New Jersey Kayaking

Specs:

• Length: 9-1/2 feet overall
• Beam: 30"
• Height: 13" (hull only)
• Weight: 44 pounds
• Capacity: 275 pounds
• MSRP: $379, $300 street

Hits:

• compact, lightweight, fast & nimble
• easy to transport
• comes with a decent paddle

Misses:

• tracks poorly ( edit: make that very poorly )
• no dry storage
• poorly designed foot pegs
• missing accessories - side handles, front rod holder

Got this boat when I discovered that the second Tamarack was malformed. They were the same price. This boat is the same length on the water as the 10-foot Tamarack, but shorter overall because the bow and stern are clipped.

It can be a fun boat. If you put some effort into it, it is pretty fast and accelerates noticeably better than my Lifetimes. It is slightly tippy compared to those, but nothing you don't quickly adjust to. You seem to sit lower in this boat than in the Lifetimes.

My biggest peeve is that this boat is very unstable in steering. The moment you stop controlling it, it hooks around hard to one side or the other; I think it can turn 90 degrees in its own length. If someone else is nearby, this can easily result in a collision. Although it is theoretically a fishing kayak, I don't see how you could fish from it. The moment you set the paddle down the boat starts corkscrewing. So the lack of a proper rod holder is not that big a deal.

The saddle is ok at best, but then these boats all need help in that department. The footpegs are too wide and rub your ankles. There is a sort of glove compartment in front of the saddle, but it is not water-tight. There is a marking on the back of the seat bolster for a hatch, but no hatch, and you couldn't access it without getting out of the boat anyway. Instead, it comes with a sort of custom-made milk crate contraption for the back deck.

There are finger slots in the sides that you can carry the boat by, but no proper side handles. This makes it somewhat difficult to tie down for transport. There are molded-in spots for proper side handles, but these are well off center and wouldn't balance. The scupper holes are very small, and my favorite set of wheels will probably not work, but then this boat is light enough that one person can easily lug it around by hand.

Update 2023:

I had this boat out again. It is fast, or easy to paddle, depending on how you look at it. But it is squirrelly as hell. I had to come to a full stop to take a picture. You can't coast, not even for a second, it hooks around so badly. Looking at the hull, it is not hard to see why it handles so badly- the stern is almost identical to the bow. Where a Lifetime boat has a nice big skeg to keep you going straight, the Pelican has nothing.

Update 2024:

I had this boat out again, and my opinion of it is now even lower. It is exhausting to go any distance, because the only way to control it is to paddle hard all the time, correcting your course with every stroke. If you stop for literally two seconds, or even slow down, it will hook violently to one side or the other. It is also much less stable in rolling than the Lifetimes. This is just a bad design.

The footrests are uncomfortable, they rub your ankles because they are over-sized. There is no true dry storage, and it comes with no side handles, which are essential tie-downs for transport. Finally the seat back is too low, and using any extra padding on the seat makes the problem worse. Your back will ache. This boat is is a bad design all-around. For anything more than a quick splash, this boat is simply unpleasant.

On the other hand, this boat might be a lot of fun for kids to (literally) screw around in. But if you are a grown-up and interested in fishing or touring, do not buy a Pelican.

I looked at some new Pelicans at the store, and I see the hull now has a more substantial skeg at the stern. How much this helps, if at all, I don't know.