One or two paddlers

I am considering buying the Yukon Yak, I am new to packrafting, as a two person craft should we both have paddles and what length would be best suited for flat water?

Practically, can the Yukon carry two plus their packs and up to what size packs?


cheers

Daryl

The Yukon Yak is a one person craft. (Unless the other person is a small child, even then, there isn’t enough room for a second paddle.) Have you considered a Dory?

No but I will look at, thanks. I’m guessing that with this size raft, two people paddling would offer better control?


Daryl

Generally I’ve found it is possible to do easy crossings even in the small alpaca with two people. A second trip is required for gear. And it’s not comfortable enough to go far, and it’s not stable enough to do anything interesting. I know people who have fished comfortably out of a llama as a pair.

When doing two-in-a-boat river crossings, there are two positions we’ve found useful:
-Paddler sits normally on the seat, and the passenger sits on the bow with their feet jammed in next to the paddler’s legs. It’s crowded for paddling, but works.
-Paddler sits normally on the seat, and the passenger lies along the length of the boat, head toward the bow, with legs split around the paddler’s torso. This gives maximum stability by lowering the passenger’s center of mass, and gives maximum room for the paddler to move their arms. And the passenger can tip their head back and watch where the boat is going… upside down.

My wife and I fish from our Llama occasionally and we’ve found that splitting the paddle in half and paddling like a canoe actually works fairly well. Both people kneeling and facing forward.

Some mates and I took a trip on the Yarra at Wonga Park a few weekends ago, at relatively high flow.
There were three of us (all around 70-80kg and 5’10" to 6’1") and two Lamas… Lots of jumping out of boats, swapping craft, etc but also a lot of playing around with position of the second person to allow best movement through the water. The two lamas are 2011 models. I found that sitting relatively high on the bow, with feet off the front was a good way to go on flat water and sitting low (on the floor, facing backwards to the paddler, feet around the outside of paddlers hips) through the whitewater we went through.
We messed around with splitting the paddles in two and canoeing the raft along, but it wasnt any faster.

Overall, I couldnt believe how well the rafts went with two people through rapids that were around 4 feet from peak to trough. Made for a very fun ride for the front person going backwards through it all.