The right kayak(s) for my family

Hi everyone. I've been getting varying opinions on this so I thought
I'd ask the group. I'm trying to find the best kayak situation for my
family. I'm looking to buy used or new.

2 adults
2 kids, ages 2 and 6

We are on Newfound Lake in NH. I'll be doing mostly lake kayaking
along with some rivers. I'm at the lake for the summer and my husband
comes up for weekends so I'm looking for a scenario where I can take
the kid(s) by myself in addition to the whole family, husband
included.

I was thinking of getting 1 tandem and 1 single. Yesterday I took a
friend's tandem. The six year old sat in the front and the 2yo sat
between my legs just in front of me. Not the most comfortable
situation in the world, but still tolerable and we were in it for
about 45 min. After I ditched the 6yo I put the 2yo in the front and
went for a great ride down the lakeshore. She loved it. this made me
think that maybe soon the 6yo could paddle a single and I could use
the tandem with the younger one for a few years. On weekends when dh
is around we could put three of us in the tandem and one of us in the
single or split two and two. I know I would be doing the majority of
the paddling in the tandem but I didn't have any trouble handling it
yesterday.

Also, what lengths should we be looking at? Dh is 225lbs so that would
be the max a single should have to accomodate.

Thanks.

JennP.

JennP. wrote:
> Hi everyone. I've been getting varying opinions on this so I thought
> I'd ask the group. I'm trying to find the best kayak situation for my
> family. I'm looking to buy used or new.
>
> 2 adults
> 2 kids, ages 2 and 6
>
> We are on Newfound Lake in NH. I'll be doing mostly lake kayaking
> along with some rivers. I'm at the lake for the summer and my husband
> comes up for weekends so I'm looking for a scenario where I can take
> the kid(s) by myself in addition to the whole family, husband
> included.
>
> I was thinking of getting 1 tandem and 1 single. Yesterday I took a
> friend's tandem. The six year old sat in the front and the 2yo sat
> between my legs just in front of me. Not the most comfortable
> situation in the world, but still tolerable and we were in it for
> about 45 min. After I ditched the 6yo I put the 2yo in the front and
> went for a great ride down the lakeshore. She loved it. this made me
> think that maybe soon the 6yo could paddle a single and I could use
> the tandem with the younger one for a few years. On weekends when dh
> is around we could put three of us in the tandem and one of us in the
> single or split two and two. I know I would be doing the majority of
> the paddling in the tandem but I didn't have any trouble handling it
> yesterday.
>
> Also, what lengths should we be looking at? Dh is 225lbs so that would
> be the max a single should have to accomodate.
>
> Thanks.
>
> JennP.
Hi Jenn,

Consider a canoe about 15 long. You can easily and comfortably carry
all four of you plus dog, cooler, diapers, camera, etc. And all four of
you are together. A canoe this size can be carried on a roof top rack
readily.

Al K