Re: [Paddlewise] Inflatable boats

Dave Williams wrote:

> you may have to go the inflatable way.  A much better choice however if you
> are drived by transportability, would be to get a quality folding boat.
> I've paddled the Feathercraft K1 and I feel that it's a pretty darn
> well-rounded boat.  It was fast and quite comfortable.  I could roll it, but
> it felt kind of funny (reads mushy).  They ain't cheap though!  I've also
> paddled an old Klepper.  It was extremely stable, pretty fast, and fairly
> comfortable.  I believe the model I paddled was something like 30 years old.

This statement reminds me of something I have been meaning to say.  The
Klepper Aerius I model which Dave referred to is indeed quite a fast
boat.  Since Klepper frames loosen up over time, that 30 year old
Klepper could have even been faster were someone to go over all the
fittings and tighten them up.  The more rigid the frame, the less likely
that some of your effort gets swallowed up in the internal movements of
the frame.  If someone has an old Klepper (even 10 years old), do
yourself a favor and go around to make certain that the snap fittings
have "snap" to them and are not loosey goosey.  You can do this by
gingerly bending the tongue part of the connections (located on the
gunwales and floor board and top bars) so that they lay more snuggly in
the snap portions (the 5 on each closed rib or 4 on open top ribs).  Or
you can replace the springs inside the snap fitting.

Feathercrafts are a bit mushy, i.e. their frames have some give in
them.  You can see the range of "give" in folding kayaks by placing the
boats on a flat surface and lifting one end and shaking the boat up and
down.  Older Folbots used to come up like some one doing a bad pushup
with a quarter of the boat still on the ground when say the stern was
already about 18 inches off the ground.  Feathercrafts show a bit of
sway and, when shaken up and down, show some flex.  Kleppers (new ones)
come up like a Marine doing a pushup, stiff as a rod.  Shaking them show
little flex.  Nautiraids, paradoxically, are the stiffest of all.  They
come off the ground like a good glass boat with no flex as you shake
em.  I say paradoxically because Nautiraid frames don't seem as beefy as
the Kleppers since they don't have full floorboards and no I-beam
gunwales or snap fittings the way Kleppers do.  But the Nautiraids do
have an extra cross rib or two in comparable models and I think that
having external sponsons help stiffen them up.  I was surprised to see
that the new Nautiraid with an aluminum frame, which is a direct
competitor to the Feathercraft K-Light was also as stiff as its wooden
frame brethren.  (In its case the model has one more set of
stringers--long rods--than does the K-Light and plus the external
sponsons stiffens it up.)

End Ralph's Ruminations on Folding Kayaks 101

ralph   
-- 
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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."
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