Malibu Kayak Stealth 12

[wiseguy]

Ok, I've taken out the Stealth 12 a handful of times now and my friends always tell me that the back end looks real low to the waterline. I carry my normal gear back there (custom made livewell with rod holders).

After checking the inside of my kayak, I've notice I've got quite amount of water in there. I'd figure the problem was my pump filling my built-in bait tank too rapidly and overflowing causing it to spill into that left little hatch and into the kayak. My thoughts were correct! (after testing it in my brother-in-laws pool) My pump was pumping too much water and overflowing into that left little hatch on the Stealth 12. I fixed the problem by installing an adjustable aerator spray head on the outflow into the built-in tank and increasing the size of the outflow to overflow into the forward scupper holes.

This all seemed to have fixed the problem after the next couple of outings. Last weekend however, I had a crap load of water inside the kayak again! I was in choppy water but I think that is not the cause of about 2-3 gals of water in the yak. And again my back end looked pretty low at about 1 inch above the waterline.

My question is: Is this yak really rated for 450lbs? or did MK make a mistake. Or is it that maybe the back should have been raised a bit from the get go on the design?

Any comments or thoughts are greatly appreciated.