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Topic: Jackson Kraken?  (Read 13326 times)

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PK_Rick

  • Herring
  • **
  • Jackson-Kraken
  • Location: Lynnwood, WA
  • Date Registered: Mar 2015
  • Posts: 33
Ok I think I need to articulate this a bit more.
The Jackson line of boat are built with a very high level of primary stability.  This is partially caused by the hull shape and it is partly caused by the high center of gravity.
When a boat has a higher center of gravity it feels very stable initially but the compromise is poor secondary stability.

I am used to kayaks with a low center of gravity and high secondary stability. If you lean a boat with good secondary stability it will roll to its side but the pop quickly back to center. When the weight is shifted back to center.
The Jackson boats are very sluggish to return to center and once you get past even a minimal side roll the boat continues to roll over.
I think that this becomes even more true when you have a larger person on the boat as this raises the center of gravity even more.
This was my feeling about the Cuda and the Coosa when I demoed them two years ago and was just reinforced this weekend with the Big Tuna. This was not just my observation but also that of two other guys who are experienced paddlers and both are Pro Staff guys, one for a paddle boat and one for a pedal boat.

As a big guy I'm not a fan of any Jackson I've been on.

So I don't know how the other Jackson's paddle, but as a big guy I found that the Kraken is a bit wobbly with Primary stability, but has a solid secondary. its slightly tippy then as it rolls to the rail it feels solid. The seat is not height adjustable and sits low to neutral in my opinion. But it does move forward and back as a "trim" adjust if you have the boat loaded unevenly from stern to bow. you can move it forward a little bit to put your body mass more in the center. I peddled the Hobie revo and felt it was very tippy for me. (I did have the seat raised up quite a bit) but I felt really unstable in it. I felt better in the Outback. But the Kraken was pretty solid. for a boat this length you can lean in a bit and use the rails to help steer if you are going Sans the rudder.