Julio MacWilliams wrote: > > I have brochures from feathercraft, folbot, Klepper, and Nautiraid. > Most boats are between 25 inches to more than 30 inches wide, except for > the Khatsalano which has 22 inches of beam. I am still waiting to see > a commercially available folding kayak with 21 inches or less of beam. There was one in recent years, the Nautiraid Greenlander. It was under 20 inches wide if I recall correctly. It was almost unpaddeable and the company basically recalled it. The company eventually replaced it with a newer model with the same name and a 23 inch or so beam. It has never seriously been marketed but I understand that Seda, the Nautiraid distributor in the US, intends to re-introduce it. It may have some changes too. I plan to test it at some point. > > Is there a reason why folding kayaks need to be wide? Is the extra width > due to the use of inflatable gunwhales? Yes at a certain point the inflatable gunwales will restrict the narrowness you can achieve. > > I am planning to make a foldable version of my skin over wood frame kayak, > and would like to know the issues behind it. There was a pretty good article in Sea Kayaker about a fellow who made his own. I also have an article from a fellow who made one earlier. And plan to do some during the coming year. The key problem is fit of the skin to the frame. Unlike a permanently attached skin-to-frame boat, you have to have the skin set up so that it is reasonably easy to insert and remove the frame halves and expand them in the skin (although there is a new Nautiraid in which the frame is made entirely outside the skin before insertion--not a revolutionary idea really as some of the folding kayaks back in the 1910s made in a similar way). That's the tough part. The guy in the Sea Kayaker article spent a lot of time on it. And his materials costs were not insignificant. I think he will likely learn, from the little he talked about it in that article, that within a season or two he will not be able to assemble or knock down the boat because of problems with the too-tight skin fit. On the other hand you can make the skin real loose. But then you have a floppy boat with lots of drag. Most people don't know this but Tim Ingram (aka TFOP--True Founder of PaddleWise :-)) started in the kayak business with a folding kayak under the SeaLight brand. They had the simplest of aluminum tubing length (he had some 20 models, made possible by using various lengths of tubing!!!). It had a one piece vinyl skin held together with velcro strips and that wrapped around the skin. I dubbed it the Tortilla!!! > > So far, a better solution to making a foldable kayak with skin on frame > technology seems to be to make the frame a "take apart" rather than > "foldable". The key is to be able to use the sections of the frame as > suitcases and save excess luggage fees at the airport. However it is > always nice to carry a kayak in a backpack and bike to the coast. Comments? The takeapart concept, which is what you are describing, has been used by some manufacturers. The boats are heavier because of the extra material in added bulkheads, bolts, etc. If you are taking them apart rarely, they will do fine. If you try to do so a lot, you risk stripping the bolts. Moreover they are very delicate in travel usage. The edges of the joining parts have gaskets that are prone to getting crimped with any good bang. Then you have a boat that will not put together all that well. As long as you know these limitations you should be alright. ralph diaz *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > *************************************************************************** -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jan 28 1998 - 10:03:32 PST
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