Fusion

Workmanship is very bad, tracking is horrible; called customer service, said nothing they can do for me... no service from this company.
Do your homework before buying!

All these complaints about tracking, maybe those sissies should go back to kindergarten and pay attention this time around....
We do lakes, ponds, streams and rivers, no problems at all, smooth as silk, even my 100# girlfriend can handle it... some friends bought the more expensive yuppie brands, you know,the skinny, sleek numbers... I guess they paid for the name.... they are so tipsy and unstable,they take accidental dips all the time while we stay high and dry, it's good for a laugh....if I wanna go swimmin' I'll go to the beach,if I wanna go kayaking, give me a good ol' Pelican any day..we can kayak and maneuver circles around those LL Beaners.

We have used our Pelican Fusion’s for over a year, and believe we have the bugs worked out. Most people seem to have trouble with tracking.but we found that adding a skeg cleared up tracking problems. The skeg, which fits in the hole on the back of the kayak, can be raised or lowered from the cockpit. Cost is about five bucks and an hour of your time. E-mail me for plans.

There are other things you can do to increase efficiency of the kayak. For safety, install perimeter lines and a cleat to attach paddle leashes etc. You will also need a paddle float for self-rescues. One can be made out of the hard plastic backrest by adding two straps to the back of the backrest. Then wedge your paddle blade between the rest and the straps and you have a float. Cost almost nothing. The next thing to do is outfit your boat by adding hip and kneepads for a better fit. You will find that the boat also tracks better and is less likely to capsize if you stay centered in the boat. Use a spray skirt for rough water, and as a striping apron for flyfishing. If you find other boaters have trouble seeing you, use a four-foot bicycle flag mounted on the back deck.

For storage space for anchors, towropes etc., we found that a couple of plastic water pitchers with lids are ideal for holding loose items. Wedge them in the space on the side between the footrest and the kayak. It’s out of the way and doubles as a bailing bucket.

Fishermen often have a problem storing lures, hooks etc. We found a simple solution: Shorten the straps on a shoulder bag and hang it around your neck, to form a chest pack. Now everything is right where you need it. Here’s another tip: If you use a small anchor and are tired of loose rope cluttering the cockpit when hauling in the anchor, use a carpenter’s chalk box and replace the line with weedeater line. A standard chalk box holds about 30 ft. of line. If you need more than the 30 feet get a bigger chalk box, there are many sizes available. Now your anchor and line is in one convenient unit with no mess.

While this boat is not without its problems, for a couple of bucks and a little work. You can have good all around boat.

The strong points for the boat is that it is cheap and stable, but so was my last girlfreind and I didn't keep her either. The boat is crap! It is slow and has hideous tracking. The boat is so unresponsive I would only use it for fishing. If you have a wind on any angle to the boat you will have a fight on your hands. If you want to marry the first girl you date and tell yourself she is the best ... go ahead, but I suggest you try some others first.

The reason I gave it a 7 is not because it is a terrific boat, the week after I bought it I would have given it a 1 because of the tracking. But since then I have tried many versions of skegs and with the help of fellow kayakers I have overcome the tracking problems, but not the speed I have just learned that you cannot paddle it fast because of the deep v hull, and I live with that I guess I’m not in a hurry to get anywhere when I am boating, and it is a lot faster than a canoe. The big things it has going for it is #1 the price its cheap its tough, stable for the novice, and fairly comfortable. The negatives tracking, and all the help I did not get when I emailed pelican about the tracking "3" times and no return on my email. I will try to explain my skeg rudder its an aluminum fin about 1 foot long 3 inches wide mounted on a board that is about 2 feet long that I mount on the boat when I get to the water. The skeg has a rope so I can raise and lower it. When it is all the way down in the water it is at about a 30-degree angle, tried it at about 80 degrees made boat really weird.

My opinion if you want a boat just to kick around in, not to serious about it or don't want to spend much money to see if you like it this is a good boat. But do not even try to paddle it without a rudder/skeg. I know guys who bought expensive boats that don't work the way they want them to so if your buying try the boat before you buy and realize what you like now probably will not be what you want after you learn to paddle. Also for all you guys who bought pelicans I think you should get the dust off the boat make rudder and try it one more time, and also if anyone from pelican reads this and they are interested in ever selling more kayaks maybe they should make skeg/rudder for existing boats and change design of new ones, and maybe when a customer buys a boat and emails you with a problem you could at least acknowledge his problem and in this case agree it is the boat design is poor.

All that said I’m ready to move up to the next level of kayak and it will not be pelican, but I will keep it for beating around in and an extra so I can bring along a friend.

Scores a 3 only because it is affordable and stable (not tippy). However, the Fusion has one VERY SERIOUS problem: it will not track straight! Odd thing is, it doesn't just come around in accordance with the side you're paddling on (i.e. paddling on the left pushes boat around to the right), but also goes LEFT sometimes when paddling on left! I repeat, this kayak will NOT track straight no matter how you adjust your stroke, position, everything!!! Very unpredictable boat. My advice and opinion: pop for a better kayak (Old Town 111 or 120. Wilderness Systems Pungo 120). You'll be so much happier that you did and you won't end up like me: $300 Pelican kayak gathering dust as the ultimate paperweight while I enjoy the Old Town 120!!

With this being my first boat, i have little to compare it to. However, i thought i'd add a bit of info about my experience in this boat. It's very stable and surprisingly comfortable for having a plastic backrest. It has storage behind the cockpit, but you have to pack very sparingly for anything over two nights down a river. It doesn't track well, not a surprise though. A durable, cheap boat for recreational use. I had to outfit the boat with deck loops, bungee, and paddle holder.

This boat is easy to control and tracks well even in high winds and currents. It is study, and easily emptied if capsized. This boat is great for surfing.