Missing Kayaker

[Fish Grylls]

Hopefully there will be some good news, however unlikely at this stage.

The following news story is reporting that the kayak was a '2 monks' kayak, which I believe are at the cheaper end of the scale.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaki ... 1e5fc96057

[laneends]

Hopefully there will be some good news, however unlikely at this stage.

The following news story is reporting that the kayak was a '2 monks' kayak, which I believe are at the cheaper end of the scale.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaki ... 1e5fc96057

Thats not what the police put up. I hope those in charge are doing their reserch and not just putting up any yellow kayak as an example.

[4liters]

The police press release was referring to it as a 'Kobie' for a while

[laneends]

The police press release was referring to it as a 'Kobie' for a while

The Hobie logo does look like K

[shane]

Thats not what the police put up. I hope those in charge are doing their reserch and not just putting up any yellow kayak as an example.

The latest Police release identifies the kayak has a yellow "2 Monks" yak, which news outlets are also reporting. https://www.vicpolicenews.com.au/news/w ... -fisherman

A fairly typical 3m long, $380 cheapie.

It's sounding more like a recovery mission now. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and colleagues. Very sad and so avoidable.

[laneends]

A 3.7m tandom by the looks of it

[Yakass]

IMHO my PA is not fit for the purpose intended as purchased. I have to add boyancy and still cant seal the hatches to prevent the mass infow of water......for me thats enough to render the product defective in design.

I think you are looking at it wrong - the PA is a flat water boat and was designed to fish for Bass so as a bream boat it's the ducks guts - for rough water though it rates pretty poorly at to if the drive sh!ts it self it is a very poor paddle yak
remember that is not its design

So " my PA is not fit for the purpose intended " well plenty of bream fishos would disagree

Spot on CP. Pro Anglers are simply not made for rough conditions, period. It hates surf, chop, wind, and especially hates a combination of these. I've been saying this since before they hit the market. It isn't at all uncommon for punters to get this mixed up either - they see a wide stable looking 'kayak' and think to themselves 'stable = seaworthy'. Not necessarily, no. The PA is great for fishing flatwater but in anything less than picture-perfect conditions is a terrible choice for open water.

[Hvalross]

Ok!...........so I go out on Eildon or similar on that picture perfect day..and the guts falls out of the barometer and a howler comes in.

For folks on this forum unlkely to be too serious as we tend to have good education and tend to prepare.
However, go over it will and fill and become a bloody dangerous whale, it most certainly will.

[Yako]

The PA is great for fishing flatwater but in anything less than picture-perfect conditions is a terrible choice for open water.

Maybe so Josh, but I've lost count of the number of times I've been out in less than ideal, even my best was in Jan this year being hit with 32 Kt winds at corner inlet (so maybe worse if offshore).
I agree there are better yaks but I don't agree with your "flatwater" statement

[Yakass]

Ok!...........so I go out on Eildon or similar on that picture perfect day..and the guts falls out of the barometer and a howler comes in.

For folks on this forum unlkely to be too serious as we tend to have good education and tend to prepare.
However, go over it will and fill and become a bloody dangerous whale, it most certainly will.

Before I address your response here, I'm not going to disagree that manufacturors should be placing safety as their #1 priority when it comes to design paradigms and I do agree improvements could be made (I to would be modifying the front hatch of a PA if I had one). Of course this should be the primary consideration for kayak companies, but try not to lose sight of the fact that kayaking is potentially a relatively dangerous sport (refer to the warning graphic that is moulded into the hulls of most kayaks) and there's really no way around that. No boat is truly sink proof (look at the Titanic) and even if they were, it wouldn't necessarily be a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card if they were. Swamped boats are notoriously unstable, so a reliable bilge solution is equally important, not to mention a worthy PFD, flares, PLB/Epirb, the right apparel, etc.

I think you have just pointed out a pretty good scenario there, to which my answer would be that it is unlikely that the weather would change so fast that the user had no forewarning and if said user was caught unawares and got into trouble as a result I would question how educated that person really is. I have spent a lot of time on the water and can't ever recall seeing weather change so fast that I had no forewarning and ability to address it (ie: heading back to land before its too late). Add to this, if said user is so far away from land that they are in serious danger if the boat capsized and they couldn't right it, I would also say that they were not likely experienced enough to be out so far. By that I mean that if someone is going to plan to be so far away from land that they couldn't swim back if they had to, then they sure better be able to right their kayak (which is why we always encourage people to drill this before getting too ambitious). If a user cannot right their capsized boat, should they really be so far from land? I would say not.

My point here is that user education and experience is a far more common factor when it comes to kayaking fatalities and it looks to me like this instance is a case in point. The weather was terrible that day and if its true that the paddler wasn't wearing a PFD tells me almost everything I need to know.

To suggest that folks on this forum know better is a generalization (while probably true) that I would caution against encouraging. For example, I have had a few debates with veteran members here on the PA's suitability for offshore use and I think that any suggestion that it is suited to that is flat-out dangerous, which is exactly why I entered into those debates. I have also spoken to many customers who are either members of VYAK (or have been reading VYAK) that clearly lack experience and have been misinformed somewhere along the way. VYAK is a terrific resource for Vic kayak anglers, but forums are opinion salads and as such it's easy for readers to become misinformed, which is why membership alone does not equate to education and or experience. Believe me, there are times where the exact opposite occurs.