Hobie Cat Forums

I just put a deposit on a Pro Angler 12 yesterday but it will not arrive until November when the dealer has another bunch built and delivered. I have a question about color and want to know what others think. I like the dune color best, then olive, then papaya however, I am taking delivery on the papaya due to the visibility to other boats. I had a bass boat for years and have had to wave off other boats that had difficulty seeing me in lakes that have tall weeds like we have here in Central Florida. I love to fish but would like to live alot longer to fish again so I am ordering the color I like the least. I still have time to change my color selection but want to hear what others think.

Of the colors offered for the PAs, I believe Papaya is the best for visibility and safety because of it's contrast to water, reeds, etc... "Dune" color is a neutral color which can seem to make the PA invisible, depending on light, distance & weather conditions...And the "Moss" color blends in best with water, reeds, etc..(CAMO) and would be the best choice of color if you wanted stealth. All 3 colors are great...Its just a personal choice you have to make that will depend on what you plan to use your PA for

YakFish,
That is exactly what I felt about their colors. I guess I am going to stay with the papaya so I can live to fish another day by not getting run over by a powerboat.

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PA12 Dune
That is why they calling it fishing and not catching.

I origianlly wanted the Papaya for the same visibility reasons. My local dealer had never ordered any 2012 PA14s in that color. At least that's what they told me. So I ended up with a Dune one (my second choice). The wife has a Papaya Revo 11.

While I havn't fished large bodies of water where I had to worry about powerboats, I have noticed one thing about the Dune as opposed to the Papaya. If you scratch or scuff plastic, it tends to lighten up. The Dune color appears to be the best color for showing the least amount of scuffs/scratches due to normal usage. As careful as you are with launching and landing, the bottom will get scuffed some.

The Dune color also has small speckles blended in so it's not a completely solid color like the Papaya. If I were to fish large bodies of water with the chance of powerboats affecting me, I would make sure I had a good bright orange visibility flag like a lot of folks use.

As was mentioned above, all three colors look nice. It just boils down to personal preference and usage. You'll love the PA regardless of color.

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Steve Stubbs
USAF (retired)

2012 Pro Angler - Dune
2012 Revolution 11 - Papaya

SRAces,
You brought up a point I had not thought of, the scratch resistance. I will have to think about that. The dune is my favorite color.
My plan is to put at least one of the tall bicycle flags on the back of the boat. They are over 6' high while the ones made for Kayaks are 4' at best. I may also place a strobe light on it and use that even during the daytime. My real concern is that I am fishing around tall bullrushes and other tall thick weeds. A bass boat doing 70 mph down a boat lane that winds through the foliage has little time to react when they see you at the last minute.
Thanks for the reply.

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PA12 Dune
That is why they calling it fishing and not catching.

Quick question for anyone who might know this since we're talking about color here... Does the PA actually come in Papaya or is it just Yellow? The brochures and web page says "yellow" but I don't know if that's marketing or what 'cause I can't see them having two different yellow colors. Not a huge issue of course, just curious. Personally I wish it came in a sporty red but I hear that wears poorly too.

Any pics of the papaya PA lightly used with scuffs? The demo I tried had a couple obvious scratches but I thought it might have had to do with it being a demo. It looked rather rough where I think it was turned on its side to put the cart in. Would light sanding take it away or be more obvious (if something happened to a side or the top)?

For safety, I'm thinking having a fog horn inna can handy would be a good practice. Reading too many stories about hits and close encounters, flag or no... A big boat or a smaller one going fast might not see you or hear a whistle. Nothing will help I guess if your time's up. Be lucky to go out on a boat

I agree that the Dune color will show the least amount of scraps/scratches. My 3 year old Outback still looks in great shape inspite of banging into oyster beds. My new yellow/papaya is already showing some scraps. They def do not "hide" like the dune color.

The reason I went with the papaya was that I simply wanted a different color from what I had been fishing with the past several years.

Yakiddy Yak,

Papaya is what my dealer called the yellow colored PA-12. The specs from Hobie do call it yellow.

As far as the loud air horn I plan to have that on hand also. I do believe that the fastest means of communicating it that situation is the flash from a muzzle blast!

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PA12 Dune
That is why they calling it fishing and not catching.

I had a dune Outback and wanted something more visible. I decided on a papaya PA but was worried it would be too bright in the sun. Not the case, it's perfect! It's also a fun colour!

Too bad they discontinued pylon orange in the Outbacks and Revolutions though.

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Cheers,
Adam
http://www.yakfisher.net

Because it's a fishing boat, I wanted a color that frightens fish least - as viewed against the sky from below. That's probably dune and I was lucky that the demo boat I bought was in that color. (When I made my own kayak-like duck boat years ago, I painted it dark grey so it would match winter water, as seen from above.)

I wear a blaze orange ball cap when afloat. So far, no motormoron has failed to see me. I doubt they'd hear a horn over their own exhaust noise until too late. Dune not only doesn't show scratches or dirt but stays cool to the touch even on 100° days.

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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult
Pro Angler-14 owner

Olive is the fastest color, outside of red, which isn't offered on the PA.

Unfortunately, Hobie no longer offers my favorite color, Mango, so I'd go with Dune.

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Support your local HOBIE dealer

Here's a real life picture of the yellow/papaya color from one of our local Jacksonville tournaments two weeks ago. Regardless of the color name I'd say it's pretty noticeable on the water.



I wanted to blend in b/c I'll use my PA for some duck hunting trips so I stuck with the olive color. I have no flag but have never been in a frightful situation so far so I'm not too worried about it. If an idiot can't see my big behind sitting atop a 14ft boat them I don't see where a little 12" orange flag is going to make much of a difference!

Here's a shot of a Revo 13 in the same color from a long ways off. It's still very noticeable!

It's sad that motor boaters often simply chose to ignore craft like kayaks and canoes. Last week I had a ski-boat continuously run right up on my AI while laughing about the swells they were forcing on me. Frankly, I had some fun with the water splash (it was hot) but did mention it to the marina operator when I go in. He suggested that my boat may be hard to see and that I might want to put a flag on it somewhere. I mentioned that I thought a 16 foot tall sail should provide enough visibility to be seen in current daylight hours.

I was in my new olive colored outback on the Colorado River last month. I was worried at first about the motor boats, but as the day went on, and I saw how stable the yak is, I wanted the boats to leave big wakes for me to pedal over and have fun with! Most everyone was very polite and went slowly past. I did make sure to keep out of the way!