Field testing the Jackson Kayak Cuda 14

[Snapper]

More than one report involved here and ongoing. I'll keep adding to this thread, bit by bit. A few points to begin:

I'm not being paid to do this nor receiving benefits of any kind.
I'm not looking for a sponsorship deal with Jackson Kayaks.
I have no axe to grind with Jackson Kayaks.
I'm not going to give the Cuda 14 an easy ride.
I'd rather spend from now until the end of the year in my Scupper Pro (it's lighter, faster, surfier and fits me).

That's that for now. My Scupper is now with Garry until the end of the year for him to use, my Tetra with Paul for his dad to use, My Necky in my brother's barn. No distractions except the RRRapido when it's surfy.

My intention is to thoroughly field test the Cuda 14 in fresh and saltwater in a winter environment. It is going to be scratched and scuffed and scraped and covered in slime and sand and mud and sh!t. It will never be the same again. So, thanks to Zoidberg and Jackson Kayaks for having the balls to put it into my hands and my unbiased and brutal barbarian hands and any questions please ask away on this thread, also any requests for sensible things for me to do or try with it, information for me to look at bits etc. I want to be thorough and I want to feedback what I can to any and all interested parties.

Let's rock and roll.

[Snapper]

Day 1. 20/13. Picked up from Philpot, coffee drunk, walkaround done, brought home, left until tomorrow.

An hour later, not left until tomorrow. Camera mount attached to bow for recording tomorrow's initial trialling.
Half an hour later, full length anchor trolley fitted to right side.

That'll do for the time being. Used so far - one longer screw and a camera mount for the ATC9K, two pad eyes, four rivets, 30ft of cord,6 inches of bungee a stainless so-ring, a stainless carabiner and a small pulley block.

Plan for tomorrow:

Record launching and landing with seat off, down and up. Record self rescuing. Record dropping and hauling anchor mid-tide. Paddle about a bit and get initial impressions. Weather looks suitably poor - might blood it with a cod if I can be bothered to try.

[Snapper]

Part one:

Cuda 14
Length: 14’3″
Width: 30.5′
Weight: 80lbs
Capacity: 400lbs

Scupper Pro TW:
Length: 14'9"
Width: 26" |
Weight: 55lbs
Capacity: 400lbs

Snapper 40
Length: 5’10”
Width: 14”
Weight 180lbs
Capacity: 1/4lb. With cheese.

That’s the specs. I’m about average UK build, in reasonable shape for age though I’ve been smoking and eating crap for too long, I’ve launched over a hundred times per year since 2007 (didn’t count 2006 launches which was when I started). I paddle, surf and sail sit on top and sit in kayaks year-round, fish fresh and saltwater for anything from an inch to a few feet long, work nights so the days are free for yakking and generally know my arse from my elbow. My usual mount is an Ocean Kayak New Zealand moulded Scupper Pro TW, the last incarnation of the first and most seaworthy plastic sit on top yet produced. This does everything well in terms of the kayaking side of things but does misbehave at anchor at times, has limited working and storage space on deck and everything gets wet. It’s long, low and mean. A snake of a yak. My current mount for the next couple of months is a US moulded Jackson Kayak Cuda 14; a bit shorter, a bit wider and a fair bit heavier. It’s also low. How it performs is what I’m planning to find out. It’s natural that I will directly compare it to my usual ride however this isn’t really fair as it’s more targeted to a different build and application and is more akin to the Trident 15 I used to paddle for a couple of years.

I mentioned that the Scupper has a long pedigree. The Cuda, however, doesn’t. It’s one of the new breed, a large fishing platform designed primarily for fishing large expanses of flat water rather than the huge swells of the Pacific and has only been around a year or two; Jackson Kayaks themselves having been around for ten years. Young company + young minds = fresh thinking. Good.

First impressions before getting wet.

Images: Big. Fat. Cumbersome. Wind-catching. Dry. Heavy.
Oh, but hang on. That top view looks alright. Ignoring the seat it’s got a good shape, well-proportioned and looks rather fishable as well as a decent paddle. The bow looks good too – pointed enough to move through the water but not so sharp and flared it takes all the buoyancy out of the nose and flips you under if you don’t keep it high when landing through surf. Good internal and external storage, a centre pod and I don’t have to shell out for some tubes behind the seat. Which makes it almost ready to fish from. Don't like that deckchair though.

Specs: Big. Fat. Heavy.
Well yeah. Heavier than a Trident 15 by a large chunk, heavier than an Ultra 4.7 by a bit. Wider than both but not by much. Shorter than both by a foot or so. Narrower and longer than the Big Game though, but still heavier. I’m not looking at other brands to compare simply because I know the OK stuff inside out and to be honest so do most of the UK kayak anglers…but you see where I’m going with this? These are the big, stable, direct competition and the paddlers of these are the guys this boat might best suit.
Yeah, and I still hate the seat. Everyone is sticking deckchairs on kayaks now and I want a low centre of gravity with a scooped out arse-hole. I don’t care about the water because I’m a Brit and I wear drygear most of the year because it’s always cold and it’s always raining.
So…from pics and paper it looks like I’ve let myself in for a pain in the arse doesn’t it, no matter how well padded. I’m so bloody negative. Except that’s not the whole story. I can see beyond all that at the potential and I think it deserves more than a cursory glance.

