Mercury GTE Solo / Tandem

Bought the tandem version second hand for £750 thinking this was a bargain. However, have experienced all of the issues detailed in previous reviews. Steering design is awful and kills the fun! Cramped foot space in rear compartment. Straps are flimsy and perish easily and craft flexes badly in light swell. Now looking to cut my losses and have bought a quality dropstitch inflatable which has all the portability benefits and none of the Mercury's drawbacks. Not surprised this is now discontinued!

Wonderful Kayak in almost every respect . I’m using it in Sydney harbour. However the steering mechanism is pretty bad. Pretty insensitive, until it swings all the way. See description by the other user on this page Which reflects my experience.

Now for the not-so-good things about the kayak. You need to plan on replacing the seats, because the ones you get are quite uncomfortable. I also found that the rudder design was a problem (even though many people like the design, I don't). It takes a lot of pressure to get the 'duck-tail' component to start turning, so it's difficult to control. Also, the first time we tried to launch it from the sand, the slot that houses the rudder skeg got crammed with sand. After getting out into the current, we found that the rudder did not extend like it was supposed to, so there was no steering at all. Had to beach it again, get a stick to dig out the sand to free up the rudder. The little knob to crank the rudder up and down was also a problem. I didn't know how it was supposed to work, because cranking it each way seemed to have less than desirable effect. I disliked the rudder design so much that I took a saw to the kayak and remodeled the tail to accept a new rudder kit. I love the new rudder. It gives me way more steering control and it has a feather-touch, not to mention the ability to flip it up out of the water, and flip it back down easily. I also threw away the rubber hatch cover on the front because it was way too difficult to put it back on. Instead, I found a hatch that opens and closes easily with a locking knob. But all things considered, we are really happy with the kayak. I recommend it.

After the unboxing and first assembly, the initial overall opinion of the unit was general skepticism. The sections snapped together alright, but the latch mechanism between the bow compartment and the middle compartment was problematic. Straight away it appeared that the strap attachment holes were off slightly causing one side to not be a tightly connected, in trying to get the pieces together the buckle chewed into the teeth on the strap and damaged it. The assembled kayak never really had a firm satifying "put together" feeling. The only other thing to assemble was the control strings that led back to the rudder control. They were hard to adjust to get the pedals to a comfortable position, taking several minutes of trial and error, and then after the length was finally set, the line cleat would pull out with any tension applied. I ended up putting three round turns in the line with the slack to keep it from coming undone everytime I pushed.

We were willing to give it a go at least and tried to be optimistic in how it was going to work. We took the kayak down for a trial run. After a very quick assembly on land, we found we had a very difficult time picking it up and carrying, my wife is on the short side, 5-3, and after assembly, the weight combined with the sag of the kayak in the middle, made it very difficult to carry down to the dock. We ended up breaking it down into two halves which I carried, and then after having to reassemble, found it difficult to manuever its 18-feet length in the limited space available to launch it. It felt stable getting in, despite being kind of rickity, and were quickly under way.

There were huge problems with tracking with the skeg down immediately. The rudder control lines would not operate properly, thinking about it later its my opinion that the rudder control plate should be wider and the strings attach farther out to give more leverage. It took a lot of effort to move the rudder, the strings tended to feel like they were stretching to some extent, and most of the time the rudder and skeg was at some weird angle after I had returned my feet to neutral. The running joke became that "Point 65" was how many degrees in the opposite direction you needed to steer in order to go the intended direction. Frequently you'd get it tracking straight for minute or two and it would start tracking right or left by itself, and I would look back to see the the rudder would be off doing its own thing. After an hour of being frustrated with the not being able to go anywhere but in turns and circles, we paddled back to the dock and gave up.

We ended up returning it, if the pieces had fit together better, the strap mechanisms suspect, and it was not so heavy as an assembled unit, I would have considered replacing the strings with some wire cables.

Concerning the strap connection, I never felt that it would tear apart and although being a cheap solution (strap material), I always felt safe.

Assembly is very fast and easy to do, there are videos for that on the internet (as almost everything that should be in the manual - which is a joke - is on YouTube). However, the plastic ratchet straps wear fast and seem to become (pricey) replacement parts. I'll also make my own fastening as the other reviewer suggested.
To me, Rockpool has (they use metal quick tensioners) and Australis seems to have a better solution.

When ordering online you can be lucky and get a Solo where all three parts fit more or less with only slight projections at the bottom, but you can also be unlucky and get a loosely fitting Solo with quite some projections (drag). I regret now that I did not buy where I could see how the sections fit on the kayak that I would buy. This even gets a bigger problem, if you first buy a Solo and then order online the mid-section to make it a Tandem. This could become an odyssey to get a fitting one in the end. Now I would only buy when I can see myself that all parts "fit" for both cases, that means when assembled as a solo and a tandem.
Made in China.
Check for tiny holes at the corner and rims of all sections as mine had water leaks. Can be welded water-tight though.
The warranty is a "1-year Limited warranty". 1 year? I had to read that twice to believe it.

