: Has anyone on the board ever towed an empty single when padding a
: tandem? The single would have no paddler, but semi-packed to
: give it some ballast. I envision simply tying a rope to the
: singles bow, tying it off on my pfd - aft seat in the tandem,
: and off we go. Is it that simple? Mostly curious what might
: happen with following seas - we don't want to get rammed from
: behind.

I have never towed a single with a double, but I have towed injured kayakers and it's not easy! With a double and two good paddlers a single with some gear in it wouldn't be too bad. The biggest issue will be if it rolls. Even with a little gear in the bottom it will still want to roll. I am not sure your conditions. For me it's ocean paddling so when I envision this it's more difficult than what it may actually be if it's just fairly flat water. You mentioned following seas, so I would assume you are paddling in ocean with swells. One thing for sure, you need to put a cockpit cover on so that it doesn't get waterlogged if it rolls.

For a line you should tie off just behind the second paddler. Use a caribiner and put it where they can grab and release it quickly in case of trouble. Tie the line to the bow of the kayak in tow. I assume you are doing this only because you need to deliver a kayak to someone or some place and it's not just for added gear space. If you are just trying to get added gear space i would say you are carrying way too much gear!

Here is a pic of us arriving at shore after towing two 46' wood sailboat masts from an offshore island. We had two guys in a tandem Hobie with those silly foot pedal things (which by the way work surprisingly well) and two paddles, and myself lashed in-between paddling with a GP. One guy rode on the masts and used a piece of wood as a rudder. I was amazed at how easy it was to tow these monsters, especially after I had towed the mizzen boom about 5 miles by myself and it took hours. The third kayak in the picture was just in case to warn boats, push, pull, or whatever but he ended up just following us in and was not needed.