In the flesh: Where’s it gone?
You know when you wake up after a night on the beer and you’re afraid to open your eyes in case you’re faced with a pig? Obviously it’s only ever been fear for me because I’m so devilishly handsome* that the fit girls push the mingers out of the way. Well, this wake up was pleasant too. Phil and his wife were staying locally and hid behind some bushes in a chalet so I drove down to get the Cuda, having dropped off both the yaks currently on my roof for friends to use in the meantime. You see I don’t NEED a Cuda and I’m not being paid or anything so this is all kind of altruistic and hopefully not masochistic; and hopefully will be accepted as honest. But that’s by the by. I get my first sight of the Cuda and wonder where the hell it’s gone. Yeah, it’s wide but it doesn’t look that wide. Looks fairly well proportioned in fact. I realise why – it’s low. I mean low. It doesn’t have that horrible wind-catching buoyancy of its competition. Hmm. That’s worth a few paddle strokes per mile I’m thinking. Doesn’t look all that much shorter than the Scupper and when we lift it it doesn’t seem all that much heavier. Of course my Scupper is quite a heavy one and has numerous bits attached – rudder, rails, ram tubes, balls, centre hatch blah blah blah. Okay, I can paddle this and I can fish from it. I’m feeling happier now. Still not convinced by the seat but that’s to quantify on the water. Clean, crisp mouldings, nice smooth plastic, really well finished. Loads of indents for rods and accessories, clearly thought through and with plenty of input from kayak anglers. All finer and dandy as long as it can perform.

Pre-Launch fettling.

First questions to answer is what it’s like as a kayak. So, launch, paddle, capsize, self-rescue, paddle, surf, land. I need a video camera fitted. It has a GoPro mount as standard but guess what? Snapper doesn’t use a GoPro. No, Snapper uses up to three Oregon Scientific ATC9K’s, a couple of GE DV1’s and an Olympus 6020. Snapper here needs to stick an ATC on the nose for what he has planned. Easily resolved this as I’d fashioned a mount previously for my RRRapido which just involved replacing the front screw with a longer one, mount attached. Job done. NEXT?

Anchoring. This is kind of the be all and end all. That’s what we do here. We don’t really use stake-out poles and the drift fishing option isn’t suitable in all places at all times of the year; same with trolling, that's going to be freshwater only now. I’m going to spend the next six months anchored in three knots of flow with plenty of wind and the ensuing chop and swell. So I need to get the drill out. Ten minute job – four holes, three knots and a handful of parts and the starboard side is fitted with a full length anchoring system. The Cuda 14 is now ready to rock and roll.

*the occasional lie is to be expected.

[Snapper]

Off the roof and down to the sand.

This is morning and afternoon yesterday.





Right, so we know it’s heavy, we know that from the spec. It sounds heavy from the spec but just how does that weight translate? It’s similar in weight to the OK Ultra 4.7 but wider and shorter so the balance is going to be different and so then will the ‘feeling’ of the weight. Regardless, it’s still eighty-odd pound in weight, though I don’t have the seat on while it’s up on the roof so I’m not sure what it is that I pick up and hold above my head like some rampaging giant. It’s ‘balanced’ better than the 4.7 so the apparent weight is less than anticipated and being wider my arms are further apart which helps. It’s slippery smooth so I have to use the handles and though I can hold it over my head for a bit, 20-30 seconds I guess, it’s still bloody heavy. But so is any kayak over 13ft so I‘m surprised that I don’t find it unduly difficult. Yet. I stick her on the C-Tug and strap her up.



The seat comes out of the car. Bloody deckchair. Takes up quite a bit of space in the boot to be honest, hence I’m still being quite scathing of it, that and thinking it’s a silly idea. But that’s why I volunteered to hammer this yak, to see whether this concept was as bad as it looked or whether in fact it was alright and a good choice for some. The seat, really, is the reason why this is happening. Anyway, I sling it on the yak along with an anchor and a paddle and take hold of the front toggle handle. Oh dear. This is the first fitting I use and it’s not a good start. Even without the camera mount that bit of cord is too short and pulling the kayak on a trolley by this will result in skinned and bruised knuckles. I have replaced them on every kayak I’ve had so it’s not a Jackson issue specifically and at least, with a piece of cord, it can be changed rather than that awful fixed plastic handle on front of the Ultras. Quick-fix, I grab the web standing strap and loop that around it and drag the whole lot down to the beach. I’ve strapped it ahead of the ram mounts and loaded everything into the cockpit so this keeps the weight forward and it rolls easily enough, the weight is not yet an issue. Good.



Down to the beach without drama, unstrap the C-Tug…will it fit? Wheels and pads into the front hatch and yes, the arms, unbroken as hoped, also go in fine. Perfect, that’s a major tick in the box for the UK, easy stowage of C-Tugs without having to break your knees to collapse the centre strut. Anchor system will go in the centre hatch today as I’m going to be jumping in before using that. A 1kg Bruce, a fairly large buoy and a large McMahon SMB reel are swallowed with ease and I tighten the straps up fully and lock it down. Snug fit, better than I thought. A very good seal and far better than most of the other kayaks I’ve tried, some of which have been shocking. Same with the front hatch, very good seal.

