Renegade

Lite weight kayak, easy packing and fast easy set up. But weaker in structure I've had to repair it while other inflatable kayaks have held up better . but great, for puddle jumping, close contact with water, great storage elastics and a zipper pouch.

Well I have used my kayak for 2 seasons now and I will stay with my rating of 4. I have since purchased another kayak and still have the same opinion of this boat.

What I would like to add is how to "fix" this boat. I was lending it to friends who had not used a kayak before. They all had problems tracking the boat which caused the "fun factor" to drop to frustration. I couldn't get people to go with me when they were not having fun.

So here is the fix from a Canadian, a hockey stick! No don't beat the &$#* out of your boat with the stick but mount it on the back of the boat. The nose of the boat is so deep it is like a skeg up there. By hanging a plastic blade hockey stick (no blade curve) off the back you counter the "skeg nose" with a skeg on the back. You can now stop paddeling and coast to a stop in a straight line! Pelican does not supply a skeg for this boat so you have to make your own. Try other ideas for a skeg, even an old paddle will work.

I am a newbie to paddling, have gone on a few trips in the low country in South Carolina. I really fell in love with the sport so I recently purchased a small recreational kayak.The Renegade by Pelican Intrnational, marketed by Coleman Industries. I purchased it at my local Wal-Mart store. The cost was very reasonable, just over $300. It is very lightweight, 44lbs. It is easy to load on the top of my Volkswagen Golf, it even fits in the rear hatch when the backand front passenger seats are down and only sticks out about two feet. Anywho, I have taken it to the Oconee river near my home (I live only two blocks away) and to a county park with a good sized fishing lake. The renegade is made of a plastic material called Ram-x, it seems to be pretty durable stuff so far. The river near my home has been quite low this summer, so I have had numerous encounters with rocks. The kayak has sustained no real damage, just some scrapes and small abrasions, pretty common stuff. I have been fishing with it several times and it is quite stable on the lake. It has a removable molded plastic seat back that hides a storage compartment. I am six feet tall and 190lbs. I am pretty comfortable in the boat but probably at the upper limit even though it is rated for a maximum of 275 lbs. The boat was difficult to track in a straight line at first but I soon reasoned that the problem was poor paddling technique rather than a fault of the boat. The more I have paddled the better I have become at getting the boat to track in a straight line. Overall, I think it is a good boat for the money and a good boat for someone new to paddling. You don't have to sink a ton of money into getting into paddling with this boat, just a few hundred dollars and your out on the water having fun. Isn't that what it's all about?