The Ultimate Flatwater Kayak? | Delta Kayaks 12AR Review

Ken Whiting with Paddle TV with yet another in depth kayak review. And in this video, I am reviewing the Delta 12 AR, a recreational sit inside kayak that is designed to provide easy entry and all day comfort, according to them. But I'm going to get this thing on the water and test it for myself and let you know what I think of it. But first, let me tell you a bit more about it. Delta kayaks 12 AR retails for 1400 US dollars. It's 12 feet long, it's 26 and a half inches wide. It weighs only 42 pounds or 19 kilos, and it has a max capacity of 320 pounds or 145 kilos. Its primary use is for flat water paddling. The boat features an extra large cockpit, two fully enclosed hatches and two bulkheads, Delta's contour seat system, adjustable foot pegs, a unique displacement hull that fuses into a catamaran style hull, deck bungees on the stern and like all Delta boats it comes with a three-year warranty. Well this is a pretty slick looking package. I love Delta's colors. All of their colors just pop but I'm not reviewing its colorway and its appearances. I'm reviewing how this thing actually performs really to discover who is this for and what kind of value does it deliver. So time to get it on the water and take it for a test. Well, that was a fun paddle. Every paddle I do these days is actually really fun. Because I had to take an eight month break from paddling because of a shoulder injury. I just started paddling again. And I every time I go out, I'm grinning ear to ear. Love it. Anyway, let's talk about the Delta 12 AR. And I'm start like I usually do with portability. This is a 12 foot long kayak and something I've always said is that kayaks that are 12 feet and under are very manageable for a single person to just get around, transport on a vehicle, to carry to the water. The longer a kayak gets beyond 12 feet the more awkward and unwieldy it becomes and so 12 feet is a good manageable size. Combined with the fact that it's only 42 pounds that's light for a 12 foot kayak and the reason it's that light is because of how it was built it's thermoformed most kayaks are plastic kayaks that are rotomolded and the equivalent boat rotomolded is about 20 heavier so it's going to be around a 50 pound boat that might not sound like a big difference but it is a big difference when you're carrying it around solo and the weight is distributed the way it is so performance wise this boat has a really unique hull what they call their fusion hull it starts with what they call a displacement hull and a strong bow keel that's designed to just cut through the water but then it transitions into a catamaran style hull which is really neat and the idea behind that is the bow cuts through the water so it it maintains speed and tracking but then that catamaran style hull at the back provides a lot of stability here's what i can tell you the catamaran hull in the back definitely provided stability when i tried to tilt the boat on edge it would start tipping and then boom it was like i hit this wall and i got rejected it didn't want me to flip and that's great news for uh you know know for entry-level paddlers or even experienced paddlers who just want to avoid flipping at all costs now typically stability comes at the cost of speed forward speed and forward speed comes at the cost of stability so with this boat being that stable how is it speed wise well it's not a wide boat it's only 26 and a half inches wide and so that helps its speed also that strong bow keel cutting through the water that really helps it track and carry speed not to mention the way these kayaks are made the thermoformed kayaks one of the big benefits of them aside from being lightweight is that they're very they're stiff they act more like a composite kayak like a carbon kevlar kayak and they just glide really nicely through the water and so this thing carries good speed despite how much great stability it has. Now if it didn't have the catamaran style hull could it be a little bit faster? I think it probably could a little bit but in my opinion any speed they did give up is is grossly outweighed by the amount of stability this thing gained. Overall, great balance of speed and stability. Maneuverability wise, it's 12 feet long. It's easier to turn this thing around, even though, as a rule, when you tilt a boat on edge, it's easier to spin that kayak. It'll turn more effectively. This boat doesn't like going over on a hard edge, so you can't put the turning boosters onto this boat, but that's not what this boat is for. This boat isn't for hard edging and rough waters and paddling in conditions where you need to make aggressive turns. This is a flat water kayak. Now let's talk about comfort. First of all, one big feature here is the extra large cockpit. The wonderful thing about an extra large cockpit is your legs are free to move around. You can even swing your legs over the side of the kayak. Very comfortable just by nature. On top of that, it has foot pedals so that helps not only helps you paddle better but it actually holds your leg in a nice position so that helps with comfort the contoured seat system is fantastic and the seating system that i actually have here isn't the one for 2025 because i got this boat uh at the end of last season the new seating system actually has a cool system there's a retrofit for it that i haven't installed yet for this but it provides support under the thighs that you control and this was comfortable this is a really nice seat already with that system i think it's going to be fantastic it also has a backband that is adjustable up and down so you can kick it up and put yourself in lounge mode or drop it down have it in lower back and provide good support for paddling so all in all definitely a comfortable boat. Now I'm 6 foot 2, 34 inch inseam. The foot pegs aren't at the very end. There's still room to go there and so this is probably going to be plenty of space for someone 6 up to 6'5 and 36 inch inseam I would say. It helps that the seat actually moves forward and back very easily without screws or anything. They got a really cool system for doing that too so that not only can you move the seat back to give a taller longer person more room but also for different body sizes you can move that seat position to trim the boat correctly you really want a boat to be flat as flat as possible if you're sitting too far back and the bow is up and the stern's down you're going to be plowing more water similarly if too far forward having this system allows you to really dial in the trim now to be honest most people put it in the middle and it will be fine you don't really have to worry about the trim of a boat like this but it