Are Island Hopper Products Good?

I have two Hobies. A 2004 Tandem and a 2008 Outback SUV. I love them both. I need to add some electric assist though. After all these years of pedaling, my knees are giving out in my old age. Has anyone purchased any Island Hopper products? They look pretty good on the websites: all sorts of clean looking transom and rudder mounts for various trolling motor additions on Hobies. The Evolve isn't a real powerful motor, and I want to put a 45 or 55 Pound Thrust motor on so to get up to at least 8 MPH to handle the strong tides in Puget Sound Washington. Island Hopper also sells a lot of outriggers, rod holders and various ingenious devices that are made for Hobies (as well as other popular brands). If people are finding their quality to be good, I might start ordering some of their stuff. But if it looks too good to be true, then...I'm okay sticking with Torques motors and such. If the quality's there, I'm in. If it's not there, then the ingenuity is moot.

Moving to a higher thrust motor isn't likely to get you any additional speed. Common trolling motors are designed to push heavier boats than our kayaks and the props that work on those heavier boats simply won't push our kayaks much beyond about 4MPH, regardless of the pound-thrust motor they're attached to. Just not enough pitch to get it done. A 30lb thrust motor will get you about all the speed you can get and make less demand on your battery than the 40 and 50lb thrust motors.

They are scammers, RUN away from Island Hopper Outboards

I have a customer here at Outdoor Emporium (Seattle) that just installed the ultra light Torqeedo on the back of his PA14. Went fishing with him at Shilshole on Tuesday and he was leaving me in the dust as I was pedaling for all I was worth in my PA14 (he's in his 70's, I'm in my 50's).

I was doing a little digging on the Torqeedos and they rate their motors in HP, the ultra lights have 1 HP and 3 HP models, I think he got the 3 but I'm not 100% sure. From what I saw, 1 HP roughly equates to 72-74 lbs of thrust, which would explain its apparent ease going against a strong current.

More than happy to chat more about his setup if you give me a call at the store (Thu/Fri/Sun/Mon), 206-624-6550. I do sell Hobie's but I don't sell Torqeedos.

Kevin