Apologies to Duane for my beins so strident regarding the bulkheads on plastic boats. But I have seen too many failures to just sit on my hands and say "that's nice." Some of the bulkheads on those boats do hold up if the boat is babied, maybe. But as Duane indicates some are abused. And it is a selling point of plastic boats that they can be abused and not suffer. So, dragging them across logs and bumpy rocky beaches, etc. will quickly get the bulkhead's sealant to separate from the walls of the kayak and cause leaks. As for the VCP Skerray, it was touted as having leakproof bulkheads because of the welding. A local outfitter bought one to see how it would work in his fleet. I happened to spend a weekend on two of their day tours. On the end of the second day, when we went to empty water out of the cockpit of the touring fleet, we kept getting water at the bottom. Discounting the possibility of miraculous water apparitions, we opened up a hatch and found the rear compartment full of water that was feeding into the cockpit though a slightly separated bulkhead. I stand by my statement that airbags to provide for extra flotation are a must on any plastic boat, and, of course, folding kayaks as well. 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Jan 30 2000 - 16:11:46 PST
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