Student Needs Help

[BobbyZ]

Hi all,

My name is Bob, this is my first post on this forum, and I am in need of your opinions/help. I am an undergraduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) in Chicago. I have a short survey that should take about 5-7 minutes or so to complete on Kayaks. I believe that fisherman who use kayaks may benefit from a power-assist such as a trolling motor (trolling motors are almost completely silent in use and it can help you carry large amounts of fish that you caught back to where you started or it can help you stay steady when you are at the mouth of a river, etc...).

I would greatly appreciate it if you could fill the short survey out and send your results to zaprrob@iit.edu.

• Do you own a single or tandem recreational kayak? If so, what kind?

• Would you consider having a motor on the back of your kayak that will help you when you tire?

• Do you mind having to drill holes in your kayak (above the water line)? If so, up to how many?

• What is the maximum you would be willing to spend on the motor and its accessories (batteries, mounting bracket, and control system)?

• Do you think you are handy enough to put together your power-assist kayak? Or would you feel more comfortable taking it to your local boat dealer
for installation?

• How much time do you usually spend each time you go out on the kayak? How much time are you likely to use the battery power when you out on a typical day?

• What percentage of your normal paddling speed they would like the motor to be capable of achieving under battery power?

• Would you get hung up with what the motor and mount looks like, assuming it doesn’t look ridiculous. If so, what specifically would turn you off?

• Does your kayak have any hatches? If so, how big (diameter of hatch)

• How often do you go kayaking?

• How choppy/rough is the water when you go kayaking?

• How important is it to you that the motor/battery be easily detachable so that you can go out with or without it?

• Where do you Kayak?

• Would you rather purchase a power-assist mechanism at a store or online or both?

• Have you used a trolling motor before on a canoe or small boat?


Thanks for helping me out!

[ToddMan]

What is the purpose of the survey?

[SamRiley]

BobbyZ-
I am closing this thread until we have a chance to talk. Please send me a PM with specifics on your project. Frankly, this comes across as a commercially motivated market survey, something that would need to go through the proper channels (me for instance). I apologize if this is not the case but please contact me either way.
Thanks,
Sam

[SamRiley]

Just got a PM from BobbyZ. This is cool with the Mods so chime in if you want to.

Hi Sam,

The class that I am in is called an IPRO (Inter-Professional Project). In this class, students from different majors get together to tackle a problem or a challenge. The IPRO that I am in is looking to improve the kayak. Right now everything is research only but in the past, previous IPRO's (there are more than 20 at the school) have actually gone with the informaiton made and attempted to solve the problem by selling a solution. My IPRO is no where near this yet and putting a motor on the back of a kayak is just one of a few possible solutions that we have out there.

My part is to gather as much information on if kayakers who fish would ever be interested in this. If not, then its one large X next to the power-assist that we have envisioned.

Hope this helped some,
Bob