Mirage vs Propel Tug O War

There is a huge difference in effort being put forth by the two "contestants"? The Hobie guy is peddling his a$$ off while the guy in the native looks to be out a Sunday stroll.  I re-watched the video a couple times to confirm my suspicion.  Run 1: Hobie 8 RPM before the "ref" reaches for the boats, Native: 4 RPM's...That is 50% less effort for those keeping track. Run 2: Hobie: 8 RPM's, Native: 5 RPM's. 38% difference in effort. Hard to deny the Native is being peddled at a significant disadvantage. I have neither boat but I am looking for a peddle craft as my next kayak. I have no loyalty to either brand and want to try each before I make a final decision, but come on. For those Hobie supporters that are claiming a victory here, this was obviously a biased competition. I have no idea which boat performs better but this "Hobie commercial" does absolutely nothing to settle that debate.

The best way would be to match cadence as noted.  Then the other difference would come in the form of hull shape.  Only way to actually make this work would be to use both drives in the exact same test setup to see which one develops more thrust over a given duration of time with equal cadence.

For those wondering, I counted how may times the outside foot hit the bottom of the pedal stroke.  To be a fair comparison the cadence of the peddlers needs to be closely matched. Otherwise, it means nothing.

To be honest, you can't pedal a Native propel at the same cadence as a mirage drive, there is a serious amount of diminishing returns with doing so.  A propel 13 is comparable in speed to an outback, but not faster.   I'd say about 1/4mph slower in normal conditions.  Primarily this is due to hull design, which is a trade off that native made for increased stability.

Kinda like comparing a prop job to a jet drive....

Kinda like comparing a prop job to a jet drive....

Yeah. ..with the prop at 50% throttle. 

All this talk is still kind of about boat racing. Um, what does that have to do with fishing?

I really think that a kayak is superior, in freshwater at least, because of the stealth it enables me to have. I catch more and better fish than if I'm on a powerboat. Does anyone think that a mirage drive or the prop drive may spook larger more educated fish? Or the tick-tick-tick of a transducer?

All this talk is still kind of about boat racing. Um, what does that have to do with fishing?

I really think that a kayak is superior, in freshwater at least, because of the stealth it enables me to have. I catch more and better fish than if I'm on a powerboat. Does anyone think that a mirage drive or the prop drive may spook larger more educated fish? Or the tick-tick-tick of a transducer?

no

Me fartin on my kayak scares me sometimes, gotta spook what's below me I would think!

Me fartin on my kayak scares me sometimes, gotta spook what's below me I would think!

Have you considered making a propulsion system that utilizes your fart energy?  I bet it would beat a Propel in a tug o war. 

Looks like another Hobie promo. The mirage drive does generate a lot of torque in that the flippers have a large surface area to push against water. If a large enough prop could be fitted on a Native propel drive to equalize the surface area of the Mirage drive would the results be the same? To run a more accurate test the same motor, meaning the same person would be used in each craft. Two different individuals with different degrees of leg power will give different results.

Not if the test went 4 times, switching each person using each boat twice.

Unless the propeller surface area were increased the Hobie would still "win" but not by as much. I also think that the very short distance that the "contest" is taking place over maximizes the advantage of the mirage over the prop. Half strokes, which is mirage drive propulsion, will be quicker off the block so to speak while full revolutions take longer to really get up to speed and by then over a short racecourse it's too late.

Sounds like someone needs to organize a good ole "race n chill"im surprise no one organized one yet.as many of us have more than one yak I think it would be a fun event.