New yaks, first time owners, gonna be fun!

[The Rooster]

My wife has expressed interest several times recently about wanting to get some kayaks to get out on the water and just paddle for recreation. I already have a small 2 man Sundolphin boat for fishing, but I knew if I got a yak I'd be fishing from it at some point so I knew I wanted one with an open rear cargo area for easy reach of stored tackle. I wasn't gonna break the bank and get a decked out rig, not even one already set up for fishing, but still was trying to plan in advance. We looked at several models and today we found these Future Beach 10 foot sit in yaks on sale at Dunham's sports (there's a website for ordering if anyone doesn't have a store near them).

The story is, we were gonna get two Future Beach Explorer 10.4 yaks, and she wanted purple, I wanted blue or green. They didn't have anything but purple with the open rear storage. They did have the blue and red with a large oval shaped rubber cap that covered a rear cargo area below, but I didn't care for that. However, I was gonna go ahead and settle, and try to do some extreme mods later, but then I asked what they might have in the back and the guy shows me the Voyager 10.4 deluxe with open rear storage, two rod holders, two latch type dry hatches in front, and it also has padding on the sides of the cockpit where my knees rest. This one is $90 more than the Explorer which is literally the same yak without all that stuff. But it's already fishable now, and is a pleasing color, and I'm shocked and surprised at how comfortable that cheap seat feels so I went for it. Both yaks also have a hull that seems much more durable than any of the Sundolphin or Pelican models we saw, on par with my friend's Perception Pescador that was close to $700 alone. I negotiated a $30 discount on mine since they didn't have what I originally wanted, and we got these two yaks and two light weight 30 oz. paddles out the door for under $500 total for both of them. I'm excited to break into the world of yak fishing and I'm sure I will have tons of mods coming soon, which I will post, with pics, the same as I did with my Sundophin Sportsman earlier this past spring.

[zippyduck]

Enjoy your time on the water together. 

[The Rooster]

Some details on the yaks. Both are 124" long (10 foot 4 inches), 32" wide (that's standard back door width on a house for comparison) and 11.5" deep. Both have identical seats, and the padding is not bad at all, like a neoprene gel material about 1/2" thick over a raised and shaped seat base. The back support is much nicer than I thought it would be, and even sitting all the way back so that the yak hull also supports, I seem to be sitting upright (we hit the water tomorrow for the real test). The cockpit area is 38.5" long and 20.5" wide, which sounds small but it isn't.  I'm 6'1" and I'm comfortable in it. Even have room for a small tackle bag on the floor in front of me. The footrests are adjustable and have tons of travel room about an inch at a time. They have over a foot of movement for any comfort level. I'm not using anywhere near even half of it and have found my comfortable setting. Total weight of these yaks is 43 pounds each, and I can pack mine with one hand centered on the inside of the cockpit and hold it near my shoulder, letting it hang at my side as I walk.