Mokai ?? Do you tow or put it on the top ??

S

SEA3PO

New member
I understand that Mokai kayaks are now available with a 9.5 hp. motor...so that is for me... I do see that they come apart into 3 pieces...but how the heck do you get one into the boat ??? take it apart in the water...or not take it apart and tow it ?? Can the common human hoist that weight onto the top ??

Joel
SEA3PO
 
With the tail section removed it will sit on the roof just fine. I have assembled mine in calm water and towed behind the boat. It’s a lot of work. Sold mine and bought a Kaboat with a 6 hp.
 
But, how about the jet vs. the outboard...seems the Mokai goes about anywhere without trouble...in mighty slim water...

Plus now that they offer a 9.5 hp it must go like stink..
 
At 200# the assembled Mokai is beyond the capacity of the Garhauer davit. You could lift the center and engine parts separately (about 80# & 100#. I think any towed boat is a risk if the weather picks up.

I have only seen Jay's and Jody's Mokais. They are great crafts and scoot along pretty good. Not sure I would really want to go 25 mph in one in many conditions (can be wet if choppy I believe).
 
SEA3PO":tdd73uhd said:
But, how about the jet vs. the outboard...seems the Mokai goes about anywhere without trouble...in mighty slim water...

Plus now that they offer a 9.5 hp it must go like stink..
Click to expand...

In shallow water it will suck up stuff into the intake. With my 3 piece it weighed in at 150 lbs so I had to break it down to carry it. They are fun.
 
Joel, the 3 piece set up is as Jody shows is much easier to get the largest section up on top of the boat, but still like my set up shown below still pretty tough to do, when needed periodically over an extended cruise on the water.
DSC00443.jpg

The 2011 model shown in my photo rode as shown to Alaska & back on our 2010 SE Alaska cruise & weighs 100 lbs with the motor removed, the section Jody has on the boat top, I believe to be 80 lbs. I switched to the same Kaboat as Jody & find it much easier than the Mokai to take off & on the boat top, but the Mokai is a much more stable & safer tow. In SE Alaska I’ve towed the Mokai for about 7000 miles over a 4 cruise period of 9 months total encountering some fairly rough sea conditions. It towed amazingly well & made for a very quick access to shore or other travels from the CD22. There is nothing quite like the experience of exploring remote places with the combination of it & a CD22, but as Bob says towing does add additional risk. Also as Jody said, the jet intake has a tendency to plug when least wanted. I’ve spent many trips to shore, unplugging while trying to keep a close watch out for an inquisitive bear. I was able to mostly solve that problem with a purchased kit, that allowed the screen to be cleaned on the go.

I switched from the Mokai to the Kaboat with a 6 hp Suzuki for several reasons with none of them being I was bored with or didn’t like the Mokai. The main reason being Jo-Lee & I together could only comfortably use it for a short time period. Others are, I pushed my luck to far using it to explore up rivers with some very close calls with the fun & excitement of it overruling my better judgement & the additional risk of towing in rough seas & narrow tidal areas, where a towing rope in the prop could be disastrous.

The Kaboat is much easier to bring along when towing the boat to a cruise destination & get off & on the boat roof when on the water & more comfortable with a twosome to spend extended time on, while exploring or wildlife watching from some remote bay or inlet, but bottom line & if crusing by myself in SE Alaska, it would still be worth the risk to have the Mokai, especially with the new 9.5 hp model that can be broke down into three separate units. If I was to switch back to a Mokai I would use its ability to separate into manageable pieces for use in transporting on the road with full time towing while on the water.

Jay
 
After reading this discussion with Jody's and Jay's comments, it sounds like a separate thread on the merits of a Kaboat vs other dinghy alternatives might be a very interesting discussion itself. (?)

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
The new model has a 9.5 kohler engine...35% improvement in HP, a larger fuel cell and joy-stick controls...even a clutch...it's $5600 plus delivery..

