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Explorer 12
Explorer 12 Description
The Explorer 12 is a kayak brought to you by Meriwether Kayaks. Read Explorer 12 reviews or submit your own review to share with the paddling community. Check out a few other kayak recommendations below or explore all kayaks to find the perfect one for you!
Meriwether Kayaks
Explorer 12 Reviews
Read reviews for the Explorer 12 by Meriwether Kayaks as submitted by your fellow paddlers. All of the reviews are created and written by paddlers like you, so be sure to submit your own review and be part of the community!
We got 2 fishing Kayaks from…
This is a fishing Kayak and that is what it does best. It is not for fast rapids, but works well in light rapids, where rock collisions are minimal. On the lake, these fishing Kayaks are unsinkable, and extremely stable. These are the 10ft fishing Kayaks, and they took heavy 3ft waves with a 30mph wind on the lake. It was like a fair ride! I weigh 240lbs, and never came close to being swamped. these ride on the water like a cork.
The Kayaks have all the compartments in rear for a small cooler, shamwas, are about 1 cu ft of space. Has a screw cup compartment to seal valuables. 2 cup holders, nice for drink, or to hold a worm container. Bungee cords in front for anything you want to hold there.
These are excellent short trip Kayaks for maximum safety, stability, and fishing. These are not water gliders. You can maintain 5mph for about 2 blocks before you start wearing down, and need to paddle lightly to keep going. We have gone up to 1 mile with these, but that is much work without a break. The less stable kayaks can glide effortlessly, but no where as safe as these.
If you want to fish, have short fun trips, maximum safety, stability go down mild fun river rides, have a starter Kayak, this is the kayak for you. If you want less stable, glide with eases, long trip on the water Kayak, do not get a fishing kayak, get the one made for your purpose. Both these Kayaks, are still in great shape, and work perfectly like new.
The Meriwether fishing kayak…
I have had a Meriweather…
I bought a pair of Meriwether…
These may not be top of the…
All and all I feel basically satisfied with my purchase for the money I paid. It was on clearance at Sam's, by the way, for that price.
We were thrilled...at…
I bought two of these kayaks…
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Pros:
- Very cheap. Got both for $500 at the end of the season as Sam's.
- Comes with everything you could possibly want in a fishing kayak; 2 rod holders, a great paddle, a seat, adjustable foot pegs, nice big hatch for gear, scupper plugs, big area for cooler and fishing gear in rear of seat.
- Light weight, easy to load.
- Very dry interior. Drew no water into the interior of the boat.
- Very stable
- Loved the shape and function of the paddle
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The cons:
- Extremely flimsy material. The size and layout of the boat is set up for lots of fishing gear, but if you weigh more than 125 lb's, you can't load the gear in without making the boat sag. I weigh near the upper limit of the boat's stated campacity of 230 lbs. I can tell you that I weigh too much for these boats even without any gear. After paddling about an hour in this boat,the bottom began to indent and sink down, which was very scary out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico when you can see shark fins. I also had to have the scupper plugs in place in order to keep from drawing too much water.
- Horrible tracking. Since this is a light weight boat, the kids where the ones who ended up paddling these. They would spin about on the water, crash into the mangroves along the sides and completely wear themselves out. Any little current or wind blew these boats all over. Once the kids paddled these boats, they fought over who would get to paddle the better Ocean and even Pelican kayaks. Nobody wanted to paddle these boats. They always ended up going to the "friends" who didn't have their own boats. The bottom is very flat with a shallow draw. It seems that it was designed more for shipping from China, than for boating. The boats fit on top of one another perfectly and can be made into tall stacks.
- Less than quality accessories- the strap to one of the seats broke mid river when my 125 lb daughter was paddling the boat under very mild conditions. Also some of the bungee straps came loose and were lost.
- Very uncomfortable seating. The seat area of the boat is flat instead of rounded to the contour of a normal person's bottom. This creates pressure points that leave your bottom and legs numb after paddling for more than an hour. Even the very light weight teens complained about butt numbness in this boat.
We sold these boats when the weather got cool and bought one good used Wilderness Tarpon for the money we got when we sold them. I could have dealt with the poor tracking by adding rudders, but the flimsiness of the boat is what caused me to get rid of them. This boat would be an ideal someone who didn't weigh much and didn't want to stray far from land. Additionally it performs best in flat water, which is really a bummer since it's size and layout are perfect for a ocean fishing kayak. For the price, it would be a good play boat form someone who lived on a small lake or pond, or it would be a good platform for kids to jump off of at the beach. Unfortunately, it's not a real fishing kayak even though it looks like one.
I was in the kayak market and…
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The Pros:
- Great Price (price includes a decent high back seat, decent paddle and fishing rod holders).
- Nice large hatches with lots of inside storage.
- Plenty of topside storage.
- Boat will not sink (daughter tipped and filled the top of boat with water, I was great-full to see her paddle to shore tip the boat to empty the water and get back to kayaking).
- Good primary stability (I have stood up in this boat).
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Cons:
- Boat doesn't track well (the bottom of the hull is thin and flimsy, as soon as I unwrapped the boat I noticed the bottom of the hull had waves in it. You can easily push on any of the waves with one finger and the hull will push in).
- On one of the boats the plastic snaps connected to the end of the bungee straps have already broken.
- Foot braces worked great for a couple weeks-now you have to monkey with the adjustments to get them to lock in any position.
I likes the price of this…
I purchased the Meriwether…
Just a word of caution on these Sam's club boats!!!!!! The people…
The people and or person (I will not say any names and will remain vague due to i know how many hundreds of lawsuits they/he/she has been in) who sells these boats through Sams Club are complete posers. They don't care one tiny bit about providing a quality product or experience in the world of kayaking. They only care about getting the cheapest possible made product out the door for the absolute maximum dollar they can achieve. They have never actually done any kayaking themselves and the only thing they know about it is from listening to other people talk. Complete posers!!!!! That is also why you can never get in touch with the manufacturer...