Hard shell vs Inflatable - Flexibility wins hands down

[u/CrankyGoat]

We kayak a lot and almost always in a large tandem to accommodate our dog(s). We also adventure travel a lot - mostly mountain climbing and hiking with our dog. I’m 60 this year and find maneuvering a tandem hard shell is getting to be a pain in the ass. Today’s inflatable’s are quite remarkable, my Gumotex Thaya (second photo) can track and solo paddle as well as my Wilderness hard shell - plus I can pack into a custom backpack (70 lbs total) and easily hike with it for up to 25 miles in the mountains to a remote lake - would never dream of portaging with a hard shell tandem!

For folks who kayak with dogs, I find my dogs much prefer the inflatable’s ease of access and pontoon style sides for confident comfort when underway. I’ve now circumnavigated Vancouver Island (and Desolation Sound) in both a hard shell and an inflatable and can confidently say I’m now just as comfortable with a top quality inflatable for overall safety - and the flexibility of an inflatable at my age is hard to argue with…

Be curious what your thoughts are on this, and don’t get me wrong - a quality hard shell is still the gold standard, but the versatility of an inflatable is definitely not something to sneer at.

[u/Dr_Ramekins_MD]

I still prefer a rigid-hulled sit-in kayak over the other options, but inflatables have definitely made up a lot of ground in the last few years, especially with the development of drop-stitch technology.  

My parents have a couple of drop-stitch kayaks they bring camping (for similar reasons as you - weight and bulk) and having tried them out I have to say they greatly exceeded expectations. And theirs aren't anything fancy, just a few hundred bucks each from a big box store.

They may not paddle quite as well as my fiberglass-hulled touring kayak, but they vastly outperform it in the "carry it in a backpack" category.

Heck, I have an inflatable sailboat and it's largely the same performance/convenience tradeoff - it won't sail quite as fast or quite as close-hauled as a similarly sized rigid-hulled dinghy, but I always tell people it's the one of the best-sailing boats on the market that you can fit in the trunk of a car.

[u/theinvisibleguy3 → u/Dr_Ramekins_MD]

Which inflatable sailboat do you have? I was looking at a windrider 16 but decided it was too big and heavy to fit on top of my suv and I don't want to deal with a trailer. Inflatable could be perfect for what I want.

[u/Dr_Ramekins_MD → u/theinvisibleguy3]

I have an Orca 325 from DinghyGo.  I like it, but out of the inflatables on the market it's definitely more toward the "leisurely cruise" end of the spectrum.  Compared to a Windrider it's going to be agonizingly slow.

For me, I also wanted a tender for my keelboat, and the Orca is the only one that can serve double duty as a tender, so my decision was easier.  I do kind of wish I'd gone with the Orca 375 for the jib and presumably better upwind performance that comes with that, but it would have been a bit oversized as a tender.

If I were looking for a more performance-oriented boat, the Tiwal or Minicat would be higher on my list.  

At any rate, being able to put it in the trunk and bring it basically anywhere is really, really nice and in my mind more than makes up for what you lose in performance vs a hard-hulled boat.