason I am giving
this boat only 4
stars is for the lack of
product support for this
line from Ocean Kayak.
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