Paddlewisers, Nautiraid, the French company, now makes a relatively new model of folding kayak called the Raid 16. This is a 16-foot 6-inch "Greenland style" single. Anyone out there with any knowledge of this boat? Ralph, any reviews or experience with it? Thanks, John Somers *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
John Somers wrote: > > Paddlewisers, > Nautiraid, the French company, now makes a relatively new model of folding > kayak called the Raid 16. This is a 16-foot 6-inch "Greenland style" > single. Anyone out there with any knowledge of this boat? Ralph, any > reviews or experience with it? > Thanks, > John Somers I reviewed it in my newsletter back in the May/June issue. A couple of things: --the boat is about the third version of the Greenlander. The original, back in the 1980s was just 19 inches wide compared to around 27 inches for this one. That first one was extremely tippy and hard for anyone to paddle. In the early 1990s it became a 23 inch wide boat and then to the present width. Neither the 19 inch of 23 inch beam boat were sold to any great degree in the States. The new one is _not_ a Greenland boat in the sense that the first one was. Too wide and not easy to lean. The sponsons appear bigger than even the regular single, the Raid 1. The boat is pretty fast though and tracks as if on rails. It also is the second of the single Nautiraids to get that unique way of assembly that was introduced in the Raid 14 (a 14 foot model that came out last year and which I reviewed earlier also). This method, which harkens back to something done in the early days of folding kayaks back in the teens of this century, has the whole frame assembled entirely outside the skin including the cockpit coaming! It eases assembly for those who have a problem with the process. The frame is then dropped in via a zippered back deck (two overlapping zippers for redundancy and to be fail-safe) as well as an overflap that is velcroed. Extension of the frame is done by a wedge device that is inserted at the stern and which pushes the stern piece outward. The method, its history, etc. was covered in an earlier issue of the newsletter also. The boat has its good sides. Oh, the deck like a takeoff on Henry Ford comes only in one color...white. I asked the owner why...he said it was to give a distinct look to the boat. While it is white, the coatings on the deck's polyester core are a vinyl material. So it whips as clean as would a kitchen table cloth. If any one want to see a copy of my review, I can email the plain text. This would be minus sidebars and fotos but that is the easiest thing to send. ralph diaz ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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