From sand to sea.

Time to go in. I pull the kayak to the water, hold it there to wait for a couple of dumpers and make a complete hash of things because I’m holding the paddle leash (because the front toggle is so short) which swings it broadside and into me and I’m on my arse being pushed along with a Cuda, inverted, on top of me. On video. Luckily you can’t see it as the camera is in all the foam so I shall spare myself the embarrassment and no-one will ever know. If Jackson could only see how incompetent the idiot road testing the Cuda is they’d call out for beer and nachos and get everyone into the boardroom with a hired plasma wide screen.

I get it upright again and do what I normally do, watch and wait and go when it’s not too big. I’ll beast it a bit more later. It’s relatively flat when I do go and quite disappointing really. I don’t mount the kayak like normal, kind of get things arse about face and miss the seating area, landing too far forward with my feet out to the sides and my sack stretched to breaking point. The seat’s in the way when I manually hop backwards but it’s minor, really, just an adaptation required. I paddle out past the end of the groynes and head towards kiddie’s corner where the swells are hammering into the pier, rebounding and throwing up loads of spray. Halfway there, at a decent pace, I start to find some bigger water, nice and confused and the Cuda starts rolling around a bit. The weight – solid construction, fixtures and fittings – beds it in well and it sits there solid as a rock, rolling with the sea not in spite of it. No twitchiness, no balancing, counter-balancing, leaning or anything. Really, really, stable, more than I’d expect in this sea, being choppy, swelly and turbulent. I thought the seat (which I have in low position) would have made me feel really unsteady but…oh, hang on, the seat. That bloody deckchair. That stupid, windcatching, overly high tipping hazard. I’d forgotten about that. Totally. So here, in black and white, I will stand up and say that I have completely and totally changed my opinion of it. Within minutes. I didn’t alter from that for the rest of the paddle either. I just didn’t know it was there and it didn’t have any ill effect, even slightly. That was one huge surprise and the term bloody deckchair shall no longer feature in this text…we’ve got past that.

Oh, I tried the rudder. Really neat rudder routing but try as I might I couldn’t get it to stay down. It needs setting up and tensioning. Having left everything as is for the time being I just flicked it up out of the way and paddled the kayak as it would be in stock mode. So, the next step. Step. Step up. Yeah, you can stand on these, they have flat footwells for it and even a standing strap to pull yourself up and let yourself down with. OK that’s what I’m going to do. I know damned well that it’s a flatwater thing – I did it on the Chattahoochee when I fished in Georgia – not a lumpy, bumpy, windy, confused sea tactic. But before I do I give the coastguard a call on channel 16, get sent over to 67 and let them know that for the next two hours there will be a damned fool in and out of the water a couple of hundred metres east of Lowestoft in a yellow drysuit and green kayak. I let them know I have vhf, plb and mobile, pfd and drysuit too. I do not want a lifeboat coming out because somebody assumes that I’m not flailing around like a drowning chicken on purpose. That done – and I can tell they think I’m crackers, which may have an element of truth in it (the charters aren’t leaving harbour today because of the sea state) - I stand up.



I have to tell you that I don’t actually have particularly brilliant balance. That’s why I don’t have a surfboard or SUP. I can get to my feet, I can cope when it’s flat but this is way beyond me. I last a few credible seconds though before flipping off the side, as expected, intended and planned. The kayak is upright though…now I’m in the water and with a face full of North Sea it’s time for my first self-rescue. Up to the side, lean across…a longer reach than I’m used to but that plastic is smooth and slippery rather than grained like I’m used to. It’s not going to happen. So I move along a few inches and instead grab the side carry handle which, as the centre of balance presumably, is probably the best place to reach for anyway.

I float my feet up, kick and heave and get my chest on; the kayak tips up quite a lot and I am in unfamiliar territory which I’ll come to in a moment. I push it down, kick some more, get across eventually then fiddle and fart around until finally I roll my arse into the seat and sit up. Must have been a good five or ten seconds – I haven’t got the video to hand right now. I need to do that again. I last slightly longer standing and get back into the seat quicker too but it’s still a very poor effort on my part compared to what I’m used to. So, now we come to that. I’m used to being in the seat and paddling again in under two seconds. Okay, so it’s narrower so I can scoot across in one movement but my Scupper Pro has a more shaped hull and better secondary stability, this makes it an absolute breeze just so long as you keep your head low (as a beginner on it) or know the balancing point (as a veteran user of one). Now, we all know about primary stability and the Cuda has this in truckloads. It’s while putting it on edge that this becomes a liability, that’s when it’ll tip over – the tipping point is there on a knife edge – which of course makes it harder to hold it down when dragging your weight back in.













I guess all this was happening around slack water, high water slack to be precise. So I’d been paddling against wind only and it wasn’t noticeably slow. I wouldn’t say it was fast either but it was certainly not a problem. Now however the tide was starting to ebb. I had a look about half an hour later when I was at anchor on the phone – no fancy iPhone app here as I have no iPhone. Instead the yacht club has a live weather station online that was perhaps half a mile from me. It was blowing 19 knots southerly, gusting to low twenties. This in addition to the ebb, which runs from the south, and which picked up to about two knots in the time I was paddling. Oh, and the messy, choppy, confused and turbulent sea that was pushing from the south east. So I was paddling for a mile against perhaps the worst wall of nature I’d be likely to face on a normal day. It was a good test but that leaves the paddling speed and tracking for another day. I mean I could tell it was heavy and wide and I’d have been left standing against my clone in a Scupper which eats up that sort of challenge but I couldn’t do a proper evaluation of it.

