stealth 9 malibu

[kippakoop]

I brought a stealth 9 at bcf after hearing some nice things about them, i fish the glenelg river and a few little streams near home. Also i like to fish portland a little on the right day. and i freedive for crays in SA.

This yak as many have said is the same hull design as the mini x range, fist thing i noticed while strapping my bits and pieces to is that on the lounge is it tips to one side, why,well because it has a keel type hull. i had a wavedance seirra next to it and it sat preety flat on the carpet.
The main diff between the mini x and the stealth 9 is the storage and the live well option in the middle which sits between your legs. Is it worth the extra $300 bucks, well thats a personal decision, but i love the fact i can store my bream or my live mullet in that live well while on the Glenelg. One little thing with this centre hatch is the size makes it a squeeze to open, you could get you nuts caught in there real quick if you where going commando. Its a small thing though and the hatch really is great just needed to be mentioned.

[u]On the water[/u]
WOW.......................................no joke these things are stable and i mean super stable. i practiced tipping it and standing on it. It really did hold up in this regard. let me give an example: in order to tip it, leaning and hanging off one side was not enough, i had to lean and grab the high side and thrust my momentum to get her over. To get back on was so easy as far as keeping the Yak upright. No wonder the dive blokes down a Carpenter rocks where using them. just great.
To paddle mmmm well not bad, quick off the mark and easy to keep momentum, maybe the draw back was its a wide little yak so that makes it different to get the paddle to water. but it does track really well i guess that hull design plays to that strength. could i paddle it 4-10 kms down the river, yes. but of course longer yaks would do it better. still very passable.

The fishing room is great, i just love it, all the hatch's are easy to get, even the front can be accessed due to how stable it is.
The two side hatch's have been made to stand on.....when i brought it i thought "well yeah whatever", but you can get up and stand quite easy in fact i long paddled around standing up for fun and it was easy to do.

In all What a great yak at a great price, the hull design in my opinion is amazing. for a short yak it totally stacks up and the size really does appeal to me, so easy.
I believe that within reason this yak can do everything the estuary, river, lake and the odd ocean trip will through up at it.



cheers
Kippakoop

[dinium]

Great stuff matt! It's always good to see how others deck out their yaks - looking forward to seeing how you've done yours.