Beach/yak cart

I enjoy a day at the beach as much as a day chasing reds on the flats. I was about to purchase a yak cart to haul my yak and gear when I decided to try and utilize my Fish-n-Mate beach cart instead. Turns out that it was a very wise idea.
It begins with the beach cart...

The handle and cutting board quickly pop right off.
At this point you will want to use either pipe insulation or a folded towel to place over the front and rear rod holders to help protect the yak hull.


Now is the time to place any items in the cart that will not protrude past the top frame rail of the cart. Then, place the yak on the cart. I should note that the side rod holders do not touch the yak at all, although it is hard to see this in the pic below...

Center the yak left to right. You will have to experiment with your particular yak to see where to center the yak front to rear. Do this by simply lifting up on the front of the yak. When you feel the yak is best situated on the cart, strap it down.
Begin loading all your gear in the yak. Try to place the gear from the center of the yak and towards the rear. This will help utilize the mechanics of the cart design and make pulling the cart EASY.
If the cart begins to tilt backwards due to alot of weight towards the back, simply pull the pin and remove the front stabilization leg. This will cause the cart to tilt foreword and you can now finish loading your gear.

You will be amazed at how much gear you can carry with minimal effort. In addition, because of the width of the cart, it is very stable and not tippy at all. Just go slowly when going down steep, narrow or very uneven paths like the access cuts in the dunes.
Here you can see my yak, loaded for a day at the beach. You will notice plenty of room to store more gear, in addition to what I've loaded here, in the cart as well as in the cockpit of the yak itself. There is also plenty of room for storage in the front hatch also if needed.




Once on the beach, I can EASILY pull this load, and more, down the beach with ONE FINGER!!!
The price of the carts range from about $160-$180. Sure, it's a little more than most kayak carts and does take up more room, if that's an issue, but it pulls like a dream and won't rust. It easily handles a load like in the above pics and will handle much more.

One of the best features of using this cart is that once you're at your fishing spot, just put the handle, stabilization leg and cutting board back on the cart. This will keep your gear out of the sand and allow a shore bound fishing buddy to follow you down the beach with the cart should you hook that big Tarpon or Kingfish!

Hope this will be of some help to you all.
-Kurt-