So I struggled against the elements to the other side of the pier. Cockpit was dry, the eight scupper holes sucking the water clear without hesitation. Arse was dry too, the seat saw to that. I decided to show the tracking by running up inside the pier legs but as I began I veered off and through as it was just too dangerous; the tracking will be fine but skidding would be a problem with the swells in there and I just wouldn’t be able to manoeuvre if things got tight. So I went wave hunting.

Nice and lumpy here and I kept trying to catch one into the beach but they weren’t standing up enough until right in close. So I tucked in close and paddled beam on for a bit. I usually get rolled hereabouts in the Necky, cost me my Viking helmet and a gash one time. Really hurt because my head was so cold with the snow and everything. Well, not today, beach. Got through the nasty bit with barely a sideways glance. I suppose in one way things were getting quite boring, the Cuda taming everything I threw at it. Nothing else for it then. Anchoring, that’d be sure to show a weakness.




I paddled out about 300 metres, undid the straps to the centre hatch and started rooting around inside to pull out the anchor system. I did not pay the slightest attention to the sea. I didn’t have to, it was looking after itself! Slight issue in that my bottom anchor trolley line was beneath the hull and out of reach so I had to jump in to pull it up again (my fault). Then, clip the line through the carabiner, shuttle backwards and get all Heath-Robinson because I’d not got line that fit the cleat and the Ram tube tightener was in the way. I used that to lock it off instead, let a bunch of line out and sat and waited. There were lumps of water coming at me left right and centre as I sat back and started texting the conditions to the forum on my phone and generally just sitting around without looking or worrying.







I was dry, I seemed to be sitting straight, I was perfectly stable and I didn’t have my feet out as I usually do. Not sure how much lateral movement I had as there were no lines out to notice movement against but it certainly felt fine. Time to pull up then. Shuttling to the front I decide that I’m going to see how long it’ll take to flip me side-on in this sea. So there I am, sitting beam on to tide, swell and wind pulling against a Bruce anchor and nothing’s happening except my arm is getting tired. I’ve seen 4.3’s being dragged under on one side like this before, let alone my Scupper. I gave up trying to flip it and continued to the front then pulled the anchor in easily. Am I exaggerating the pressure on the kayak? Hardly, I snapped through the weak link and it came up reversed. But hold onto your horses, I wasn’t in a great depth of water so it might be different in the usual 40ft; none of this is all that conclusive as yet.





So now I’m done with that there’s not much else to do bar paddle back with a following sea and the wind at my back. It’s now most definitely wind over tide (and swell over tide) and I make rapid progress so I play in the lumpy bits, trying to catch waves, running at them, sitting side-on and just generally fooling around. I try rocking the boat to find the tipping point which takes a bit to reach and can’t quite be stopped with a lean and brace. So now it’s back in the water, pull the boat over into a capsize and then do another self-rescue. Arm under the side closer to me and I push up, the Cuda spins over on its axis and is upright once more. I climb aboard. I give it three or four goes and it becomes harder – tiring in a heavy wide kayak after this long hammering it.





Oh those lovely waves crashing in at the shore. I like the look of them. I can catch them. I try…have to get them rearing up before she’ll go. I get one, go into the turn and it breaks on me, side-on and I bongo in on one hell of a pounding foam, determined to stay on and I hit the beach still in the seat. I grin, as always when I land through the washing machine and head straight back out into the waves, going up and over and punching them out of the way.










The second ride in is brilliant. These are heavy, pounding, close-set breaking lumps, nothing clean about them at all, but I take off, shoot down the face, run along what face it has (ugly face) and cut back and over. HAHAHA!













I‘m loving this. I should be on my skinny little RRRapido for this, with thigh straps and all that rocker but instead I’ve got 14ft 80lb of flat bottomed, straight-tracking high-seated fishing plastic. Which cannot do what it just did. It doesn’t the third and final time though to be fair, I go too steep, dig the nose in without getting time to turn and take a swim, trying to save the camera on the nose.







That’s that then. I’m pretty stuffed now (really shouldn’t have taken the relief night shift last night) so I call it a day. Now, we all want to know about hatches and with the big bow and centre hatches and the smaller rear one you’d expect some water after 3 capsize practices, loads of wave-punching, some surfing and shoreline capsizes wouldn’t you. I look. Less than a pint. I take that in my Scupper just paddling.



Well, drag it up the beach, get it on the trolley and back home and onto the roof bars. Now, wet and tired, I can really feel that weight and the front toggle annoys me once again. Manage though and back home I lift it up and onto the roofbars. Tricky with slick wet plastic and the width makes it more difficult to load from the side than my Scupper but again I just need to modify my methods.

A few feelings.

