Allison, The best investment I made before buying a foldable was Ralphs book. Mostly people have talked about Feathercrafts, which are beaut' kayaks. Here are some notes on Kleppers, which I love for all sorts of reasons not least of which they are easy and fast to assemble (but some are heavy and bulky). The canvas on my year old Klepper expedition shows no signs of stretching with age and was stored assembled but unused for months/years before I bought it. I often paddle with hardshell kayakers and am usually not the last in the water or the last to leave the takeout despite disassembly and packing (but the group clean their hardshells on take out). The packed boat is often stored damp for a day without any evidence of mold and Sydney can be hot and humid. I wouldn't be game to store it damp longer than 24 hours. With any foldable watch out for fading if you're in a sunny area. Its well known regular 303 is a good protectant for polymer fabrics. I've been using another 303 product 'FabricGuard' to waterproof and protect the cotton canvas deck against UV, for a lighter, less faded boat, which is faster to dry out. If too much FabricGuard gets onto the Hypalon it should be wiped off within a few minutes, otherwise the hypalon will temporarily soften, swell and might deform at packing creases. The spray can FabricGuard is about 3x times the cost of buying in bulk but runs much less risk of getting onto the hypalon. Use water but not soap for cleaning unless you want to remove the FabricGuard coating. The coating lasts about a dozen saltwater trips and takes 10 minutes to apply. Over inflation of the sponsons may cause slight crease fading at the deck centre line and the deck hull join (You can see the same thing in army trucks where the canvas goes over the frame). A friend has a well cared for old Klepper and it has aged beautifully. When washing out the inside of the skin remember to plug the sponsons first! Recently went on a trip in which I slid the loaded boat down a slime covered weir and frequently dragged it over sand - not recommended but no obvious wear and tear (regularly use of hypalon polish and 303!). Hope you get at least as much fun as I do from your folding kayak. PeterO Allison wrote:- >I have a question for all of you with folding kayaks- I don't own one (yet) >but happen to think they are extremely cool, and I was curious about >something- what happens if you store your kayak assembled? Is a folding >Kayak something that you would have the option of storing in or out of the >bag? If you live next to a launch and go out every day do you have to >assemble and take apart the boat every single time? Does the material they >are made out of stretch over time if they are used frequently? >I may end up living overseas and I like the idea of a kayak that is so >portable-something I could take with me to a wide variety of places, but I >was wondering about the day to day durability of them... *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jul 01 1999 - 05:42:59 PDT
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