JEM Watercraft

After a 2 year recess I am finishing my tv-15-29. The reason I am building it is to replace a 12 foot plastic bass pro shop sot kayak. My hope is it will be much lighter so I can get it off my truck easier.
It looks like I have that goal covered.

Now my fishing buddy has bought a wilderness systems tarpon 14. Will my boat be able to keep up with him?


http://www.wildernesssystems.com/produc ... creational

jackjama wrote:After a 2 year recess I am finishing my tv-15-29. The reason I am building it is to replace a 12 foot plastic bass pro shop sot kayak. My hope is it will be much lighter so I can get it off my truck easier.
It looks like I have that goal covered.

Now my fishing buddy has bought a wilderness systems tarpon 14. Will my boat be able to keep up with him?

Your TV-15-29 should be a lot lighter then his boat , how you built the 15-29 will determine the final weight. Off hand I would say your boat should be faster then his or at lease equal.
I have paddled along side of folks using the 15-29 and it is one fast boat , it scoots along without a lot of work from the paddler. In the past there has been a contest between the two different boats , similar in design as to the two you mentioned.
The plastic kayak was no match for the wood ( kayak ) boat , it left the plastic kayak in it's wake and the plastic kayak's owner was telling us how he was going to paddle circles around the homemade wood boat.... NOT SO.

The contributing factor to the boats performance is the persons ability at paddling. After all you are the motor that makes the boat go.

Thanks

I suspected that would be the case. I just wanted to hear it from someone with experience.

After several years and a lot of miles The T-v will preform well , I have loaded it heavy ,over 500 lbs and still paddled with anyone I wanted to.
I dont think you will be disappointed.
Ron
You have to remember one thing ,there are folks out there that can paddle a bathtub faster than any of us can paddle a good wood boat.

Great to hear. My cedar panels are just about ready to start stitching. This boat even looks good layed out flat. It should start looking like a boat soon.

Being out of cedar it should be light...mine without a seat weighs 32 lbs. easy to carry up and down a river bank...I have never had the occasion to load my boats down like Ron but I have put a lot of hours in my TV last year...Verry comfortable to sit in for hours and fish out of....

Can't wait to get the fabric on the 15-32 to see how stable it is, may even be able to stand and fish in it.

My TV 15-29 adds a whole new meaning to "just easing along". It is so much easier to paddle than a plastic kayak. It takes very little effort to get it up to cruising speed and keep it there. The V on bottom makes it track as straight as an arrow, something none of my plastic boats will do. Once I stop paddling they all veer off to one side or the other, not so with the TV.
I'm about to start my JEM 15-29 Touring pirogue with the V bottom instead of the flat. I'm also going to build it to be an ultralight. But first, I'm going to do the JEM Laker 14 to get my feet wet with the ultralight method. I'll do a detailed post here for all to see. Check out the 17 lb. pirogue here:
http://ngc704.home.comcast.net/~ngc704/herbc/