The PE material appears brittle and scratches very easily (sand and small pebbles at the shore scratch the bottom when putting the section together), so now I only put the three parts together in knee-deep water at the shore, that's even easier.

The thickness of the plastic appears thin, the plastic also gives easily when pressing a bit with a finger (at the bottom of the mid section).
Color tone did not match for the sections. The tandem section also had a different color tone. I don't care, but it's not rocket science to get that right.
The rudder is way too sensitive and the pivot angle is too large which makes straight paddling a pain. To speed up and avoid unwanted rudder activation I found it feasible in the beginning to keep the legs loose (that means no leg drive) to not move the pedals unwillingly and just paddle with torso twist + "paddler's box"+ belly muscles. I keep the skeg in the up position so the rudder can not move 45° in each direction but only by 5-10 degrees, that's sufficient. I don't use the skeg at all even with wind. When windy, I just use the rudder and adjusted paddling strokes.

The skeg did not come out of the rudder anyway when I wanted to try it, as there wasn't enough tension on the spring for the skeg. One can increase the spring tension by turning the adjustment pin in the skeg box, but the pin can not hold the spring under tension. This can be overcome though by screwing the pin in (e.g. with a wood screw) after the having turned it to bring the spring under tension.
The skeg itself was warped to one direction which itself does not aid to paddle straight line.
The line for lifting/lowering the skeg was wound the wrong way inside the knob for pulling the line, so turning the knob does the opposite of what's written on it. Ok, that can be changed by dis-assembling the know and rudder line tube etc., but I decided to not spend more time.

Talking about lines, the rudder lines are not wear resistant as the braided protection already disappeared at the bends on the deck after 40 hours of paddling.
The seat caused me "dead legs" after a while. So I put a Thermarest inflatable "lite seat" on it (only inflated it a bit). I also inserted a plastic bag between the original seat and the Thermarest seat, that allows a better torso twist and even to start using a soft alternating leg drive and using the toes for rudder control. I wonder though, that even just a slight leg drive might be to much force on the mountings of the pedals in the long run.

So what's my take?
It would be really a decent recreational kayak, but I found it to have too many design and manufacturing flaws.
I have a Solo and another Solo with a Tandem section and will keep them for family recreational use.

Occasionally used, it will be fun enough at the lakes for that purpose. But for how long, one summer? Or two? To be honest, it does not seem to be made to last long and the warranty is only 1 year.

I was excited when I found it on the internet, when I got it and when I unpacked it. Also when I first used it (until I found out it leaked). I got less and less excited with each use. I'll be getting another sectional for myself elsewhere next summer. There are a lot of companies to choose from when looking for sectional kayaks. Besides some well-known sea kayak brands (I will go for one of them and choose a company that manufactures where it's located) which all seem to have a custom option for sectionalizing their composite kayaks, there are even those I never heard of before Googling, but which apparently have been around for some time with sectionals.
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things I forgot to mention...

If the rudder motion is limited by the skeg-up position, the Mercury tracks quite well. I wrote "It's stable", by that I meant good first and secondary stability, both for the Solo and the Tandem. As the other reviewer said, it's not slow but also not really fast (it's also indicated like that in the manual). You can't use it in higher waves and obviously not as a sea kayak (as compared to the sectional PE sea kayaks of Australis), but as a recreational kayak and it's also categorized as a touring kayak.

I adjusted the length of the rudder lines so that the pedals are vertical. I'd suggest to sit up-right or slightly leaned forward (belly muscles under tension) and keep the legs loose (which means a beginner should start without leg drive in my opinion and focus on "paddler's box" and "torso rotation") and use the toes for rudder control (only slightly tipping the pedals). The pedals are not really comfortable when paddling with bare feet because of the ribbed design, but ironically that just helps to not put too much pressure on the pedals to avoid unwanted rudder moves. I'd only paddle with bare feet (shoes in the hatch) if weather allows anyway. Paddling with sneakers? Well, first try to get them in and then still be able control the pedals, for most shoe sizes this might not work and here I mean size 9 for men and larger. I have 9 1/2 and normal sneakers don't fit. I'd recommend neoprene surf socks/shoes or paddler shoes with flexible soles.

I now have to replace the rudder lines (ordered them elsewhere, costs $32 for a pair of tough ones I hope) as they got close to tearing apart since the last paddling.

Transport:
the three Solo pieces - of which two pieces can be nested so it's actually two parts to transport - even fit into compact cars. The nesting capability is just great. "Even fit into a compact car" does not mean that all parts fit into the trunk. They do fit into a compact car though when you can fold the rear seat or a part of a split rear seat bench and staple the two parts of the Solo on top of each other. For a small car that's the co-driver's side, because you might also have to fold the co-drivers seat or slide it to the front as far as possible. However, make sure the parts are securely fixed so they don't knock you out in curves.

I would never leave the Mercury pieces for too long in a car when it's hot in the summer. The interior of a car can heat up to 160°F (70°C) or higher and the pieces could warp.

I would have given the kayak a better evaluation (maybe even an 8/10) if the built and design quality would have been as it could and thus should be. Next time I'll not forget to double check where things are manufactured before I order.