Best Tandem Kayak of 2023?? | Wilderness Targa 130T Review

Ken Lloyding with PaddleTV with yet another in-depth, unbiased gear review. And in this video, I'm reviewing a type of kayak that I don't review very often. I'm reviewing a tandem kayak, otherwise referred to as a divorce boat. Now, to test this kayak thoroughly, I have enlisted, well, the help, very appropriately, of my wife. So, I guess you could say I'm testing two things today. I'm testing our marriage, and I'm testing this kayak. And what kayak is that? This is the Wilderness Systems Targa 130T. This is the big sister of the Targa 100, which is a single kayak, a 10-foot-long single kayak that I reviewed last year and really enjoyed. It's a recreational sit-on-top kayak designed for not for covering any distance, you know, serious distance, not for serious speed, for a fun day out on the water. But the question is, how does this thing do as a tandem kayak? And there's only one way to find out. Hit the water. And I'm going to do a cool little paddling mission with Nicole to really test this thing out. But before we head out on the water, let me tell you a bit more about the Wilderness Systems Targa 130. The Targa 130T retails for $1,329 US dollars. It's 13 feet long. It's 36 inches wide. It weighs 99 pounds, or 45 kilos. And it has a capacity of 450 pounds, or 204 kilos. It features a portable cooler, an elevated stern camp-style seat, a reversible bow-framed seat, a bow storage hood, adjustable footrests, and four carry handles. While I hope Wilderness Systems appreciates what I'm about to put on the line by hopping into this tandem with Nicole for the next few hours, but it must be done. So, let's hit the water and find out how this thing does. Well, the two tests are done, and I can say that I am still happily married. So that's good news. And you know what? Let's talk about that. Why tandem kayaks are called divorce boats. And I think the biggest reason they're called divorce boats is because you can end up in some pretty heated arguments if you paddle a tandem with your loved one and you don't respect the fact that you're probably out there for different reasons. And as long as you respect the reasons that the other person is out there, then there's no reason to get in a fight out on the water. And actually, Nicole and I are a perfect example of that because, you know, I tend to hit the water for a few reasons. I really love exploring new water. I love challenging myself. And you know, I also love just getting on the water with friends and family, but I do like exploring and pushing things and challenging myself. Nicole likes doing that as well, but she also enjoys the relaxing element of kayaking. Just getting out on the water and chilling out, and she doesn't have to cover as much ground as I like to cover. She doesn't have to get the same workout that I like to get sometimes. And so I have that experience with her. I know when I'm going out with her, I have to expect that she's going to want to chill out and that's totally cool. I didn't have any unrealistic idea of how much ground we were going to cover today. We just were out for a paddle, spending some quality time on the water together in a really cool place. And it was an awesome day. And so I think that they don't need to be divorce boats. There's no reason. You just have to understand and appreciate, communicate with the other person why you're out there, what you want to get out of the day. So now let's get to the boat itself. As always, I start with portability. Now this is a 13 foot kayak. That's not that big, not that long, long enough, but it even fits in the back of my pickup. I can slide it in the back. You have to tie it down well, but it's great. It's portable that way. But it is 99 pounds. A hundred pounds for a kayak is, it's a chunk of change. There's a lot of plastic in this kayak. I mean, it's a, it's a big wide sit on top kayak. And so you kind of expect a kayak this big to weigh a lot, but it is important to note that a hundred pounds is not easy to move around. It was, uh, you know, carrying it to the water. Was it a thing for between Nicole and I, Nicole's pretty strong too. So having a kayak cart, like the one I've got underneath this is a really good idea to move this type of boat around. And if you have to car top this thing, if you have to put this on the racks on top of your vehicle, you're going to need a second person to help you get it up there. Unless you are Arnold Schwarzenegger. So now let's talk about stability. Uh, is it stable? Absolutely. This thing is wonderfully stable. I mean, it is 36 inches wide. It's a wide kayak and that's what it's designed to be. It's designed to be a stable platform that you're not worried about flipping on. Even though the sitting positions are elevated, still wonderfully stable. It's not a kayak that you're going to put on edge for the sake of performance. It's just a rock solid. You can almost think of it as this narrow floating raft or floating dock that you can paddle. It's, that's about all I can say about stability. Let's talk about comfort. Big, wide open platform. Very comfortable for the legs. You can sit cross-legged in this thing. You can sit however you want. The seats, awesome. They're just super comfortable seats. We were sitting, we were, we were out there for about five hours on the water and we felt good the whole time. We never got out of our boat once in those five hours. I mean, yeah, our butts were starting to get a little sore at the end, but five hours, you, you expect that. Uh, they're very, they're adjustable, great lumbar, lower back support. Just the framed seat, suspension seat. It conforms to butts. That's, that's the wonderful thing about these types of seats. So great marks for comfort. And the fact that, you know, during the trip, Nicole was, you know, she wanted a break from paddling. She was like, you know what, I'm going to chill out. And she turned that seat around, kicked it back into lazy boy mode. And we were