Hello all and welcome my kayaking blog. I was inspired to create this thanks to Ed Sullivan of Grand River Kayak who wished to link to my review (originally written for Seaward Kayaks) of my Infiniti 175TX boat. What I’d like to do it start the blog with that review, and post future reviews and tutorials as time goes on. I hope anyone stumbling upon this will find it useful, informative and enjoy the read!
Here we go…
I started looking for a kayak of my own last year, telling myself I would not commit to the purchase until this year (2011) once I had seen and tried many of the options out there. If you’re wondering why, it’s because I wanted to avoid an impulse buy, but I especially wanted to make sure that I was getting the right boat for me. Kayaks are a very personal thing – much like clothing – and it takes time and testing to find out which one will suit you best. The only way to do that is to try them.
I finally made the choice in the spring of this year in the form of the Seaward Infiniti 175TX. Before I get into the operational details of the boat, I think it’s important to mention the obvious quality differences even just at face value when one encounters a Seaward product.
Like anyone trying to shop for a new vehicle, I wanted to compare various makes, models and manufacturers’ products to discern which had the better offering. It is easy enough to look at statistics, pictures and so on via the Internet, magazines or pamphlets. On that front, it’s hard to determine differences between products. Seaward was one of many on the list of possibilities, but on actually getting to see the various boats, Seaward ascended to the top of the list.
The first thing you’ll notice about Seaward boats, before you even get one into the water, is the engineering quality. Everything Seaward does on their boats is done to perfection; you can tell each one is crafted carefully by hand, and gone over in great detail to ensure there are no flaws. Every aspect of how they are built seems to be engineered to be tougher and/or better conceived than competitors’ products. Cables are thicker, skegs are made of metal (not plastic), bulk heads are solid embossed walls (not foam), and the list goes on and on right down to the quality of the nuts and bolts used to affix things within the hull and deck.
I had been leaning toward an Thermoformed ABS type boat because I planned to do a lot of river/creek exploring in addition to lake use, and that meant a potential to hit logs, rocks and other hazards that might be unseen on the surface. I wanted a tough boat, but one not as soft and heavy as a roto-moulded polyethylene, so the Infiniti 175TX was of great interest to me. It fit like a glove on trying it, and definitely sat at the top of the list for my future boat.
Fast forward to this spring, and I had purchased the Infiniti 175TX. I have now used the boat in both flat-water river and creek conditions, and rough conditions on river and lake.
First off, fit – the Infiniti is a fairly large boat, which is good because I’m a pretty big guy. I stand 6’2″, weigh in at around 195lb and have a 35″ inseam; finding a kayak I even fit comfortably in is quite a challenge. The Infiniti fits me quite well and leaves a lot of room for my long legs to move, while still providing multiple contact points with the hull, with the primary contact being the adjustable thigh braces. The Seadog foot pedals are very adjustable, and can allow for someone as short as 5 feet tall to easily use the boat too. The boat itself is 17’5″ long, 23.5″ beam (beam), and a hair over 15″ depth. This gives the boat a whopping 200L of storage space, so yes, it is certainly expedition-capable.
It has a very sporty feel to it. The narrow V hull in the bow and stern paired with its multi-chine’d hull make it extremely responsive. It’s actually quite surprising the first time you start to edge it and feel how the different chines can change how it responds in a turn on the water. This does give the boat a more “touchy” sort of feel with a bit less initial stability than other more round or flat-bottomed sea kayaks. This more “touchy” responsiveness, at first, might make one think that it’s less stable in rough conditions, but I found the opposite is true. When the water gets rough, the Infiniti just seems to shrug it off and ride confidently through swells and crashing waves. Also interesting is that the more you load the boat, the more stable it becomes.
There are three main styles of kayaks (which is probably discussion fit for another post) – Greenland, North American, and British. The Infiniti is a British-style boat, giving the upper lines a gentle curve, an high-angled bow and a nice angled stern (great for reverse-paddling). It tracks straight; very straight. Even without the use of the skeg, the boat is easy to keep in a straight line. Deploy the skeg, and you go straight as an arrow, wind or no wind. Skeg deployment is very nice – the lever that operates it is within easy reach on the left of the cockpit top, and the mechanics are smooth and effortless. The skeg itself is made of aluminium, not plastic, and the cable, housing and all mechanical aspects of it are very well engineered. Even if you accidentally jam it with sand or silt when beaching, you can force the skeg down and clear it – something I’ve never seen work on other boats.
The hatches open up to very roomy compartments. The day hatch is surprisingly large and easy to reach from within the boat. The lids are also very good at keeping the water out, even when the boat has been overturned multiple times during wet-exit practice. Perhaps more aesthetically worthy to note, I also love the embossed maple leaf and Seaward logo on the hatch covers. It makes them quite unique among other boats. Perhaps the only downside is that the lids have such a tight seal that getting the day hatch open and shut while in the water can be a bit tricky in colder weather when they stiffen up, but not impossible. Compartments are separated by solid thermoformed plastic bulkheads with the boat name embossed across them; excellent quality in comparison to the typical foam bulkheads found in many other boats.
The rigidity of its ZyTx ABS plastics make the boat very smooth and fast in the water, and is even tougher than I thought it’d be. Much as you might try to avoid rocks or stumps, sometimes you just don’t see them until it’s too late, and I’ve had some hard impacts that could very well have cracked a fibreglass boat, yet the thermoform took it easily (thankfully!). Remember the infamous Saturn commercials from the 90s of people kicking the car doors? That’s Thermoform, and it really is that tough!
It also resists scratching much better than a roto-poly boat, yet is amazingly light weight (lighter, in fact, than some of the fibreglass boats). As such, I find it easy to carry myself, and load on the truck myself for trips. The only issue would take here is with the choice in colours – you are limited to only 4 versus the far more flexible choices with the fibreglass boats. Thermoform also sports the advantage of decaying with age as fast as roto-poly, and will not fuzz (a result of sunlight breaking down roto-poly boats).
The seat is very comfortable and configurable to suit just about any size or style of kayaker while still keeping the seat design simple enough that it’s not the huge, cushioned beast that you find in some day-touring boats. The very base where the seat back connects to the seat bottom might cause some irritation for people with lower-back issues, but it can also be changed out for a back-band should that be a concern, or un-hooked from the base to act more like a back band (handy feature).
Lastly, though perhaps a small thing, I was impressed too with the extras. Seaward includes a high quality water-proof cockpit cover for the boat, some protectant for the ABS plastics and a Canadian boating guide book with the purchase. The cockpit cover is immensely useful for keeping the boat clean and dry when not in use, and aerodynamic during transport. Seaward themselveswere also a pleasure to deal with, helping to answer some extra questions, and making me feel as if they genuinely wanted me to go out and enjoy my new boat.
So there you have it – my thoughts on the Seaward Infiniti 175TX after many months of use under everything from mirror-like stillness to Level 4 lake conditions. It is a fast, tough, versatile and exceptionally well-built boat which is a steal for the mid $2Ks that it costs. If you have any questions about it, feel free to e-mail me at dakiraun(at)yahoo.com, contact Seaward Kayaks, or Grand River Kayak!
DakYak 