Any company that plans to put something into production must weigh the cost of doing so against the expected sales. Compared to other kayaks, there are still relatively few PA's on the water, thus far anyway. That number will grow in time.
For now, there are some parts that need to be injection molded. Such a mold will cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 (from what they're telling me). How many units will have to be sold at $500 each in order to recoup that initial mold fee? This, not any performance issue, is what has scared some companies away. This unit is unique to the PA and isn't adaptable (not easily anyway) to any run of the mill kayak. So the sales are limited to PA owners. From what I've been told, the Torqueedo folks have yet to sell even two dozen of the Evolve systems to PA owners (but this may not be accurate).
The motor unit is not an off-the-shelf trolling motor. To get a price that would meet the expected retail price point requires an initial buy of 500 motors. Here's another stopping point for many companies who are not sure they could sell 500 of these units to PA anglers in a year's time.
I don't quite understand the statement "something smells fishy." The You Tube videos are proof that the system works. Others have seen it work. If you think I've got a bass boat somewhere up ahead pulling me, I'd suggest you look at the video a bit more closely. The idea that I'm making this up, that it really doesn't exist or simply isn't possible is simply silly. It does exist and it works exactly as I've stated. RHale has seen it and if we can get together, he'll see it again. We've been using it for a year and have been extremely pleased with all aspects of it. My reputation in the fishing industry is beyond reproach. Many of the features found on Native and Wilderness Systems kayaks were designed by me. I have no need to make anything up or cook up some sort of a camera trick.
For the last time, anyone that wishes to put an Evolve or BassYak system up against my system please just PM me and we'll arrange a time and place to go head to head. If you want to spend a little time fishing, that's even better. Until then, I'm having a great time with my motorized PA.
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