Comments on: How Effective Can A Fishing Kayak’s Outriggers Be?

By: Graham R

Graham R — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:50:04 +0000

I’m not a big fan of outriggers, because in order to offer enough initial, or primary stability they need to be very close to the water. This means that they do touch the water on occasion, especially if the water is choppy, and that’s not good for tracking.
If they’re not close to the water, we’re already dealing with a secondary stability issue, and only large size outriggers can help you then. As we know, big outriggers can’t be lightweight, and they tend to catch the wind.

Just curious – what are you planning to do when your sea kayak capsizes? The outriggers will prevent you from rolling it, and you’ll get entrapped: http://wavewalk.com/blog/2008/01/29/getting-trapped-in-a-kayak/

Graham

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:31:33 +0000

I own a 17 ‘ sea kayak. It is fast, and very unstable. 21 ” across the beam. I bought a pair of outriggers which are adjustable up, down and sideways. They stay out of the water untill they are needed and therefore they do not decrease my speed. They weigh 15 lbs. I do not sacrifice anything but a small amount of weight. I can take them on or off in less than one minute. I would not go without them. I can also practice bracing without the fear of rolling over. I have been in some very rough seas and have yet not had any problems.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:32:06 +0000

Greg,

IMO 64 lbs of buoyancy won’t suffice for a 55 lbs motor, because on top of its weight the motor acts on the boat with its own power, and not always in a way you want it to.
I’d use at least 3 times more buoyancy, if I were you, just to be on the safe side, which is the only side you want to be on

As for calculating the effect of the outrigger’s distance from the boat, you can use simple lever formulas.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:10:57 +0000

I have a place in NW Ontario that I leave a canoe and like to fish with a 4 horse motor on it. It can be treacherous to fish with a 55 pound motor mounted on the side of the stern of a canoe. I have been doing some research on outriggers and have found that floats afford as much buoyancy as the weight of water that could be held by them(minus their own weight). That means that an outrigger that has a volume of 1 cubic foot would provide 64 pounds of buoyancy(the weight of 1 cubic foot of water). So to counter the effects of my 55 pound motor on the side of the canoe I would have to have approximately one cubic foot of floatation on the same side of the canoe as the motor. What I don’t understand is as I move the outrigger out away from the center point of the canoe, how much buoyancy do I pick up? I understand that it increases as the outrigger moves out but what is the formula? Any help? I am thinking I could put just one outrigger on the canoe, on the same side of the canoe as the motor. It would be like the Hawaiian outriggers, providing buoyancy on the side it is on and also leveraged weight to counter a tip of the canoe in the opposite direction. That leaves one side of the canoe open for landing fish, pulling up for shore lunches, etc also. There are some pretty cool aluminum torpedo shaped fuel tanks on that look like they might work great. I am trying to decide how big I need and how far to put my outrigger out.

Don’t Forget to Set the Hook.

Thanks,
Greg

By: Nitta

Nitta — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:58 +0000

I agree that we have extra cost to using outriggers in fishing kayak.
Nice posting..

By: Roxanne

Roxanne — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:02:37 +0000

I own two Wavewalk yaks, one is bare bones, the other has
the Spring creek outrigger.
My outriggers do not touch the water as I’m paddling, so they don’t
slow me down.
They were my training wheels in the begining.
Now they are there for larger bodies of water where wakes can be
a problem, this way I can fish and not worry about the boats going
by.
And for when I use my trolling motor, they are a big bonous, for
nice quick tight turns without a worry.

Tight lines.
Rox

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:26:45 +0000

An outrigger’s job is to compensate for your kayak losing its stability as it’s tipping sideways.
A good pair of outriggers should be big enough, and attached far enough from the kayak’s center line, in parallel to the kayak’s middle section – not at the stern.
Any other way is inefficient, pretty much ineffective, and even useless, depending on circumstances, or luck, if you prefer.
Pete

By: Warren

Warren — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:09:32 +0000

stabilizers are not cool

By: Marco

Marco — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:35:13 +0000

So those unfolding stabilizers don’t help you a bit when you’re stumbling anywhere forward, like in hours 2 on your right side and 10 on your left side…
“Interesting”…
Marco

By: admin

admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:09:22 +0000

That’s pretty much it.
More precisely, the little increase in lateral stability at the stern can be felt mainly if you’re leaning backwards and sideways at a certain angle. In clock terms it’s roughly hour 4 on your right and hour 8 on your left. If you lean sideways (hours 3 and 9, respectively) you’ll feel very little difference from when the outriggers are unfolded.
The irony about that design is that with the same added complexity (and cost) they could have increased stability more by letting the outriggers open in parallel to the hull, and not through pivoting. It would have also enabled the kayak fisherman sitting o top of that kayak to keep paddling, while the current configuration completely prevents any effective paddling from the moment those things are deployed.

By: Mike M

Mike M — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:57:05 +0000

Let’s see if I get it…
The folding [pivoting] outriggers in the [brand name kayak] kayak don’t add any buoyancy, right?
So what actually happens when those pivoting outriggers unfold, it’s just their own, small buoyancy that’s partially moving outwards from the center line, and the central point of buoyancy of each outrigger moves out just by a few inches, correct?
It seems to me that the added stability is small in this case, because most of that yak’s buoyancy is till located in its main hull, and after all it’s just a regular mono-hull SOT. The little stability added works only for the stern, but hardly for the passenger and the bow…
Mike

By: admin

admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:26:51 +0000

Well Jeff, I guess I must have learned a thing or two from you

By: Jeff McGovern

Jeff McGovern — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:09:14 +0000

Yoav, you are right. In simple terms outriggers are a royal pain and have no place on real fishing kayak. I’ve have outrigger experience with a fully rigged 13′ canoe here at the house. I put it together in the mid 90′s long before fishing kayaks were all the rage. The outriggers do slow a boat down a bunch if they are in constant contact with the water. Mine were adjustable from along the hull to out three feet on each side and you could raise or lower them. But at any location they are a line catch hazard and cost me a few fish over the years I used them. Also the set up time for rigging from cartop to the water, you could loose the topwater bite unless you showed up real early. That combined with the other set up time for the padded seats, roll in floor, rod rack, let me tell you at times you almost forgot why you were at the water’s edge with all that stuff. The W puts the idea of outriggers to bed for kayak fishing. You don’t need them and once you understand the ease of use the W offers virutally anything else is a bother