is nice to be able to fine-tune it if you need to now durability one of the downsides of thermoformed kayaks is they simply aren't as durable as a rotomolded plastic kayak they're lighter weight they feel better they look better and they they're stiffer and they glide better through the water but they're not as durable as a roto-molded boat and so it doesn't mean they're fragile it just means you do have to take care with a boat like this for example when i'm going to transport this on my roof racks i'm going to want to pad my roof racks ideally uh you can get away without doing it but it's really better to pad the roof racks and there's simple ways to do that you can get actual pads from the roof rack manufacturers one of the easiest ways to pad a roof rack is to get a pool noodle costs like five bucks and then you just split it down the middle and you can wrap it over your roof rack systems anyway you do need to take care of it a little bit uh you're not going to drag this thing across the parking lot uh you can get away with dragging it across grass but just take care of it don't bang it hard into rocks it's okay if it slides over rocks but you don't want to be slamming anything because it can break now features this thing doesn't have a ton of features and that's not a bad thing in fact i tend to prefer kayaks that are low on features because i don't use a lot of the features and if really want something you can always add it later there's really cool systems like the company yak attack makes all sorts of cool accessories to accessorize a kayak if you want to add things like paddle holders and maybe like for fishing fishing rod holders and fish finders and you know all sorts of cell phone holders things like that but what this does have is really nice features bulkheads it has two bulkheads a bulkhead in front of your feet and a bulkhead behind the seat now A bulkhead is a wall inside the kayak that separates the kayak into three different compartments. So if you do flip, only the center of the kayak, the cockpit area, is going to swamp, is going to fill with water. The bow and the stern section are separated by these waterproof, watertight bulkheads, and they're going to hold air. That makes it so much easier to deal with a swamped boat because it's still got a ton of flotation. easier to swim it to shore tow it to shore do on water rescues whatever you need to do so bulkheads are a real safety bonus but the other thing that they're great for this one has hatch up front and a hatch in the back to access that space as storage area now this boat has a lot of storage area a surprising amount of storage space which means this would be a decent boat for kayak camping because you can take quite a bit of gear now you can't take as much gear as you could take in a longer, bigger touring or sea kayak that's designed for multi-day trips. But you can still, this is definitely a good kayak camping boat. It's also good for storage for other things. If you're going, if you like to go fishing or photography, whatever, it's a great platform for all those things because of the big cockpit area. Now that really brings us to the next question of who is this kayak for? And I really just started naming off some of the people this kayak is for it is a kayak for flat water this is a kayak that is designed to stick to calm bodies of water that are protected from strong wind and big waves that can be generated by the wind or rivers that have only very mild current and only very small waves because the cockpit is so big on this thing it's easy for this thing to get swamped now it has a cockpit rim you know you could get an extra large skirt to fit on this thing but don't get it for that reason. I really don't think there's too much point in doing that. It's really the only reason to do that is to stop splashes and drips to get on your legs and some people might want to do that but it doesn't allow you to deal with rougher conditions. This is a flat water boat so you need to be someone who is only going to be paddling in sheltered bodies of water but apart from that it is wide open to who can use this someone a beginner kayaker can love this thing an experienced paddler would also really enjoy it because it does travel very well it's a really nice platform for fishing great for photography videography i mean it is a very much an all-around recreational kayak and it actually goes hand in hand. The reason why this boat is called the 12AR, it's 12 Adventure Recreational Kayak. It's designed to be, you could say, kind of the SUV of recreational kayaks. And I think they've done a great job of creating that platform. Anything from kayak camping to, you know, you name it so now let's talk about value 1400 US dollars uh yeah it's a chunk of change but it's a good value and very simple answer to that it's wonderful value um and i don't say that very often you could get a comparable rotomolded plastic kayak for a little less than this but you're getting a heavier boat you're getting a boat that doesn't paddle as well it doesn't just doesn't feel as good paddling on the flip side you are going to get a more durable boat but $1,400 for this boat is a really good deal even though it's a good chunk of change can you get cheaper 12 foot recreational kayaks yes you can what are you going to give up you're going to give up definitely weight you're going to be getting a heavier boat you're going to be giving up features like the bulkheads two bulkheads and two hatches and the ability to really have a good kayak camping boat and good reliable storage the comfort a seating system solid foot pegs these are all things that you give up when you spend less on a recreational kayak doesn't mean that it's for everyone obviously this is a kayak that's designed for someone who's willing to pay a little premium for a lightweight recreational kayak it's for someone who doesn't need an ultra durable kayak they're okay taking care of a thermoformed kayak and it's for someone who is going to stick to flat water paddling whatever they might do on the flat water well i hope that has helped guide you in your buying decision. Really impressed with this boat. I was really impressed with the first Delta kayak that I tested. I think that was two years ago I tested the 15.5 GT. It's a touring kayak that, you know what, I'm going to leave a link in the description box down below because that is a very different kayak from this but it might be more appropriate for some of you and I really enjoyed that kayak as well. So thanks for watching. Give the video a thumbs up and well if you did like it. Subscribe to PaddleTV if you haven't already and stay tuned lots more paddling gear reviews tips and adventures coming your way.