Inflatable Kayak Review
This spring my dad purchased a Sea Eagle SE 330 inflatable kayak from www.SeaEagle.com to use on local lakes and rivers and carry in our Zenair CH-701 seaplane during longer camping trips. He chose the SE 330 based on its quality construction (it is a real boat, not a toy like department store inflatables), weight (26lbs for the boat, about 40lbs for the entire kit), size (everything fits in the optional storage duffel bag), cost, and reliability of the Sea Eagle brand name. For dad, the ultimate test came during a mute swan attack while paddling the local lake. He was able to verify that the SE 330 is capable of carrying 1 adult and a very angry mature swam - at least temporarily - without capsizing.
Last week, my wife and I got to test the SE 330 ourselves while vacationing in Ohio. Read on for detailed photos and discussion.
The SE 330 is a 11′2″ Kayak built on a 33 mil Polykrylar hull. It is USCG rated for 2 adults or 500lbs. There are 3 major air chambers - the floor/keel, port tube, and starboard tube. All three use a type of 1-way valve to ease in inflation. The base kit includes inflatable spray skirts for the bow and stern, 2 inflatable canoe seats, 2 back-pack paddles (split into 4 small sections), a 2-way foot pump, a tube repair kit, skeg guards, and basic instructions. Finer points of the base design include molded-in skegs for additional directional control, a ‘bilge drain’ in the stern to convert to a self-bailer, handling ropes in the bow and stern, and a bow eye for a docking/towing rope. We’ll cover additional options later in the review.
My dad’s SE 330 setup including storage bag, paddle sets, pump, canoe seats, and kayak.
SE 330 stern showing handling roaps and the bilge plug which can be opened to make the kayak self-bailing.
Bow of the SE 330 showing the docking/towing eye, spray skirt, and handling ropes.
Keel shot of the SE 330. The I-beam construction lends to great stability for a kayak. The standard plastic keels are visible at the stern and provide additional directional stability.
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Inflation and Setup
Setup can’t get much simpler and only takes a few minutes. Basically, you inflate each tube using the provided inflation template to set the correct pressure. Inflate the floor until firm. Inflate each spray skirt and your seats and assemble the paddles. If desired, the SE 330 can be stored inflated for even quicker returns to service. The skirts and seats did not have check valves - which made juggling the pump and cap a bit tricky before too much air pressure was lost.
Three primary air valves. Inflation with the provided foot pump is very fast and easy. Much less volume than a typical air matress.
Ingenious inflation gage. Simply inflate each tube until the scale printed on the kayak matches that on the provided gage. This ensures you get the maximum bouyancy without risking damage to the tubes from over inflation.
All crewed and ready to go - just add life jackets and adult supervision!
Test Drive
We strapped the assembled SE 330 to my dad’s station wagon and took it down to the ’swan’ lake for a try-out. My wife and I are passable canoeists, but not really kayakers to date. My kayak experience was limited to a high school downriver trip in a campground sit-on-top. That said, the SE 330 was easy to manage and is no doubt very nice for someone more experienced. As one who has capsized canoes, I was impressed with the stability of the SE 330 under ‘lean’ testing. Dad’s swan attack also bears out the stability of the design.
The SE 330 was easy to propel with just a single paddler - even with both of us on board. We weren’t out long enough to refine dual paddling very well - either we hit each others paddles or we’d veer wildly around. Reverting to canoe paddling helped out quite a bit for us novices. The back-pack paddles seemed a bit short to me, being a compromise between portability and usability. I would likely opt for the longer Sea Eagle AB30 paddles if storage size is not a concern.
Conclusion and Options
The Sea Eagle SE 330 is a fun, portable, economical way to get more out of your local waterways. We’ll be purchasing our own SE 330 to use off the back of our Regal 2760 in NW Florida to explore the shallow areas along the intercoastal waterway and get to some of the better grass flats for fishing. Besides the AB30 paddles, you should also consider the picking up the storage bag (opt for the deluxe package and you get both for about $30 over the base package). We will likely also get the inflatable deluxe kayak seats (available for an additional $50/pair in the pro package) which improve back support for longer paddling trips.
We’re also considering the SR 9.2 as a tender for our Regal and looking at the SR 14 as a jon boat alternative for family road trips.