So, thoughts on the initial paddle and hard workout? It handled everything I threw at it really well with the exception of battling wind, tide and swell combined. It was very comfortable and as dry as the conditions allowed. It was boring in its capability – imagine it as a van. And for now I have no qualms about fishing from it at anchor until the new year as it seems to be a very capable fishing platform with the only definite drawback as yet being the weight I’ll have to drag up and down the slopes at Hopton and Corton. Like I said, none of this is conclusive as yet but I do know for certain that I still have the better kayak for me and my needs. So, I have to out beginners and intermediates into it next, fish it, paddle it some more and start pulling each bit together. I think I am getting an inkling of who it might be good for – and it won’t be for everyone – and I have to say there’s quite a few of them.

[Snapper]

[Snapper]

Cuda 14 and a Windy River Session

Day two on the water and it’s off to the Waveney for a five mile paddle, trolling part of the way for pike and flicking light gear out for silvers. Wind is blowing 25mph, gusting 30 and there’s not much shelter from it as it’s blowing over the flat marshland; we’re going to be paddling into and across it all the way up.

I take the kayak off the roofbars alone with no problem. The weight and balance are okay and it seems easier to handle at this point than the longer and similarly weighted 4.7 which tips, fore and aft because of the extra length. I load my kit onto it and start trying to drag it across the grass. That front toggle handle really does need a longer cord replaced. I try from the rear instead but the offset carry handle shifts it over onto its side and all my stuff tips onto the grass; feels heavy from that angle too. They may be alright for carrying the kayak but for pulling they are not. So I grab hold of the bungee at the front over the rod tip protectors and haul it with that. The balance isn’t great but it works and I get to the bank. A 3-4ft drop down to the water; I drop the stern over and holding the standing assist strap I lower the rest down. That’s works really well, better than my usual method dropping the stern down while holding the bow toggle on my Scupper Pro.

My rods and paddle are, as usual, lined up on the staging ready for me to be in the kayak. With less care than normal I hop down, my feet on the flat footwells and it’s steady, the stand up pedigree coming in very useful. I grab hold of my kit, drop easily and naturally to the seat, all nice and dry, and push myself off and down towards the footbridge.




The wind is channelled down here and It’s impossible to stay where I want to be. I weathercock and then start to skid across to the bank. I hold there by hand for a while but as soon as I release I’m blown down and past until I reach the bank at the dogleg. The lack of keel means this happens quicker than I am used to in such conditions. I head back up and try in a small bay. Again I can’t hold in place because of the wind; my paddle, leashed, is slung into the weeds on the bank which is a common tactic of mine but there’s no chance. I drift straight through my swim and into the bank. I give up and head for the main river and upstream against the wind.

Let’s start with the tracking. This is positive. There are grooves running along the hull, as seen with some other brands with flatter hulls rather than the triform shape adopted by the OK yaks I’m most experienced with. It works well, running up or downwind but I soon find its limitations. The wind is not running along the length of the kayak so I have to put in corrective strokes (I am intentionally not using the rudder which would alleviate this). Without these the kayak turns until I present myself beam on. Here the lack of any keel or depth to the hull the kayak is pushed sideways, kind of like a sideways skid. The weight of the boat slows this a little and this is an excessively strong wind to be paddling in but this isn’t anything unordinary for me – if I want to go, I go.

I paddle for a couple of miles at trolling speed, this is around 2mph. The wind, when going into it, slows me considerably and, at times, stronger gusts will stop me dead in my tracks so that I am forced to dig in deeper to get through it. It takes a lot of effort, the width of the hull having a blocking effect here. I have less buoyancy than on saltwater of course so I’m that bit deeper than the other day and the water is flatter too so there is more drag (I’m sure broken water is easier to paddle against but I may be fooling myself).

Digging deeper and I’m not being stopped by wind; slowed yes but this is to be expected, the laws of physics are not to be denied. It’s hard work though. Okay, I’m paddle fit and have a reasonable technique but I’m paddling an unfamiliar boat 25% heavier than my own, considerably wider and with a considerably higher seating position. I’m using a longer paddle than normal that is perhaps shorter than is optimum on this kayak too so I’m not yet fully attuned to the Cuda 14. I can paddle it at around 3 knots constant but getting any more out of it takes too much effort to maintain for more than a couple of hundred yards and after half an hour of constant pushing I stop for a fish. It’s an excuse and it’s welcome! I know I can blame the wind largely though as the return trip is a LOT easier. A steady pace all the way back takes no effort at all.

When I stop to fish the seat is a delight. Sitting side-saddle or sitting straight it’s comfortable. The side buckles allow it to be altered for angle easily and quickly. I don’t feel too high or unbalanced either fishing or paddling but I haven’t yet fine tuned it so I do get an ache in my lower back which requires a hot bath and my chiropractor to cure. My chiropractor being my nine year old daughter who uses daddy as a surfboard when he aches after a long drive. Well I’m not getting any younger you know!

Enough about the paddling for now, I’m throwing the worst I can at it and pulling it up where it lacks, balance being important to the overall picture. I have yet to test it in the conditions that are to be considered normal. This will come. It’s not designed for speed after all, it’s not a racing kayak it’s a stand up angling kayak focussing on being the most stable platform it can be. Now I will go on to some of the features I made use while fishing it.

