Posted by Bobh on July 24, 2002 at 00:45:56:
Well, I made the decision and bought the Explorer Pro from Malibu Ocean Sports. Thanks to Jas and others for feedback on the boat.
Met Shawn who gave me the measurements:
len - 12'6"
width - 31"
draft - 6"
52 lbs
I am waiting for a couple of days to pick it up until the next shipment of rod holders arrive since they were waiting on them today. Hard to leave without a yak but I wanted something light colored and liked the off white color more than a lime green or yellow. Just hope it is a good choice as far as visability to other boaters since it is close to color of breaking waves. If you have seen whitish colored yaks and thought they were hard to see please let me know since I think I could choose another color at this point. My second choice would be lime green which I know can be seen, but I thought white might be a little easier on the mind to paddle.
When I get it I will take some pictures and post them after I get a few items added (richie compass, depth finder. etc).
Items I want to add but havent figured out how are a cooler and/or bait well. Any suggestions on what you have found to work would be appreciated.
Hope to see you on the water soon. Will try to find launch at La Jolla soon but seems like everywhere I go here I spend half the trip lost or stuck in traffic. Guess thats one of the prices of moving.
Jas, you asked about underwater disposable cameras and I have only used them very shallow. For that they work great! I have heard that you can take them down to about 60-80 ft and they will shoot once but will compress to point you cant wind film without coming back to shallow. Just make sure you use flash adn stay close to subject...if battery goes just go ahead and have film developed or shoot the rest of the roll on the boat. They have an extremely wide angle lens so you can get a full torso shot at 6 feet or just about lay the fish out across your feet on the yak and take a shot. I usually carry one for boat shots (but had nothing on Catalina trip).
Bob