I purchased a Mariner 10 last year to take some strain off my wrists and shoulders. Unfortunately, my experience with Mariner is limited: after four trips, the drive broke. It developed a creak and "dead spot," where there was no pedal engagement. Additionally, the drive did not fit flush and was wearing a hole in the side of the drivewell.

I think I got a "lemon," so I will objectively say that other than these major problems, it was a decent boat. I loved having reverse, and it was exceptionally stable. Pedaling was easy, and the boat moved pretty well, though it was slower than a Hobie Revo 11. Unsurprisingly, it was a bear to paddle. The seat was comfortable, and although it was heavy, I could transport the Mariner without a cart.

Recently I decided to take part in an offshore fishing tournament. However, my current kayak has no scupper holes, needless to say, that was out of the question. I was however, able to acquire a Native Mariner, that I have been wanting to try for a quite a while. I had never used a pedal drive before and to be honest I had my doubts about how it would perform.

6:30 AM, I arrived at the Pompano Beach fishing pier and loaded up the Mariner and prepared to drag it the 100 yards or so down to the surf. That 100 yard drag was by far the worst part of the day, because I quickly found out that the Mariners are HEAVY. By the time I finally made it down to the waterline I was exhausted and felt as though I had just ran a marathon and I had 8 or so hours of fishing to now begin. As I pushed through the surf it was still too shallow to use the Propel Drive so I had to break out the paddle and do the only paddling that I would have to do for the rest of the day. Which was good because the Mariner is definitely made to be pedaled and not paddled. It’s a very awkward paddling boat and the rudder controls are next to you and are meant to be used by your left hand so steering with the rudder and paddling at the same time can be a bit tricky. Once I managed to get through the surf I was able to stow my paddle and lower the Propel Drive and start pedaling.

The Mariner took off, and is extremely easy to pedal. It pedals exactly like a bicycle and the water offers virtually no resistance. The rudder controls that made it extremely difficult to steer and paddle at the same time are now your best friend and make steering an extremely easy task. I started exploring the kayak and playing on it a little bit more once I was in some deeper water. For starters the seat is extremely comfortable, it is Native’s patented first class seating system, which is basically a beach chair in a kayak. Behind you it is completely open, so you do have to strap your gear down if you don’t want to lose it, which could be a pain sometimes, but there is a lot of room to strap down a lot of gear, so it’s not all bad.

I decided to test the stability and see if the Mariner could live up to the expectations that I had due to the stability of my Native Ultimate. I found it to be more stable than the Ultimate, which I thought was impossible.

The front hatch opens up and the entire length of the boat can be used as dry storage, you can easily fit rods/reels, camping gear and anything else you could imagine inside. However when on the water it could be a challenge to climb over the pedal drive to get to it, but hey it’s a pretty stable yak so I’m sure it could be done.

After spending all day on the water I pedaled back to shore, still full of energy which is uncommon after 8 hours on the water. Once on shore I prepared myself mentally for the 100 yard drag to the top of the beach, which took all of the energy out of me. I loaded up the yak and left the beach impressed at how it had performed.

It comes in a 10ft model and a 12.5ft model. They aren’t cheap but are definitely worth a try if you can get your hands on one. I know I will be adding one to my fleet soon.