A key feature is the way rods can be laid flat along the hull with the tips protected for travelling through undergrowth or, for those using it in the sea, to protect them during surf launches – anyone who’s rolled a kayak at launch or landing in waves with the rods in flushmounts know what a snapped tip looks like. This feature does away with that likelihood. Grooves are moulded to the gunwhales which allow the rods to be laid flat and remain in position, held down by two bungee loops fitted over hooks. There are further grooves across the front deck which the rods sit in before leading under a removable bow cover designed to protect the top part of the rods. These grooves and loops doubled in use as paddle rests for me with my cranked shafts but have an end to them to stop the rods slipping backwards so may not be as suited to straight shaft paddles. If carrying rods in this way whilst padlding be aware of reel position so as to keep them out of your paddle arc.

An alternative to the outside rod storage, I made use of the internal storage accessed by the centre hatch. I’m very impressed with this, it is a tighter and more water resistant hatch than I’ve yet seen on a centre pod and the use of straps and cleverly set-out buckles means that very little space is taken from the footwells. My rods, 7ft long, fit easily, tips forward, either side of the stiffening foam centre strut fitted at the front of the hatch, keeping the lines from tangling and the reels apart. As I had no trolley to consider this was fine, were I unable to fit them in I could still sue the outside ones. A choice of two secure and tidy solutions.



Across the deck are a couple of dips which, on getting a strike while trolling or while drifting and casting, can take your paddle. This I used a few times and it was a neat and simple solution to something that needs dealing with straight away. With more time the dip in the rod tip protector accommodates a paddle blade securely under the bungees and is kind of tapered to make things easy. Really simple and very effective. No matter what conclusions are made about the kayak as a whole the features that have been included to address common issues are all well thought out and make the Cuda a very versatile and very useful kayak anglers platform.

Working space is something I am no longer used to. The scupper is only useful as a table when my feet are firmly planted over the side to free the area ahead of me. No problem on the Cuda, rigging, unhooking, and baiting up are easy and the grooves in the hatch lid kept a lure or two, a pen knife and so on in easy reach. The scupper holes were efficient at sucking water out and everything just, well, worked. No pools of water, no items disappearing from sight, nothing.

Thoughts at the end of day two were once again the handles and the weight. Windage and skidding (without the rudder being used) became very apparent as did the speed issue but these are still not accurately assessed (though valid all the same) because of the extremes I threw at them so the book is still open there. Very comfortable to fish from, aside from the back ache due to not fine-tuning the seat position and having to pull all the way upriver with a modified paddling stance, comfortable to paddle.

Now I need that weather to settle so I can fish it in normal conditions on the river and the sea. Summer is over so the reefs won’t be trolled with and against the tide as the bass won’t be hanging around now and if they are they won’t see the lures but I already know that it wouldn’t be suitable for that on a number of points but that’s quite a specialised, localised consideration anyway (I think?). No, now is the 4-600 yard paddle, drop anchor and sit there feeling sorry for myself while watching for cod to pick up the bait. For that I think it’s going to be a pleasure.

[Snapper]

Testing Testing 1 2 THREE

Shifts and weather have been getting in the way, babysitting too so a bit of a delay on the anchored sea fishing I’m afraid. It was my hope to get out for codling, especially after a couple of days with perfect conditions but on the walk home the wind was building and there seemed no point going after them in the same conditions I’ve already tested. Wouldn’t have anything to write about really. Besides, Gary was coming out too with my scupper and I’d need an hour’s kip before I could even look in one direction. Question answered, out on the broad for some flat lake trolling after pike. Hopefully I’d find a good one as there are some decent fish in here, up to thirty pounds or so. Two of us to lift the Cuda off the roof, far more tolerable.




A foot or so to step down onto the floating kayak, nice and easy. Down into the seat, well, not down exactly but you know what I mean. With no time to sort my lures before leaving I’d grabbed everything and loaded the whole box into the front hatch along with my rods in the hull while I parked the car (loads of room and a nice, wide hatch), this was now in the rear tankwell, dry and with easy access that I could turn right around and sift through – two advantages over the tankwell on my Scupper Pro where everything needs drying afterwards. Rods were now out and with no flushmounts I had to use the supplied ram tubes.





Ram tubes are fitted behind the seat as standard. This is good, they’re there for storage, forward fishing and trolling at any angle and within reach. That, of course, is if you happen to like trolling from tubes. I don’t. I don't trust them and with experience of them slipping under pressure it is a recipe for lost rods, most likely on a snag rather than from a fish; I’d far rather have the solid, fixed, low flushmounts and feel safe in the knowledge that there will be no slippage. Of course with the tubes being new they gripped well and with a good bit of pressure applied I had them sufficiently tightened to withstand whatever pressures I could expect to contend with. In use though I found them too high and I had to turn and reach to drop the butts into place instead of doing it effortlessly. But they performed okay and the option of raising or lowering the tips to adjust the running depth of the lure could be useful at times.

