Fastest production pedal kayak - MR340

[Huntrava]

A couple years ago I heard about a kayak ultramarathon called the MR340, which runs 340 miles of the Missouri River. Many of the race participants talk about the difficulty of floating for several days straight, and meanwhile I'm thinking about all the times I've spent almost an entire day on the water (easily >16 hours) without breaking a sweat. Granted, I'm not pedaling the whole time...but I think I'm already halfway there. Unfortunately, this kind of race is not where my PA-12 would excel.

SL is the perfect place to ask the experts about covering long distances with pedal kayaks, so I've come to consult the oracles.

If you were concerned about draft, weight, speed, and ergonomics more than fishing, what direction would you look? Does any company build a carbon fiber or kevlar pedal kayak?

[J.A. Veil]

I cannot advise you on a carbon fiber or kevlar kayak. In general, longer and narrower kayaks move faster with the same amount of input. If your goal is speed, look at long touring kayaks, but don't plan on fishing from them.


Native's fastest pedal drive kayak is the Ultimate FX Propel 13. It weighs 79 lbs, is 13 ft 6 in long, and 32.5 in wide. That page on the Native website is down now. You can see that kayak and get some details at:

https://www.austinkayak.com/Native-W...ACK20775P.html.

In terms of a superlight carbon fiber kayak, check out the Apex Tyr, a state of the art product with a price tag of $10,999. It looks cool, is lightweight, but is prohibitively costly. And it is a paddle kayak

[FishMoken]

If you are looking for just speed I believe the hobie adventure line of kayaks would be the way to go. I own a revo 13 and can easily do 4-4.5mph and have pushed it all the way out to 6mph. Most pedal kayaks are really wide and made more for the fishing market. The adventure line would be the best of both worlds.

[Mark]

Huntrava,

I had not heard of this race so I looked it up:

https://rivermiles.com/mr340/

Very interesting. It must be a grueling race for participants.

I skimmed through the rules. It has many divisions, including paddleboards and pedal boats. However, sails to harness the wind are prohibited.

Like FishMoken, I own a Revo 13. The speeds he mentions are indeed attainable. However, I cannot sustain them. I can cruise at 3 mph for perhaps a mile or two without rest and I can reach 6 mph in 50 to 75 yard bursts before I have to catch my breath. I'm also 66 years old. You younger guys can beat that, I'm certain. But none of you could do it consistently for 340 miles.

On the other hand, I also own a Wilderness Systems Tempest. It's 17 foot sea kayak. That is the boat I would use for the MR340 -- if I was 30 years younger. I could beat my Hobie hands down in the Tempest because once I get it going, it is easy to maintain speeds over 4 mph with a normal paddling stroke.

Go to this site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missou...er_340#Winners[3]

You'll see that with the exception of the SUP division, paddlers consistently beat the pedal driven MR340 participants by wide margins.

That's understandable.

It seems like we also have the perfect venue for such a race -- Conowingo to Cape Charles in the Chesapeake. Not as long as the MR340 but it would have its own challenges.

[nhunter344]

It seems like we also have the perfect venue for such a race -- Conowingo to Cape Charles in the Chesapeake. Not as long as the MR340 but it would have its own challenges.

I would enter that just for the fun. Sounds like a cool trip.... weather permitting.

[Huntrava]

The bare minimum speed necessary to keep ahead of the Reaper boat is 4 mph, for 85 hours straight. In my experience, maintaining 4 mph for any period of time on the PA can be a challenge, so that's the bad news. My PA-12 cruising speed is probably 3 or 3 1/2 mph.

The good news is that the race occurs on the Missouri river, which typically flows at a rate of about 2 1/2 mph, conservatively. So you can add that to your cruising speed which makes the race a little more attainable. That helps explain why many of the racers finish in fewer than 40 hours, which requires a pace of 9 mph, something that could only be done with the help of a current.

Now I suspect this race becomes exponentially more difficult the longer you're on the water--those folks who pull in at the 84 hour mark are going to have a much tougher time, I suppose, than those around the 40, 50, or even 60 hour marks. That means getting out, hitting a fast cruising speed, and then maintaining it for as long as possible without wasting time. It's much better to be sore, than sore and sleep deprived.

Knowing myself, if I do this race it's going to be on a pedal kayak. It's what I know and love (I own two Hobies, after all), and I'm not accustomed to paddling long distances. Also knowing myself, I wouldn't want to be out for 3 1/2 days. If I can shave weight and find an optimal hull, I'm certain I could get to a 4 1/2 mph cruising speed, which would bring me in right around two days on the water.

