Sevylor Hudson KCC360: Our new yacht tender.

After spending literally weeks looking at yacht tenders, dingies, even small optimist sailing boats we could use a yacht tender, we eventually settled on the Sevylor Hudson KCC360, an inflatable canoe.

The reasons for this are simple:

1. Easier to handle under paddle/oar than a tender
2. We both have experience of kayaking and canoing
3. Stability, as opposed to a normal tender, this design offer a lot more stability in rougher weather.
4. We can use it for a different water sport while away from the yacht.
   

Coming from a background of canoing with plastic hard hull kayaks I was resistant to the idea of an inflatable hull, but considering this as a yacht tender inflatables are really the standard, we went to Decathlon in Surrey Quays, London as our past experience there was generally good. After looking at options this model impressed me, not just for overall size and solidity but also for its folded size.

We bought it was a package paying £319.99 for the canoe and a buy one get one free on a set of collapsible paddles and two buoyancy aids. Bringing the total to £475, an extra £40 on the alternative on a 'conventional' yacht tender. Plus an additional £4.96 for a foot pump.

I got home and opened the box, included with the canoe is a good quality storage bag, repair kit, and pressure gauge. Fully inflated it is just over 5 meters long and around one meter wide. It is capable of seating three adults comfortably in the fitted chairs with back-rests. With one or two passengers it has ample storage space for any provisions or cargo. They even sell an out-board bracket as an optional extra if we wanted.

Getting in and out, from pontoon or yacht is quite simple and stable in the marina, we're yet to try it in rougher seas and waves, but I don't anticipate any problems.

Underway I was surprised by the speed and maneuvering, for a large canoe it handles very light and with two paddlers we easily managed a good 5-6 knots down stream. We're still experimenting with paddling techniques, the maker's recommendation is for two kayak paddles, but we also found using half paddles as oars very reasonable and efficient.

Overall we're both quite pleased with the purchase, and will see how we get on with it this year, i'll be adding "T/O Shoestring" (Tender Of..) in vinyl soon.

What I like most is we're also using it away from the yacht, with short canoe trips on the River Medway at Upnor or picnics along the Regent's Canal in London. I'll post some more images here as we get them, together with any more notes on using these as yacht tenders.