The wind had dropped and the broad was flat so I’d at least get a better idea of how it paddled. It felt heavy on the water but cruised quite easily, tracking well but easy enough to steer (still not using the rudder). As I was trolling I was only paddling at a gentle walking pace, no need for speed, just a steady meander and this was fine right the way around the broad with no need to stop in the couple of hours we were out; no weariness, no aches, no pain…but it wasn’t going to go a lot faster. The one thing that really bugged me though was the front scupper, mostly on the port side. I was on fresh water so sitting lower than I would on the sea but this is where it’s designed principally to be used. Practically an empty boat, maybe a couple of kg of lures and rods, 82kg of me, maybe 5kg of clothing and kit so say a 90kg payload. 200lb give or take, about half the load capacity. So it was somewhat annoying to get constant gurgling and regular splashing through the scupper hole. Sure, I could block it with a bung (standard fit on the earlier model) but then I’d lose drainage. That’s a minus for me. At least with the weight and profile of the bow there’s no hull slap.





Occasionally I got some gusts of wind appear over the flat expanse of the broad that were a bit stronger than the rest and at others it was as still as the doldrums. At most the gusts were about 15mph as as we did a complete circuit they would have appeared from every angle. In these lighter winds there was no discernile effect on windage; no weathercocking, no slowing of the kayak, none of the annoyance of the windy river launch. That said, beam on I may have skidded sideways to some degree without noticing on the larger water with less points of register.



I was able to stick nice and tight to the banks and quay headings, run between mooring buoys and lines and steer wherever I fancied with ease. It was while I was tight in that my rod started to bend over and had I not noticed it I'd have lost it off the back. Snagged on the bottom, it had started to pull the ram tube back and would have pulled the rod in had I not grabbed it. I hadn't slackened the drag off at all and the rod wasn't leashed. Cleared, i then pulled up a waste paper basket filled with mud and mussels which weighed a ton.






Third pull though was fighting back, quite hard in fact. Considering the size and the time of year I was surprised I had noticed at all!!!






Shooting up towards the flats a boat pulled out a scraper double ahead of us. It had been waiting for me for a while and clearly got fed up. Poaching my pike he was, how rude! Water wasn't too murky but not as clear as the river had been - maybe 2ft visibility at best. The wind had clearly stirred things up a bit and not just in the water, the trees had taken a bit of a battering in the recent storms.







Not to mention the second of the three houseboats having fallen to bits and sunk.



Back round to the launch point and I hopped out, getting Gary to take my place in the Cuda. He's taller than me at over 6ft, heavier too at 16 stone or so and this was his third time out on the water - one choppy sea trip, one heay surf session and this light lake paddle, in my slimmer, lower and lighter Scupper Pro. How would he take to it?







He immediately noticed the differences, was quite positive on the whole but I'll ask him to type something up himself.



So summing things up to date (session by session):

1. Great stability moving and anchored on saltwater, suffers from wind, slow, watertight, self rescue not too difficult, suprisingly fun in surf.

2. Really struggles to make headway against strong wind in fresh water, weathercocks badly, skids across the water with side winds and is hard to correct tracking without the rudder. Secure and stable, great storage

3. Pleasant but heavy paddle on open freshwater with little to no wind. Tracks straight, course corrections easy, annoying disturbance from front scupper hole(s).

[Snapper]

Just A Swell...05/11/2013

I’ve been hoping to get out after the cod off the coast for a few weeks but with high winds, big seas, children on holiday and everything else it’s taken far too long for the opportunity to present itself. Now it seems that the cod have dwindled to what we had here a few weeks back but testing was the main goal and I had a few hours that could be used. The trouble was it was pouring with rain. I hate rain. Still, needs must and all that.

I drove down to the launch and unloaded. I didn’t need a lot, just a pair of 12lb class rods and the reels, rigged ready to go with 2/0 pennels and a leahs apiece, with a spare rig and three 8oz breakaway leads. That was the fishing kit, other gear apart from the Cuda 14 consisted off a C-Tug trolley, my McMahon large dive reel, buoy and 1kg bruce anchor, my paddle – a carbon Lendal 225cm varilock crank with the powerful Mystik surf blades – a priest and a bait knife. Wearing my Typhoon PS220 drysuit, Palm Kola boots, diver’s undersuit and Palm Symbiant Tour PFD I’d be warm and dry too. Bait consisted of a wrap of frozen black lugworm and a pound of unwashed loligo squid. That’s the standard get-up for my cod fishing in winter though I’d normally take more bait if planning to stay longer but tides weren’t going to give me more than a couple of hours.



The Cuda was on the trolley and I started to drag it down to the launch. I hate this bit, I’m lazy and not as fit as might be expected and the 80lb of plastic had me sweating as I crossed the road and pulled it down to the beach. Once on the shingle the trolley sank and I had to ditch it, that’s a first. I pulled the kayak the rest of the way, smoothly enough, on its hull. I was sweating despite it being only 7 degrees.





I could see it was swelly out there and there was a bit of a shore dump, between 2 and 4ft depending so I chose a smaller set to launch through. It still lifted the bow clear, even with the C-Tug in the nose but not alarmingly so and I had a nice dry cockpit. I paddled out against a dying flood tide, a big spring so still a couple of knots.



I gave up after running against the tide about three groyne lengths (500 yards?) and heading out about the same distance and dropped anchor, the tide peeling the line off nicely. Eventually. Trouble was I’d tangled around my buoy so I had to haul it back amidships and unclip, reclip and shuttle it back.