I was originally considering a stripped-down Hobie Revo 16, but I need to compare beam widths, displacement, weight, etc. against some of the other options out there. I've seen a few pedal racers using custom recumbent style kayaks with prop drives, but building one looks like a helluva project.

[Mark]

I find paddling a sea kayak to be far less strenuous than pedaling my Revo. The sea kayak’s lengthy slender hull offers less water resistance and a longer glide. While the Mirage Drive fins provide propulsion they also account for some drag or resistance. They really were not built for speed.

It would be interesting to compare calories burned between the two propulsion methods over the same course. My guess is that paddlers in an efficient hull work less strenuously than they would in any of the pedal kayaks we use for fishing.

[ronaultmtd]

Compromises...wide stable fishing SOT kayaks are anything but fast. Love my 2016 classic Outback and it is easy to maintain 3-3.5 Mph in walking cadence. The GT Mirage Drive with turbo fins gives me the ability to troll for hours without taking a break...but racing for hundreds of miles? The most I have covered in my fishing trips this year is a little over eleven miles and I was whipped...but you young guys should test your limits...I know mine!

[mudskipper]

If I were planning on doing a race like that (and it sounds like absolute Hell on Earth), hopefully someone would knock me in the head until that fool idea went away. But failing that, I'd want a 20 foot Kevlar surf-ski style boat that weighed like 30 pounds. Because that's the only thing I'd think would even be capable of being paddled efficiently enough for that kind of distance in that little amount of time.

[Jman]

If you are looking for just speed I believe the hobie adventure line of kayaks would be the way to go. I own a revo 13 and can easily do 4-4.5mph and have pushed it all the way out to 6mph. Most pedal kayaks are really wide and made more for the fishing market. The adventure line would be the best of both worlds.

+1 I previously used a 2016 Hobie Revolution 16 (same hull as the Adventure) and it's the fastest pedal drive kayak that you can purchase commercially I think. Hobie may have discontinued the Revo 16 for 2020, because it's not listed on their website anymore. Fun yak though, tracked well and you could sustain high speeds for a long time due to the hull design. Only downside was that it was sometimes unstable in rough conditions, especially with the higher seat design in newer models.

Looks like a cool race! On Youtube, there were some home-engineered multiple-person pedal systems and mostly canoe/sea kayaks that I could see in the videos.

[Mark]

+1 I previously used a 2016 Hobie Revolution 16 (same hull as the Adventure) and it's the fastest pedal drive kayak that you can purchase commercially I think. Hobie may have discontinued the Revo 16 for 2020, because it's not listed on their website anymore. Fun yak though, tracked well and you could sustain high speeds for a long time due to the hull design. Only downside was that it was sometimes unstable in rough conditions, especially with the higher seat design in newer models.

Looks like a cool race! On Youtube, there were some home-engineered multiple-person pedal systems and mostly canoe/sea kayaks that I could see in the videos.

I agree with you about the seat position on Revos. I've been in rough water with my Revo 13 and never turtled, cross my fingers. My most recent experience was a few weeks ago in the Patapsco from Ft. Smallwood on a windy day where the fetch created cresting waves. It's fine in the low seat position. But I would never use it with the seat raised. My Ultimate FX has a high/low seat also. I keep that in the low position too.

[mudskipper]

The high seating positions in those Hobies and other peddle yaks have always reminded me of the Long Beach-Class cruiser!


Yeah, they said it would probably never capsize... and it didn’t. But.....

C27E8872-7178-4AE7-81F0-35F91ED38966.jpg


a lot of seat covers on the bridge chairs probably got sucked up during seas-a’beam conditions.

[Mark]

We've ranged far from the topic of the original post on this subject and I apologize for being one of the culprits.

However, Mudskipper's photo of the tall Navy vessel brings to mind a tragedy for the US Navy which happened in the Philippine Sea in December 1944. Admiral Halsey sailed his 3rd Fleet into a typhoon with 70 foot waves. Three ships and nearly 800 sailors were lost. Aside from poor weather forecasting techniques at the time, inquiries blamed the losses on ships that were top heavy due to low fuel (lack of ballast) and modifications for the war that had increased their gun deck heights beyond safe levels.

Those interested can Google the topic (Typhoon Cobra) or better yet, read one or more of the books that have been written about the disaster.

[PigPen]

I would enter that just for the fun. Sounds like a cool trip.... weather permitting.

Great idea