'10 Oasis Maiden Voyage - Not very impressed

The Oasis arrived yesterday and we got it set up and ready to go for this afternoon's maiden voyage.

First opinions of it were that it was big, looked stable but wasn't finished very well considering the price. Rough seams inside the drive wells, poor machining around the sail mount to the point where I thought it might actually be damaged, sail decal bubbled...just things you don't expect on recreational kayak approaching $3K. The drive wells were the worst with obvious, rough seams.

We got the Oasis mounted upside down on our SUV's rack just fine and off we went. It rode on the rack at highway speed without a problem. We unloaded and took the boat to the dock. The lake was basically flat, wind 2-5 knots.

Launched and figured out the rudder, steering and mirage drives. I liked the mirage drives right away. I found them easy to use and we had the boat going a reasonable speed in no time. The boat tracks straight and the rudder works well. We went around the point to get away from the motor boats and work out the steering and drives a bit more. Once we felt like we knew how to steer and mount/unmount, adjust and work the mirage drives, we put the sail up and started a leisurely cruise up the lake. The sail was also easy to use and trim and provided a nice break from peddling.

I felt a bit "perched" in my seat and I found that the boat liked to heel right (with sail out or furled) and that the boat felt generally unstable. I told myself I wasn't used to it and that I had seen people in videos stand up and cast from the thing but I can't say I was entirely comfortable. Then, without any warning and without a cause that either my husband or I can identify, it heeled over to the right, hung for a second, and then capsized. I grabbed my paddle and then the sail sheet as it slid across my wrist. I came so close to losing the sail it's not even funny. memo to self: leash *everything* even on flat water in light air.

We flipped the kayak over, got back in, and inspected the damage. I handed my husband the sheet and he hauled the very nearly lost sail up but I noticed his hand was bleeding. He caught his thumbnail on something as we went over and ripped half of it off. He didn't complain, but it was gory as hell and I'm sure it hurt. We turned around to go in. The boat feels unstable. My husband has been canoeing for many years and has done many multi-day wilderness canoe trips. Last one was in some worst conditions he'd ever had with the SportsPal, and he states he never felt like it was going to go over.

Nothing identifiable happened to make that 'yak go over. No wind gust, no wake, no rock, nothing. We were going along fine, it heeled, hung there for a second and flipped. I can't think of anything that happened to make it capsize. Husband and I are mystified. We took it back to the dock with the paddles across because it was heeling to left and right and several times felt like it was going to go over. I also don't like how much water it takes on. Yes, I had the drain plugs in, but around the drives, there is probably 20 cubic inches of water that sloshes around and gets you soaked from mid calf down.

I am going to try it again in the small urban lake tomorrow and see if it's tippy again. My initial opinion is that I think it might be fun for playing in the lake in the summer when the water is warm, but it's basically a very expensive toy boat with an interesting drive system. It's far too wet and tippy for any serious trip, especially in the north where we like to go.

I'll reserve judgement until I take it out a few more times, but I don't trust it's stability at all. The sidekicks are going on immediately.

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'10 Oasis

Thats a bummer. Hope your next outing is better. The Sidekicks should help a bunch. I own a Tandem Outfitter and we have never had it go over, even in 20-25 winds and doing gibe by accident. We came close though.

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I'd rather be sailing,
Mark.

We flipped our Oasis on its maiden voyage. I didn't have the AMA's installed.

My wife was very apprehensive before the tipover, (she likes the kayak now).

My wife and oldest son are two of the most intelligent people I have ever met, except they go left when you say lean to the right.

So on our first trip, I was holding the kayak in about 3' of water in a lake, my wife got in on the port side with minimal effort.

After she was seated, I told her to lean to her right as I was on the port side. As I started to get in she leaned left instead of right, and the yak tipped over and the wind pushed us into a little deeper water.

Her PFD held her up, she grabbed our Olympus camera with its PFD, I grabbed her, the yak and our gps. I got the yak rightside up, we went back to shore to collect ourselves. Later, we got back into the yak with no problem, and had fun until the wind started to white cap. We bought the yak back to shore and got out with no problem.

I installed our AMAs after that, and we have gotten better getting in and out in a lake. Mife wife gets in the yak from the port side, and I just straddle the yak and sit down and push us out into the water. If the water is deep enough, we have the mirage fins down to help stabilize the yak.

We have never had a tipping problem with our Oasis out in the water. We don't have a sail, we will not for a while.

Our Oasis will haul with both of us pedaling. On one trip, we went out a couple of miles with two friends, who have kayaked for decades. On the return trip to the launch area, the husband could barely keep up with us with his paddle Ocean Kayak. The wife had to drop out and get close to the shore to avoid some fairly strong wind and waves. They were both fairly tired by the time we got to shore, and we were fine. We never pedaled that hard on the way back.

On another trip by ourselves on the way back to the launch area, we averaged 4 mph (gps) for over a mile. We were pedaling reasonably fast but not all out. We didn't know at that time, a young guy behind us in a sitin yak had tried to keep up or pass us and gave up after about a 1/3 of a mile. He couldn't believe that two 70+ year old kayak virgins had smoked him. He arrived at the launch area several minutes after us and told us how we "smoked him".

