X-Factor

The size of the x-factor leaves virtually unlimited potential to accessorize. I installed flush mount rod holders all over the place as well as extra eyelets for bungee cord and a rope cleat for my anchor. Even with all of that, I am left with plenty of room for future ideas.

Last but not least, the stability of this thing is unreal, not sure I could capsize it if I tried. The width/stability leads to the size, which leads to some tiresome paddling in calm water in large lakes, but that is simply a function of physics, not to be held against the kayak.

The areas in which this boats excels:
1. Storage, storage, storage. You literally have to see for yourself how much stuff you can pack in this thing...amazing.
2. Awesome family boat. I have a 6, 5, and 3 year old. I can COMFORTABLY, yes, I said comfortably, fit all three kids on this boat and paddle them out to the middle of a lake and tend fishing rods for them while they fish. The amazing thing is when I do this, the boat barely grunts...no water even approaches to reach the top of the scupper holes.
3. Stability. I have paddled a ton of yaks.. To say this boat is the most stable boat I've ever been on is an understatement. I can literally hop from bow to stern and back on this thing and it doesn't move. You can easily crawl to the bow and access items inside the gator hatch while on the water. Standing is easy. I was actually shocked at how comfortable I was standing, even in 1 - 2 foot chop.
4. Best slow-river camping kayak - EVER! With the capacity this thing has for gear, beer, and everything in between, I can't imagine a better kayak for taking a 4,5,6 or even week-long trek down a lazy river. All of the little extra things I used to leave at home when I had other boats, I can take along with this boat.

The not so good characteristics with this boat are:
1. This boat is LOUD. If you are looking for a boat to use fishing rivers or big water, this is not a problem, but if you primarily want a fishing kayak to use on small lakes and need something capable of sneaking up on fish or stalking spooky fish....well, they will hear you coming from the dock in this boat. I am about 6' 190 lbs and I can tell you when it is just me in this boat with my fishing gear, the front scupper holes make an awful gurgling noise when the boat moves forward at all. All you hear is chug, clug, chug, clug. At the same time, water shoots up from the most forward scupper holes into the boat. I have noticed that when I have an extra kid on the gator hatch or about 40 extra pounds in the boat, this noise and water shooting problem disappears. This has to be a design flaw. Also, I recently bought scupper plugs and plugged the front two scupper holes, but this causes another issue...that is, the two most forward scupper holes are the lowest scupper holes on the deck. Thus, by plugging them, there is always a small amount of water on the deck, even on a lake where the surface is like glass. This also segways into my next issue...
2. The scupper holes on the deck are not the lowest points on the deck. The hole openings are all about an eighth of an inch above the deck surface. Therefore, even in a best case scenario, you are going to have at least an eighth inch of water on the deck. This makes for a wet ride, even on calm waters. Again, this has to be a design flaw.
3. The recessed area for the fishfinder transducer is in one of the scupper holes in the tank well. To me, this makes little sense. Because of this, I have to run my transducer cord from my tank well to the front of the boat on the deck. The cord pretty much gets in the way of everything on the deck. I am not sure what I am going to do to reconcile this issue. I absolutely refuse to drill holes in my boat to try to fix this issue. It seems to me that it would have made a lot more sense for Malibu to place the recessed area for the transducer in one of the front scupper holes, a la OK Trident.
4. The seat area does not drain very well if it gets wet. Literally, your butt will act as a cork and not allow the water to drain. Wilderness Systems' boats and Ocean Kayak's Trident Ultra boat all have a far superior seating system to ensure that water drains from the seat and you do not have to sit in water once water gets in the seat area. Once you get water in the seat area of this boat, you are hosed. I recently purchased a new after-market seat to try to create some natural channels between my butt and the plastic for water to run out of the seat. So far, this has not worked all that well for me.
5. Boat is slow. And when I say slow, it is like paddling a barge. The boat I owned immediately prior to this boat was a WS Tarpon and I can tell you that the Tarpon was a speed merchant compared to this boat. I can also tell you that the OK Trident is also much faster.
6. Quality control at the factory is so-so. The hull on my boat is a little boogered from the factory. Not enough for me to send it back when I got it and not enough to affect performance, but, you know, I paid top dollar for a boat, I don't want to see that. Also, one of the anchors for the bungee cord for the gator hatch literally fell out the day I brought the boat home. I glued it with some marine epoxy I got at a local boat shop and it seems to have fixed it, but again, I would have rather not of had to deal with that. Also, I've seen two other boats and both of those boats had minor imperfections. One boat had a glaring deformity in the right side gunwale. Not enough of a problem to ship back the boat or to affect performance, it enough to aggravate you every time you look at that part of the boat. These types of deformities are the types of issues which would warrant a boat being a blem from a lot of other manufacturers.

The stability and ride of this big yak is awesome. It was great to fish out of and very convenient to reach storage compartments where tackle boxes, snacks, etc was stored. At one point, there was a power boat that came thru a no wake zone wide open and then shut it down quickly which I knew was going to lead to some serious wakes and rough conditions. I took two waves over the side but thankfully, being a sit on top....it drained great quickly. Also, all three hatches remained sealed and at the end of the day, there was no water inside...it was bone dry!! Thanks Malibu for this design and the water tight hatches!