tandeming a solo

[Benniku]

Just curious to see if anyone has outfitted a solo boat like a Mohawk XL13 for tandem use. I live on the west coast and WW boats arw very hard to come by and an XL13 is up on CL for super cheap. My wife and I aren't looking for anything to serious, just a better creeking boat then out OT Appalachian. We kbow it would be sluggish and bit the greatest set up, but are just looking for thoughts or experience on its feasibility. Thanks

Ben

[milkman]

Even if you were both extremely light, I think an XL 13 would make a bad choice for a tandem creeker. It doesn't have enough rocker. You should be looking at a Probe 14, Esquif Blast, Mad River Caption. These are all better choices.

[Benniku]

Thanks. That was the answer I expected. The serious lack of rocker on that boat was my biggest fear. Its hard to pass up a boat that is fully outfitted w/bags for 350 bucks though.

[Einar]

A friend of mine has out fitted a Viper 12 tandem that he paddles with his 11 yr old son. He takes it into the appropriate safe play wave/hole and if, ...when , they flip son ejects, dad rolls up and puts it all back together.
I expect a team roll within a year.

Boat paddles a little wetter with each increasing year as the two of them put on weight with age. ':lol:'

[Bill M]

I change my Scamp to tandem. It was very wet but worked fine. On class 2 rivers like Hiwassee it did fine. We ran the Ocoee in it, combined weight 350# and would do fine for 100 yds then have to empty. We did successfully make the elevator move at top of Broken nose. It also surfed good till it filled up.
Not great but it was what I had and it worked.
Bill

[nfried]

I have a ME outfitted for both solo or tandem. My partner and I paddle it tandem with combined weight of 300 pounds without difficulty. I'm sure you can pick up a ME pretty cheap.

[yarnellboat]

If you're light enough there are a few old solo hulls that could be paddled tandem. In addition to the Viper 12 and Outrage X, I've seen an H2Pro and a Genesis.

In addition to your weight, a lot probably depands on the type of paddling you want to do on what type of rivers.

For a cheap price locally, it is tempting to give it a try, or just to buy it for the outfitting! On the other hand, I've had a few boats just because they were cheap, local and outfitted, and there's a good argument to be made that I'd be better off searching farther afield and spending a few more bucks for boats that suit me better.

Pat.

p.s. Lots of West Coast responses to a lonely West Coast poster.

[Einar]

Renaissance tandems
There seems to be a local small market growth of interest in our neck of the woods in ww tandems: Captions, Probe 14, Blasts, Vertige x's.

Personnaly i love my Caption, it drives up onto junk I could never get in my Viper 11 and I still haven't found its limit on a hard lean and carve.

Last year we had a tandem swap at the local pools evening roll session. Lotta fun, highly reccomend it. Canoeists that were working on solo rolls were being given a positive experience by sitting in the bow with a strong Roller in the stern.
In terms of energy I thought that a tandem roll was easier, requiring 1.5 manpower.
Just my experience.

[madmike]

We have 4 XL 13s outfitted tandem for kids. I don't like how it works. Maybe if the stations were closer together, but what we have is not very good.

[Kelly-Rand]

My take since I owned an xl13 is that to make it work you would have to be 36" center to center apart. This is roughly the center to center cockpit distance in modern C2's give or take a few inches. Team wise you would have to be under 300#s. I didn't find the XL to be wet in Class III water, it might be above that. It is not a snappy performer but would be a predictable boat. The biggest problem is that it doesn't have any tumble home so you will be reaching farther than you would if you had a Probe 14. Since you will be paddling on your own sides this can be compensated for.

I wouldn't write it off.

Jim

[NZMatt]

We've got a Mad River Rampage outfitted tandem. It was originally designed solo, but works great as a tandem for us. We're a pretty light team though (probably 250lbs).

If it's in good condition, then it could definitely be worth trying at that price...

[hazardharry]

or one big ape in a tandem ME.

[TonyB]

Ive got a Nitro hull I plan on reoutfitting so me and the local canoe Sprite can Tandem it.
Its on the "to do" list.