just facing each other. I did some paddling. We just did some hanging out. It was, it was such a comfortable platform just to hang out on the water, spend time together. Comfort, absolutely top marks. It was, it was a great experience because, you know, the fact that you can easily reverse this seat, it's designed to be, the bow seat is designed to be turned around and put in a sitting position so that you can have a conversation. That is awesome because one of the downsides of tandem kayaks is that you're talking to the back of someone's head the whole time to actually take a break in the day and do that. And, and we just made this transfer on the water. We didn't go to shore, change the seat around. It's so stable. It was easy to do. So that really is a huge perk of this kayak. Now let's talk performance. Um, is it a performance machine? Absolutely not. It's 36 inches wide. It's a wide kayak. It's pushing a lot of water. It's a heavy kayak. So it's, there's a lot of drag. That being said, it has a really nice slicey keel on the front. So it does track well through the water. It is a reasonably nice kayak to paddle. And then the hull turns into a pontoon style boat. So it then goes into stability, but it's not the fastest boat, but it's not a slug either. It's kind of middle of the road for, for performance. It was easy for the two of us to turn when we needed to turn around. Um, I'd say, you know, performance is, was solid with respect to what kind of a kayak it is. It's not designed to be a performance kayak. Uh, but we probably paddled, I would say somewhere around seven or eight miles in a day, and that's not bad for a recreational kayak. So now let's talk features. This kayak, well, I just talked about one of its key features. The, uh, the whole, uh, idea of the bow frame seat reversing so that you can face each other on the water. Boom. Love that feature. The other key feature of the Targa is the integrated cooler. This is a full cooler that comes right out. That's a really nice feature. If you don't need a dry bag storage and that kind of stuff in the back. I mean, it was something I noticed that, Hey, for a camping trip or something, there wasn't a lot of storage room because this was used up by a cooler. But, uh, a lot of people don't take these boats kayak camping. They want to just go for day trips and take a cooler along. This really is a great feature, very accessible for the person at the back of the boat. Um, one thing to note is when I was driving down the road, I had that in there. I thought, I don't even know if it was strapped down or not, but it did blow out. I saw it in the rear view. And so I went and picked it up. So I would highly recommend just pop that out, take that out, transport it in your vehicle, and then put it in afterwards, but, um, the other feature is the bow hood. For me, same as the Targa 100, the Targa 100 has the same feature. It's designed to shed water, keep stuff underneath here dry. This doesn't really, isn't something that appeals to me. It's such a thick piece of plastic. It dramatically reduces the usable space under here. And I just, it's not something I get any value out of. I mean, some people might get value out of it. I'm sure there are people that do like that, but for me, it's not a real selling feature. It's just, it's a feature. Is it a drawback? Not really. Cause this part of the boat, there's not really much you can do there except mount a camera, which I've mounted a camera right on this, no problem. And the only other thing you could do is store some more gear. And this prevents you from storing bigger bags, uh, unless you just took it right off. It's not by no means a deal breaker. It's more of a personal preference. So now let's talk value. $1,329 US dollars for this sucker. Is that good value? Well, I think it is. I, I, that's what I expect to pay for a high quality, hard shell, sit on top kayak with framed seats, with a cooler foot pegs, not molded in foot wells, which aren't nearly as comfortable. $1,329 is absolutely good value for this thing. Is it the right kayak for you? Well, that's the next question. And who is this for? Well, this very much is for, well, it's for a variety of people. It's definitely for people who want a stable platform. They want a stable kayak over a high performing kayak. Stability is of paramount importance. Uh, it's for people that want a kayak that can be used as a single or as a double kayak. Cause that's something I haven't mentioned yet. This, there's a, there's a position for one of these seats in the middle here. So actually back here so that you can use it as a single kayak and 13 feet long. Is it actually a good length for a single kayak? Uh, 99 pounds on the other hand is a lot for a single person to move around. So that is a consideration, but it's great that you can use this and it's designed for, to be used as both a single kayak or a tandem kayak. Um, it's for people who, you know, this is the kind of boat that it's for people who want to, to spend time on the water with friends or family, loved ones, because you know, it's the whole, it's a social boat, the idea that you can turn it around. It's designed to be social. It's not designed for going on expeditions or big adventures on, you know, it's designed to spend time together on, and you know, if that's kind of a kayak that appeals to you, a comfortable kayak to hang out with, but also go on a good paddling mission with your partner, then this is definitely a kayak worth considering. Well, there you have it. That's all I have to say about the Wilderness Systems Targa 130T. I hope you guys have enjoyed this. Please leave a comment down below and let me know of your experience with this boat. If it's a, yeah, what have I missed? We went on one trip. Maybe some of you out there have gone on many more paddling adventures and you have more insights to share. Otherwise stay tuned because we got a ton more paddling tips, paddling gear reviews, and paddling adventures coming your way.