The Kaboat is neat too...a narrow long inflatable .... easily driven by a 6 hp outboard....My Avon is about 12 years old and now has a couple of tiny leaks...so the Kaboat might be a good replacement...
 
It doesn't look like they have shipped any of these. When I ordered my Escape it took over a year before I had it. I hope that Mokai learned from their experience and don't reproduce that. It looks like the small Subaru engines were acquired by Yamaha and since then they have ceased production. That might be why a Mokai is looking at Kohler.
 
Just to clarify the nearly 200 lb weight came from the "new" 9.5 hp engine. It is really about 63# more weight, that may made some difference in the boat from a number of standpoints. (The real weight of the older boats may be more like 150#--I am just going by the web site.)

These reflect the new weight in the respective modules, the second number is the old smaller engine and jet drive weight.:
Cockpit: 83 / 68 lbs
Engine Bay 100 / 52 lbs
Bow 12 lbs
Fully Assembled 195/ 132 lbs

The KaBoat, by Saturn, which is what most refer to as a "K" boat. (there is racing "K" class boat and a heavier inflatable boat also) The 12' KaBoat weight is about 70# and easily handled by a davit (for those of us lifting weight impaired) One of our friends with this boat has fitted a sail rig and leeboards; as well as paddling and using a 3 hp outboard with satisfactory results.

Pulling the motor up, or even using an electric motor may give realistically as shoal a draft as the Mokae for the stream explorations.
 
thataway":2wp1idv6 said:
Just to clarify the nearly 200 lb weight came from the "new" 9.5 hp engine. It is really about 63# more weight, that may made some difference in the boat from a number of standpoints. (The real weight of the older boats may be more like 150#--I am just going by the web site.)

These reflect the new weight in the respective modules, the second number is the old smaller engine and jet drive weight.:
Cockpit: 83 / 68 lbs
Engine Bay 100 / 52 lbs
Bow 12 lbs
Fully Assembled 195/ 132 lbs

The KaBoat, by Saturn, which is what most refer to as a "K" boat. (there is racing "K" class boat and a heavier inflatable boat also) The 12' KaBoat weight is about 70# and easily handled by a davit (for those of us lifting weight impaired) One of our friends with this boat has fitted a sail rig and leeboards; as well as paddling and using a 3 hp outboard with satisfactory results.

Pulling the motor up, or even using an electric motor may give realistically as shoal a draft as the Mokae for the stream explorations.
Click to expand...



Bob I think the spec on their website are for the Escape 1.0 model with the Subaru motor in the past Mokai hasn't updated their website until they have at least have a proto type. My weight of 150 lbs doesn't include the motor or the tank. With the one piece I think the hull weighed about 130 lbs without the motor and tank so the 3 piece the heaviest piece would be 83 lbs and 68 lbs if you took out the flotation and seat. Those have to be remove in order to put the boat together. Putting the boat on top of the cabin is a little work. Putting the engine compartment in the center section required walking on the cabin top. I couldn't see many more years of being able to do it without a davit. I'm still looking at the davit for the Kaboat. Right now I can muscle it up there. For me the Kaboat makes better sense with a soaking wet dog trying to shake off right next to me.
 
Excellent points--I had gone to the site, seen that reservations for the new boat were taken on May 15, 2018, and a shipping date in July 2018--and then gone to the spec sheet, wrongly assuming that it was the EsKape 2--but those specs do list the smaller Subaru Motor. So the EsKape 1 weight is about 195#--and most likely the EsKape 2 is going to weigh more.

I suspect that most of the small outboards (as on a KaBoat) will be quieter than the Mokai. The 25 mph I came up with was from a motorized surf ski which has a 9.5 HP
 
My guess would be 10-20 lbs. it looks like the engine is around 10 lbs heavier and what ever the molded seat ends up at. Both engines run at 4000 rpms so they will have to change the impeller pitch to get more speed. The best I could get out of mine was 11 mph at altitude. I was never able to run at sea level. Yes at 4000 rpms they are loud use ear plugs.
 
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