[Paddlewise] Durability

There has been interesting discussion recently about durability, especially
as it pertains to the NDK Romany. While I think the Romany 16 is a fine
boat, I feel that it is much heavier than a 16 foot kayak needs to be. This
seems true of most of the British boats. NDK and Valley Canoe do not seem to
use the vacuum bagging tehniques that are common practice in North America.
Also,the decks of the Brit boats seem to be laid up with a heavy fiberglas
matte which must take a lot of resin to wet out. This certainly does make
for a stiff deck but the added weight factor must be significant. I wonder
if rigidity equates with strength in a boat as small as a sea kayak that
travels at such minimal speeds? Are British boats stronger or are they just
resin-heavy? My own priorities are skewed with a bias toward light weight.
My Arctic Hawk weighs 46 pounds [floatation bags, no bulkheads or hatches]
and, in four years of actively paddling this boat, I've not experienced any
hull or deck failures. I do not surf the Hawk because the design is not
suitable for that kind of use and I would not use a fiberglass boat in those
kinds of hydrokinetics. That is a great place for plastic. I've also noticed
that after a lengthy paddle, all kayaks seem to gain weight. On a favorite
16 mile trip, for instance, my Hawk seem to gain about 10 or 12 pounds which
makes carrying it back to the car something of a chore. This is another
reason I prefer a light boat. Has anyone out there experienced hull failure
in a fiberglass or composite boat that could be attributed to an overly
light layup? What boat and under what conditions did it fail?
John

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