Old Town Sportsman Autopilot Walkthrough

Motors on kayaks. Is it cool? Is it not cool? I'm still on the fence. However, I've not see a motor on a kayak that's as well put together as the setup on the Sportsman Autopilot from Old Town.
I shot a walkthrough with my buddy Aaron at the shop the other day and got my mind blown a little bit. If you're curious about this kayak, check out the walkthrough below.

They are cool for what they are but calling them a "kayak" starts to become a stretch in my opinion.  Seems like an alternative to say a riveted john boat with an electric motor, but with more seaworthy ness.    I wouldn't want to paddle it though if my battery died.

They are cool for what they are but calling them a "kayak" starts to become a stretch in my opinion.  Seems like an alternative to say a riveted john boat with an electric motor, but with more seaworthy ness.    I wouldn't want to paddle it though if my battery died.

I don't know man. If it isn't stitched seal skin stretched over a whale bone frame I have a hard time calling it a kayak. 

real OG status! I mean lets be honest, even most pedal kayaks are a stretch to call a kayak in any sort of traditional sense.  They are awesome and I love mine, but when I think of a kayak I think of something paddled by arms. 

All great tools to get out on the water and the Old town is definitely the best integrated motor I have seen yet.  Its better integrated than what you can do on many REAL boats. Really surprised it is BYO Battery.  I would have thought Old town would have capitalized on a branded battery pack. 

real OG status! I mean lets be honest, even most pedal kayaks are a stretch to call a kayak in any sort of traditional sense. 

Yep! My hobies don't really fit into my mental schema for 'kayak'. But, I'm surely becoming too rigid with age

This post reminds me -- I need to get a small outboard and boat registration for my AI..... zoom zoom!
 

tecccchnically should have your AI registered as a sail boat already....at least in Oregon

tecccchnically should have your AI registered as a sail boat already....at least in Oregon

There is some debate on that.  OMB specifies a sail boat as: "propelled only by sail". 

An AI can also be peddled and paddled,  an "auxillary" sail boat.

https://www.oregon.gov/osmb/forms-library/Documents/Education/BoatTypes.pdf

tecccchnically should have your AI registered as a sail boat already....at least in Oregon

There is some debate on that.  OMB specifies a sail boat as: "propelled only by sail". 

An AI can also be peddled and paddled,  an "auxillary" sail boat.

https://www.oregon.gov/osmb/forms-library/Documents/Education/BoatTypes.pdf

In Washington State -- read up on registration reqs last night; my cursory and amateur read suggested that it should be registered up here when under sail. If I get dinged for it I'll just chalk it up as a contribution to the WA General Fund. Shouldn't count as points against my fishing license.... right?

Its a grey area in Oregon but I believe the right answer is an AI or TI needs to be registered when moving under sail power.   https://www.oregon.gov/osmb/forms-library/Documents/Publications/ExperienceORBoating_2020LawsInsert.pdf

Its over 12 feet and its powered by sail.  I cannot find an OAR or ORS that actually defines what a sailboat is actually. That linked document I have says a sailboat is: "Any boat which is under sail alone, including any sailboat equipped with a motor."   West Coast Sailing indicated to me that you probably SHOULD, just to be safe, but that they don't always and haven't been stopped for it. 

Interestingly since both the AI and TI are over 16 feet and sailboats, you actually are supposed to carry a throwable PFD. 

Motors on kayaks. Is it cool? Is it not cool? I'm still on the fence. However, I've not see a motor on a kayak that's as well put together as the setup on the Sportsman Autopilot from Old Town.
I shot a walkthrough with my buddy Aaron at the shop the other day and got my mind blown a little bit. If you're curious about this kayak, check out the walkthrough below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYa_4QLRGBk&feature=youtu.be

I think I'll stick with the human powered kayaks and buy a boat if I need a motor. To each their own.

tecccchnically should have your AI registered as a sail boat already....at least in Oregon

That's good to know.  Wyoming does not require registration for my AI but Colorado does.  Such a pain to get a title and register a kayak here but cheaper than a fine if I am traveling. 

It’s not hard in or. Just submit your app with an mso

I don't know man. If it isn't stitched seal skin stretched over a whale bone frame I have a hard time calling it a kayak. 

This quote sort of highlight where we are with a lot of traditional hobbies, we humans seem to struggle to understand where we draw the line on "traditional" vs "Convenience". Oh and that is a very funny quote too...

I was considering adding an option to have an electric motor in my kayak but finding an off the shelf motor that would fit through the hole where my pedal drive went, proved to be more challenging then I initially thought it would. I assumed that Mincota or any of the other established trolling motor manufacturers would have scaled down a model to take advantage of the Kayak market. The short bit of research I did at the time indicated that they hadn't. I could buy the smallest model they had but the ones I found were about 1/4" too big. I actually wrote to Mincota and asked why they weren't providing a "smaller" motor that they could specifically target the huge Kayak market. They actually sent me to old town and said this was their Kayak model. I guess if you are only interested in selling your product to Old Town buyers this is a "Kayak" model but not what I was thinking was a sound marketing solution.  Anyway I ultimately admitted to my self that the whole reason I bought the pedal drive was to get some exercise, and although pedaling a kayak at trolling seeds is barely above breathing when it comes to exertion I still think it is in my best interest to pedal. So I think I fall on the side they are coolish if that is what you personally are into.

I was considering adding an option to have an electric motor in my kayak but finding an off the shelf motor that would fit through the hole where my pedal drive went, proved to be more challenging then I initially thought it would. I assumed that Mincota or any of the other established trolling motor manufacturers would have scaled down a model to take advantage of the Kayak market. The short bit of research I did at the time indicated that they hadn't. I could buy the smallest model they had but the ones I found were about 1/4" too big. I actually wrote to Mincota and asked why they weren't providing a "smaller" motor that they could specifically target the huge Kayak market. They actually sent me to old town and said this was their Kayak model. I guess if you are only interested in selling your product to Old Town buyers this is a "Kayak" model but not what I was thinking was a sound marketing solution.  Anyway I ultimately admitted to my self that the whole reason I bought the pedal drive was to get some exercise, and although pedaling a kayak at trolling seeds is barely above breathing when it comes to exertion I still think it is in my best interest to pedal. So I think I fall on the side they are coolish if that is what you personally are into.

Not sure which pedal kayak you have, but Bixpy has a motor that fits through the pedal hole of the rigid Hobies. https://tinyurl.com/y24kplb5 Unfortunately for me it doesn't fit the i11s Hobie, the hole is different so I use a Bixpy rudder mount https://tinyurl.com/y4bh6sj3.

Not sure which pedal kayak you have, but Bixpy has a motor that fits through the pedal hole of the rigid Hobies. https://tinyurl.com/y24kplb5 Unfortunately for me it doesn't fit the i11s Hobie, the hole is different so I use a Bixpy rudder mount https://tinyurl.com/y4bh6sj3. I'm not 'personally into' trolling motors but the consequences of some medical issues make me unable to pedal or paddle for more than half an hour at a time so the motor keeps me on the water for a few more years.

Well the Bixpy is $575.00 just for the motor no mounting hardware and no motor control and no battery. by the time you are all done you are into a thousand dollar motor system. It is fast and cool I'll give it that, but when you compare it to the smallest Minn Kota at 99.99 the Minn Kota is literally 1/10th the cost and if it fit through the pedal drive hole it would take about 10 min to mount. So that seems like a lot more practical solution than the bixpy.  So honestly why doesn't Minn Kota or any of the manufactures come up with a slightly smaller model they could crush it.  BTW I have the perception Crank.