> Hi all, > > I am looking for a folding seakayak that is in handling and speed > comparable to hardshell boats. Are there people on this list with > hands on experience in boats like the Feathercraft K1 or > Khatsalano, or the longer single seat Nautiraids (greenlander 500). > Or may be other alternatives? > > Greetings, > > Merijn > <Voice from the underground> Hmmm, since nobody answered this, I take this as my turn: having built a few folding aluminum baidarkas, I don't think they were in any respect similar to harsdhell boats. Although I wanted each kayak to be comparable with hardshell kayaks and took some pain to achive the best results, neither rigidity, nor speed under paddle were as good. The only thing being, when my boss gave me an airplane ticket from Germany to Canada on a Friday this summer, I got there on that very Sunday and had a kayak with me; _my_own_kayak_ :)) Anyway, you might want to look at something narrow and rigid; I never saw anything in the market that was foldable and would match at least my selfbuilts with regard to rigidity. They only _do_ assemble a lot easier. With each kayak, rudder size would decrease; now, it is merely a third of what I had on the first baidarka. Maybe it has something to do with development of construction and paddler... One thing to consider is handling during rescue (-training). I haven't seen any folding kayak that would match my desires in this case. So I have equipped my recent folder with retractable compass and hatchcover-mounted pump in order to survive at least a TX-style rescue; also, I have lowered the deck beam to help with rolling. Cheers Hendrik *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hendrik Maroske wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > I am looking for a folding seakayak that is in handling and speed > > comparable to hardshell boats. Are there people on this list with > > hands on experience in boats like the Feathercraft K1 or > > Khatsalano, or the longer single seat Nautiraids (greenlander 500). > > Or may be other alternatives? > > > > Greetings, > > > > Merijn > > > Hmmm, since nobody answered this, I take this as my turn: > > having built a few folding aluminum baidarkas, I don't think they > were in any respect similar to harsdhell boats. Although I wanted > each kayak to be comparable with hardshell kayaks and took > some pain to achive the best results, neither rigidity, nor > speed under paddle were as good. I am not certain what is the situation with the boats that Hendrik has hand crafted but there are certainly some commercially available folding kayaks that are no slouches in the speed department. The Feathercraft Khatsalano is generally recognized as a very fast boat with less than a half dozen non-racing commercially available hardshells being faster. Stepping down from the Khatsalano, the Feathercraft K-1 and some of the Nautiraids are certainly as fast as a lot of other hardshells. I think a lot of the image regarding folding kayak speed is one of thinking in terms of clunky doubles paddled by occasional paddlers in comparison to solo paddlers in hardshells. When it comes to the singles, the folding kayaks can be quite fast, length for length, with hardshells. > Anyway, you might want to look at something narrow and rigid; > I never saw anything in the market that was foldable and would > match at least my selfbuilts with regard to rigidity. They only > _do_ assemble a lot easier. I haven't seen these hand crafted folding kayaks but I can't imagine anything stiffer than the Nautiraid singles. If you pick one up by one end and shake it up and down, there is virtually no flex at all...i.e. they are incredibly rigid; their frames use more cross-ribs and stringers than do other folding kayaks and their external sponsons add lots of rigidity. Feathercrafts have a bit more flex to them. Folbots an incredible amount of flex. > One thing to consider is handling during rescue (-training). > I haven't seen any folding kayak that would match my desires in > this case. So I have equipped my recent folder with retractable > compass and hatchcover-mounted pump in order to survive at > least a TX-style rescue; also, I have lowered the deck beam to > help with rolling. The commercially available folding kayaks are regularly used in TX rescues with no damage; I've seen it done several times this summer with nothing happening by way of damage. I suppose if the boats were not carrying airbags to reduce the amount of water that gets inside in a capsize than perhaps some damage may result to deck bars, BUT no one should ever venture out in any folding kayak (even if using a sea sock) without air flotation bags over and above the sponsons that are normally built in. The same would be true for any hardshell that does not have bulkheads and for polyethylene kayaks whose bulkheads are generally suspect and prone to leak and pop if flooded in a capsize. The deck bars on folding kayaks can take punishment. I once had a very heavy fellow trip over while near my K-Light on dry land. He fell flat with all his weight on the bow deck right between two crossribs: unlike when sitting in water, the boat had no where to sink into to absorb the punishment (as it might in a TX rescue). The result: The top deck bar was ever so slightly bent at the point where it connected to another bar but did not need replacing or fixing. I shudder to think what would have happened with the deck of a kevlar boat. As for rolling, some folding kayaks roll okay; perhaps not as well as many hardshells, but they can be rolled. Ken Fink reports that he regularly teaches people how to roll using the K-Light. And I have never seen anyone who does have a good roll fail when getting into the single folding kayaks from Feathercraft, Nautiraid and Klepper. At worse a good roller cannot do his full array of rolls as he might in his own boat or slimmer boats but that also would be the case with some of the hardshells too, i.e. it would be difficult to do every type of roll in every hardshell single. BTW, I saw a double Klepper rolled the other day. I had heard of people doing it but two guys at the Boathouse decided to give it a try. They failed the first time; swam the Klepper back to the dock. Got their coordination straightened out and went out and did two effortless rolls in a row. 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 - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Wed, 13 Oct 1999, Hendrik Maroske wrote: So I have equipped my recent folder with retractable > compass and hatchcover-mounted pump in order to survive at > least a TX-style rescue; also, I have lowered the deck beam to > help with rolling. Sorry if this is another dumb question, but why would lowering the deck beam help with rolling? e Elaine Harmon - eilidh_at_dc.seflin.org - eharmon_at_cs.miami.edu *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
My boss never gives ME a ticket to go anywhere on ANY afternoon! I think the closest that I've been is when she offered to punch my ticket a few weeks ago... *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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