Picked up the new Revolution this afternoon, had fun trying to sink it

Had a great purchasing experience with Hobiecats Northwest in Seattle, hooked up with Dan who was really patient with me as I worked my way through the kayak peddle/paddle purchase learning curve the last couple of weeks.  I suspect Dan was a bit surprised that after I wrote the check today I placed four 5 foot pool noodles in the Revo, end to end two on each side, trotted it down to Lake Washington (100 yards or so) put my pfd on then opened the hatches in knee deep water and learned whether or not I had enough flotation to keep the yak from dropping out of site.  Very interesting experience, first lesson was to leave the wallet in the automobile not my front pocket.  After the boat was completely full of water I sat in it and clearly am confident that my boat wont do the submarine dive on me. I just need to be sure I am well equipped with VHF radio, safety flares etc and and a good water removal plan. Next step was to see how to get the water out, vellllllly interestink.
I had a low priced hand bilge pump, closed the center and bow hatches then proceeded to pump, and pump and pump, that boat holds a lot of water.  Discovered that I would be in real trouble with an 8": open hatch if the surrounding water was very active because it would keep refilling the boat.  So two items to consider, mounting a hand pump permanently in the Revo, have no idea where, and spend the money for a high volume hand pump.  Pumping process took every bit of half an hour and my shoulders sure are letting me know what I did this afternoon. Am sure if I had ventured out into deep water the pumping would have been more difficult. Also discovered that about a 10" piece of flexible bilge pump pipe on the exit end would have been helpful. I was able to get all but about an inch of water out.  Then jumped in and peddled around to the launch area, put the cart wheels in place, opened the plug and tipped more water out.  then used one of the super efficient sponges to clean out the remaining small amount of water. 
The revo now is in the garage with hatches open to dry out, the wallet contents are spread out on the table and in this weather the drying process should happen by tomorrow morning.  Seems to me I spotted a link or two somewhere about permanent bilge pump installation, will look those threads up this weekend.  Am excited about putting those turbo fins to work and getting used to this wonderful boat and catching some fish in salt and non-salt water.  Thanks again all for your prior input! See you on the water.
Holt

Well done!  You now know more about your boat and what it takes to recover from a serious situation than many of the old hands.  Did you get a chance to practice a wet re-entry?

Hi Spot, did two on a Revo and one each on Adventure and Outback during demo time, all were good experiences, righting the yak and crawling in. Will do more on this new yak. Holt

  Very interesting experience, first lesson was to leave the wallet in the automobile not my front pocket.

Funny! I have done this as well.  I also had the key fob for my truck along as well.  Found out it could float....out of my pocket.  Twas a long walk home .

West Marine has Icom and other radios on sale right now.

Holt,
warehouse sports there by costco carries hand held radios and some other stuff. they are slowly removing all the old sportmans warehouse stock. when i was there last, the upstairs was almost empty. i think they may soon not carry kayaks/canoes or related gear, tho.

do an online search for the lacey area, for kayak supplies.etc. i think there are a few shops down by the oly city center/ literal end of puget sound, but it's been a few years since i lived there or been down that way.

cannot recall a west marine in oly/lacey. does not mean there isnt one. if you find there isnt, head to fife, take exit 136A and stay right til you get to the bottom of the ramp. west marine is right there in front of you behind those trees. don't forget sportco is up that same road, so if it's your wont, just make the left and keep going about 3/4 mi and it's on the right , too.

another resource is backpackers supply in tacoma.. thats going north on south tacoma way to 52nd street. it will be on the left. best bet is to avoid as much of the south tacoma way traffic mess and go up a few miles and go in off 38th st. or higher. they have a half of their store dedicated to paddle sports. go inside and go to the left.

hope this helps. i know it can be a real pain in this area to find the things we yakfishers need. it's not like we have a huge over flow of yak and paddle shops in the south sound

rich

  Way to go Holt!  You are setting the bar pretty high filling that puppy with water on day one just to see what it's like. Now I'm feeling like I should try that too. Except the big A would hold even more water. Any got a really small yak I could borrow?   Chris

get some more noodles! won't have to pump as much next time!

craiggamesh: Great comment on the key fob floating out of your pocket, never would have thought of that!  Were you on a river or other moving water?

Wanderingrichard: Great helpful information for resources, you are right, the shop choices are few.  I did find that the Boston Harbor Marina in Lacey has some local kayak supplies.

Emb7b5, yep, lots of water to pump was a pain, however better to know in knee/waist deep water than in the blue water with wave conditions, still need to remember to have a better place for my wallet than the pants pocket Also need to figure out how to pump out the boat with sloppy water, the 8" open hatch sure seems risky.

Take care all,
Holt

The Nothing: more noodles, higher float, how do I get the mirage drive to work if I am out of the water??    How the heck do you get the faces to work from the tool bar?

craiggamesh: Great comment on the key fob floating out of your pocket, never would have thought of that!  Were you on a river or other moving water?

It was in Lake Havasu in about 60 feet of water. I just didn't notice until it was too late.

Lesson learned:  don't buy swim trunks with pockets.  Too tempting to put valuables in and forget them.

I might be confused now, but noodles shouldn't create more float just because they're in the boat... In fact, they're making your boat heavier because they do offer some more weight. Its when your hull gets flooded that they become useful.  They'll displace the water that would otherwise be inside the boat and would only offer some slight additional buoyancy after the weight limit of the boat is compromised.  The boat is doing the floating, not the noodles, until the noodles are submerged.  Otherwise you would offer some buoyancy because you're wearing a PFD (you ARE wearing a PFD right?!?)

Imagine if your yak holds 400 gallons of water. You saw today what that was like.  Now, if you add 50 gallons worth of noodles (dunno how many noodles that is, as i'm not sure of their total volume).  Instead of having to pump out 400 gallons of water, you only have to pump out 350 gallons (50 gallons x ~8 pumps per gallon, thats 400 fewer pumps!). Get the idea?



as for the smilies, i just click on them and they work, just as they should.  i've not had a problem that wouldn't make them work before (i am the technical admin of several forums and haven't heard of much trouble with smilies before)

My comment on floating to high was my shot at humor, it has taken our daughters more than two decades to get used to it, hard to have a dry sense of humor in a wet boat. . On the faces, I just added one after boat which showed as , perhaps that is a face on the other end.

holt. on the smiles on my computer when i pick one it comes down into the message as a a symbole and the workd like laugh   but once you post the message the smiles come up.

Thank you Squid girl. It works!  .  Look forward to your pinks report.
holt

I might be confused now, but noodles shouldn't create more float just because they're in the boat... In fact, they're making your boat heavier because they do offer some more weight. Its when your hull gets flooded that they become useful.  They'll displace the water that would otherwise be inside the boat and would only offer some slight additional buoyancy after the weight limit of the boat is compromised.  The boat is doing the floating, not the noodles, until the noodles are submerged.  Otherwise you would offer some buoyancy because you're wearing a PFD (you ARE wearing a PFD right?!?)

Imagine if your yak holds 400 gallons of water. You saw today what that was like.  Now, if you add 50 gallons worth of noodles (dunno how many noodles that is, as i'm not sure of their total volume).  Instead of having to pump out 400 gallons of water, you only have to pump out 350 gallons (50 gallons x ~8 pumps per gallon, thats 400 fewer pumps!). Get the idea?



as for the smilies, i just click on them and they work, just as they should.  i've not had a problem that wouldn't make them work before (i am the technical admin of several forums and haven't heard of much trouble with smilies before)

Someone on the Hobie forum suggested inserting inflatable beach balls, and partially inflating them, as much as possible, for extra buoyancy.

Very light!