Fluid Bamba

There's a new guy on the Jax board from South Africa and he posted some nice rigging pics of this boat. I looked on their page and its looks pretty interesting.



Designed for ocean fishing and it looks like they got it pretty dang close to right. Good enuf length, huge capacities, hatches in the right places (well, I like the front and center ones), low center of gravity (for an SOT), nice entry and what looks like a taste of rocker.



The bottom looks like my big Malibu so it may paddle like a barge, but it should be crazy stable.



 Actually it looks a lot like the Malibu Steath 14 with a bit more of a "swede" form.

Anybody actually seen/paddled one? I've seen Fluid WW boats, but never an SOT. Do Fluid boats come at a premium because they are imported?

http://www.greatkayaks.co.za/kayaks/bamba.html

What really got my attention are the SWEET surfing vids in this boat. Just mute the volume as the music is pretty cheesy.



Bert (the guy driving) has mad skills and makes it look easy. But even still, the way he took some of that slop on the ear makes the boat seem really buoyant. He also looks like he's sitting pretty low in the boat when he steps out which should add to the stability.

This one starts sailing, but ends surfing in. Again, the boat looks crazy buoyant as it skips in after the guy falls off.



Sans the music, it's a great ad for the boat. (made me look)

Bottom looks like my Tarpon too.

I think the Bamba looks pretty cool, but sounds like the shipping costs are putting the hurt on imports for now. Hope they find somewhere to setup shop over here. For now the distributor sent me a few additional pictures.

I talked to the Fluid rep about the Bamba a few weeks back and he said they are slated for a spring 2011 release in the US.  The reason they are not here now is they are to expensive to ship, but by the spring these and Fluid's other rec boats will be manufactured in the US.  One thing I really like about this boat is that the large front hatch goes into a compartment that is separate from the remainder of the hull.

Did he mention the expected US MSRP?

Pretty neat looking well thought out yak.  The round hatches behind the seat seem to be pretty redundant though. Would rather see a bigger tankwell and room for more flush mount rod holders. If they made that black hatch twist and stow like the OK Ultra 4.7 it would be perfect. I like how ZAF manufacturers make the front hatch area separate from the rest of the yak. Most of them seem to come off the yak completely or open wide which would be real nice for cleaning.


Z

Anybody have any clue what that molded area with the elastic strap running diagonal between the cup holders is for? A flashlight? Taser storage for Texas border lakes?

Lee, you're smarter than the average bear!

what is beam and length on that thing? looks pretty sweet.....more like a sea kayak hull. Kind of reminds me of the Necky vector, which was a subtle performance enhancement over OK hulls, but not much.

it's a pretty big kayak

400# capacity
14' long
31.5" wide
68#

the long sealed off center hatch is about 5.5' long and just shy of 10" wide.  http://www.greatkayaks.co.za/kayaks/bamba.html