My story:

 

I shopped on FB for a long time. I knew I wanted a pedal drive, possibly a TM setup, and wanted to be able to stand up, but was on a budget. Maybe similar to you. I ended up getting an old town 106 pdl that the owner had custom built a trolling motor for that will interchange with the rudder in a custom bracket he built. Pretty cool, but I mostly use the pedals because I didn't register the boat and that's required, and also the weight and nuisance of the TM. The pedal system doesn't need a battery and is more reliable imo. It also came with a cart which is essential for such a heavy kayak. It also came with battery. All that I negotiated down to $1600 which I was very happy with. 

My advice is take your time shopping, buy used, but buy quality that you can add on later. 

On 12/16/2023 at 12:58 PM, Mossman said:

I am going to keep looking and see if I can get lucky and find what I am looking for on the used market. 

 

Too bad you don't live in my neck of the woods. I'm going to be selling my old Seastream PDL, Lowrance 5" DI SI, YakAttack Switchblade, YakAttack Cellblok, head mount, and a 7Ah Dakota Lithium battery in a package deal. 

The real issue is....we don't know what life holds for us!  Will our lifestyles change, will we be moving to another part of the country ?  No one can tell their future, so.....to say this is the boat, kayak or canoe that I really want...no one knows.  Have owned boats for over 60 yrs, each one was " the perfect boat" only to change after a few years as life changed.  Jon boats, canoes, tinnies, 22' cruiser back to 16' side console and numerous boats in between.  Most all started as the best one.....at that time !!

As long as I have the lakes around to use one, a garage to store one, the financial means to maintain one, and a truck to tow one, I will be owning a boat. I didn’t grow up dreaming of owning a kayak or a canoe. I dreamed of owning my own boat someday many times when I was younger.

 

That being said, there is quite a bit of regular maintenance, associated costs, and space required to have one. Just the way it is compared to a smaller craft like a kayak. Kayaks have come a long ways in recent years. If I didn’t have the means of owning my own boat, I’d have a nice kayak for sure.

When I was a young lad, my relatives had a small cottage on the Portage river, which we visited regularly.  At age 12 I had my first boat, an old wood rowboat. At 13, I moved to aluminum boats, at age 73 now, still have aluminum boats, never been without a boat in all these years, but the type of boat has changed many times !!