My one complaint is the very wide turning radius even with my wife paddling and particuliarly turning into the starboard side. That will eliminate me from using the Oasis to fish our local tidal river, lake coves and dock areas. I may buy one of the smaller mirages to get around and fish from.

We had to abort our trip this past week due to the rudder not going to the right. More on that on another post. It is now working fine, and I know how to fix it. Thank God for Google which found out what I wanted to know after failing the search system on this site.

So far, the only other complaint is the little pull out stick on my Fast Trax big wheels came off, and the elastic which held the top plug and pull out stick slipped down and can't be reached. Very poor engineering and quality control on a great tool to get to and from the water.

In a summary, our Oasis gets a B+, and we really like it for cruising, sight seeing and getting to and from when there are not tight manuevering conditions. We should have it to an A+ before Autumn is over.

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2009 Oasis
2012 Freedom Hawk Pathfinder

I'm sorry your first trip was disappointing and I'm amazed you actually flipped it on the water.
There aren't too many boats that are more stable than the Oasis. We have had ours for over 3 years and haven't come close to a capsize when moving on the water. (The one capsize I was in it solo with two sails up and 20 knot winds)
You say the boat heeled for no reason. I can only guess that the two of you weren't sitting in a balanced position and a weight shift occurred. Did you get the iComfort seat? If that is not deflated enough you will sit higher on it. Still surprised that you went over though.
I disagree with you over it being a 'toy boat'. We have taken ours on many trips and camping expeditions. Even fully loaded it has proved to be very stable. We go out with friends in conventional SIK's and we are always the first back to the boat ramp. It has been a great snorkelling platform for us on a Great Barrier Reef trip, has handled large swells and boat wakes sideways with ease and is a very versatile craft.
Hopefully you'll get more used to it and come to appreciate its versatility.
PS- The water in the footwell is easily dealt with if you dress appropriately. We have found that our feet remain dry and comfortable if we wear Sealskinz socks with our water sneakers. Their Waterblocker sock even allows you to step in water over the top of the sock without getting wet feet. In Winter we wear coolmax socks inside the Sealskinz and this has proved to be a great combination for warm and dry feet.


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I'm also sorry you got off to a rough start on your new Oasis. Wakes and swells can travel far and silently and can catch a person off guard without being detected in advance -- this may explain what happened to you. Even "still" waters have their little surprises!

My wife is not a boat person and felt a bit unsteady in our Oasis at first. but after a few sessions she was very comfortable in it. Stable? This "toy" will get you through some interesting situations -- Here's a 25 to 30 kt local wind that came upon us suddenly:



My wife now trusts the boat's stability enough to ride boat wakes. Note we installed some hand grips for each cockpit to provide something to hang on to in situations like this:


This load of trash (clean-up day at the lake), stacked high and wide on the boat shows the tremendous stability the boat has:


(here's what a couple hundred lb. of steel and waterlogged flotation pipe looks like from the rear cockpit):


I'm sure you'll get comfortable with it in short order.

If the water swishing in from the drivewell bothers you, install the rubber drivewell plugs that should have been included with your boat (after learning how to reliably install the Drive correctly). They mount on the back of the Drives.

We've had two Oases now and have thoroughly enjoyed the boats. Once you give it a little time I'm confident you'll be pleased with yours as well!

This is our first season with our brand new 2010 Oasis and overall we are pretty happy. So far I haven't experienced anything like what you describe, and I've been out at least 15 times this season, with some trips lasting upwards of 15 miles traveled. This is all ocean kayaking too, no inland stuff.

We took the Oasis up to Maine and used it offshore for fun and surfing. I had the thing literally surfing on 3-4 foot waves, crossing them sideways, etc. A near-capsize was never felt. Most of our use occurs off the northern (CT) shore of Long Island Sound which has standard and constant 1 to 2 foot waves and a myriad of boat wakes of all sizes to contend with. I've never even felt close to a capsize.

Like you, I am slightly disturbed at some of the seams on the Oasis. On the outside of the hull on one side, it looks like the top and bottom halves of the molded hull don't nicely match up. This encompasses about 8 inches of the main seam. It looks a little scary, but so far it hasn't caused any problems. There is also one scupper hole that doesn't appear to match up precisely, but also no problem so far. The interior of the hull has remained bone dry during every trip.

I weigh about 215 pounds with my clothes and gear, and always sit in the rear seat. Additional gear and/or passengers add another 100 to 200 pounds variably. My 9-year old son can stand up in the front seat while I sit in the back (not while underway).

Is your hull interior taking on water? (it shouldn't take on any) This would be a serious contender for the reason why you would mysteriously capsize with little warning.

Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know in the way of comparing experiences. Your situation is intriguing and (I would guess) atypical.

Remember these seams are only cosmetic. The hull isn't made by joining two halves together. It's rotomolded in one seamless piece. The "seams" occur where the two molds are joined before the hull is formed.
No need for concern, as the plastic is thicker there, it is actually a bit stronger.

Ah! Excellent to know. That makes a lot of sense. I had to look up rotomolding to read how it works.

Thanks!

We have two Outfitters and have never flipped either, although I still am a bit nervous the way the boat leans with a sail unfurled. My wife did manage to capsize a rental Revolution though (the rental place couldn't believe it ) after the wake from a small power boat hit her unexpectedly.

Keith