This took a couple of minutes as it got caught in the carabiner’s tooth so there I was, being pulled against swell and tide, beam on. I didn’t feel concerned though, the Cuda side-slipping easily over the surface rather than being pulled down on one side as I’m used to with deeper hulled boats. Freed off, I dropped the rest down and stabilised level with my launch point. I’ve done alright here before so I stayed and rotated the ram tubes forward.



Yep, they’re in the right position. I’d still rather have a choice of those and flush mounts together but for the bait fishing they’re spot on, it’s how I’ve been set up since 2007 and it works.

So, first bait prepared – hooks set at the right distance, one lug on, one ring of squid.



Wheeeee! Out it goes with half a pound of lead, a fifty yard flick or so. Perfectly fine putting some power in the cast even on the higher seat than I’m used to and in that sea.



Second bait out and I wait. Am I going to christen it with a cod? No. Whiting, a small one.





I put the bait back down and catch a few more, better ones around a pound, but return them all as I already have a bag full of fillets so they may as well drop their spawn while I scoff their brothers and sisters.



I’ve got some decent swells rolling under me at times. Though mostly it’s a couple of feet maybe six seconds apart some are 3-4 and the occasional 5 appears. The wind has picked up too, from a force two at home to a four an hour later; the Cuda is solid as a rock, riding up and over and feeling perfectly at ease. I don’t need my fete out but it’s now force of habit and is a good indicator of what the flow is like.



I get a whacking great bite and think I’ve got a huge whiting. Nope, a dab (species 19 for this leg) thinks it’s a halibut and fights me all the way up. I take a minute to decide whether to keep it or not and decide I may as well, I like them a lot and gave my lost few to dad. I rebait with a whole squid, maybe tempt a codling with that by keeping it down longer and a couple of thornbacks were caught at the weekend, surprisingly, so I might chance upon one of those which would be a good test of the ‘dealing with decent fish and finding somewhere to store it’ side of things.

But no, just more whiting to be returned and with the tide dropping off I pull anchor and paddle in.



I’m running through the troughs with the swells approaching from my port side and rolling under me, picking me up and dropping me back down again as I head in across maybe half a knot of tide. An easy cruise at 3 knots, no struggling at all but I am getting that gurgling from the front scuppers again. Then up to the beach, wait for the right wave and go in on a wave letting it do what it wants. It does fine with a nice, dry, easy landing though I have to lean back as the bow grinds its way along the shingle shoreline while my arse is still up in the air. Might have tipped with a sharper bow profile; I like a blunt nose.



Drag it across the beach again, not up the concrete steps like normal though as it’s Phil’s yak, not mine and the extra weigth would scrape more off than I normally do. I take everything off, carry it up then, nose into the step, up, grab hold and balance it on my shoulder…



On the trolley, strapped up and the butts go into the nose cover, for once they won’t either fall off or get hooked up in the veg when I go down the path to the car park. It may be a large bit of plastic but it’ does a great job.



nuts. Now for the long drag up the hill. Did I mention my hatred of heavy kayaks?



Points from day 4.

Very easy to sit on at sea in swell and wind, stable, comfortable and steady as a rock. PFD rises up my back anyway so the seat back felt comfy enough all the way through.
Quick enough across a slow tide and running between swells from the beam and against a force four in my face.
Easy stowage and storage.
No tankwell full of water, stuff in the hold stayed dry, no pools of blood, guts, water around my feet.
No tippiness when pulling side on against a snarled up anchor
Tidal flow dictates where you’re fishing, you aren’t going uptide very far.
I still need to go to the gym because it still weighs a ton.

Overall from trying my usual stuff over four sessions I have to say it’s a pleasant platform to fish from and all the features work and work well. The downsides for me were, are and always will be the weight and speed, that’s all. I can’t fault the Cuda 14 on anything else. It’s enough to make me want to give it back early, what with the hills and flows I am forced to contend with because I so love the Scupper pro for that and I am probably missing out on some of those short evening river sessions I’d been using the Tetra for this summer but hey, it’s not let me down and it’s a far, far better yak than I was expecting.

[noidea]

bloody hell mate, that must have taken a week to write all that up, categorically tested everything that could be tested I think, and very interesting views on the yak.

if it was sat next to your scupper pro do you think there would be an occasion where you would choose this over your yak?

is this any sort of comparison to the big game? a lot of what you said would mirror my opinions of my old big game

[Snapper]

It's been bit by bit mate, one day at a time.

No.

Yes, similar qualities and suitability; faster but heavier. Better fitted out and better quality moulding by a long way.

[Snapper]

And your presence is required to give it a good play by the way. I'd like as many people to have a go while it's here as all feedback from all shapes and sizes is useful. Jackson are listening to what we want to see in a future yak and are very open to suggestions. I like them as a company even though I don't want any of their current boats.

[noidea]

No probs, im up for that any time mate, im still thinking that seat may be one issue for the bigger guys, but if the comparison to the big game is what you say then getting on board with a normal seat used to be easy, so any failed attempts at a re entry might be the first thing that goes against this one. however it has already surprised you so best to keep an open mind.

they are sounding like a good company to be dealing with. they are wanting to know what we want incorporated into a yak, interesting, I wonder if there customer support is good as this.

did you try the seat in its high and low positions?

[Annette]

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