In addition to our other interests, my family and I also enjoy sea kayaking on the lakes and rivers near our home. We also enjoy taking our kayaks on the road with us when we travel. We invested a couple years ago in a Yakima RackandRoll 78 trailer for the boats. Old photo below was taken during its initial construction. I will add a more recent photo with all of the kayak cradles, etc on it soon. I had mail-ordered the trailer, and it took a couple of hours to assemble it to this point.
The Yakima trailer has proven to be a great investment. It was not cheap, but it is very road worthy and light. The frame is made from aluminum and it uses larger tires than standard utility trailers. I think that the tires are a type of scooter tire, or maybe small motorcycle. It also has suspension with significant travel in the shocks, to ease its handling and limit bouncing/skittering. The trailer itself is basically a Yakima roof-rack on wheels, so all Yakima and Thule and other standard roof rack attachments fit right on. The trailer folds up for winter storage in the garage, and I am preparing to re-assemble it for spring kayak season this weekend.
We currently run three boats. My wife and son each have their own, and my daughter and I share a tandem until she is old enough to have her own also.
We are big fans of Hurricane brand Kayaks, like the one in the photo above. Two of our boats are currently Hurricane boats (a Tampico and a Tracer).
The tandem is a Necky Manitou II….works great but is heavy and only really easily maneuverable with a rudder. Photo above is taken by me from the rear cockpit of the Necky tandem.
This summer, we are going to build our own skin-on-frame kayak as a family project. A post on that soon.
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About mattsanf
Matt Sanfilippo is the Chief Partnership Officer (CPO) for the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Co-Director of its Engineering Research Accelerator. In this role, Matt coordinates and enables strategic and sponsored research opportunities across the college, and stewards the development of proposals for major research opportunities along strategic themes. Additionally, he enables collaboration among the college's research institute/center executive directors, and industrial and government relations personnel in the pursuit of opportunities with industry, federal and state governments. Before becoming CPO for the College, Matt was the Senior Executive Director for Research Initiatives, the Executive Director of CMU's SII (Smart Infrastructure Institute) and ICES (Institute for Complex Engineered Systems), and Associate Director of PITA (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance) and RAMP (Research for Advanced Manufacturing in Pennsylvania).
Before CMU, Matt was Managing Director of Applied Technology for Michael Baker Corporation, an engineering and energy services firm. Matt managed Baker's technology division including Geographic Information System (GIS), software and web development, multimedia, virtual reality, visualization, Global Positioning System (GPS), mapping and surveying services. Before joining Baker, Matt was an Innovation Director for Redleaf Group, a Venture Capital/Operating Company focused on information security, supply chain and mobility solutions. While at Redleaf, Matt managed technical due diligence for seed-stage investments and coordinated relationships between Redleaf and their partner companies. Prior to Redleaf, Matt was CIO of GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, an infrastructure engineering firm, and operations manager for their Internet start-up that focused on web-technologies for health and safety and manufacturing metrics.
Matt is on the board of Larson Design Group (LDG), past Chairman of the Board for the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, current board member of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), current Vice President of the Sewickley Heights Gun Club (SHGC) and former member of the Information Sciences and Technology Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania State University Beaver. Matt is also former Vice President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals and former Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Baker Combined Charity of Pennsylvania.
A Learning Adventure in the Workshop 