Re: [Paddlewise] What is a sea sock?

From: ralph diaz <rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 10:53:40 -0700
Tom,

Hi. It was good meeting you over the weekend.

A sea sock is like a large condom that you place around the coaming of
your kayak and whose material forms a pocket or sock in which you sit. 
It extends well forward under the deck and should accomodate even the
tallest paddler.

Its purpose is to keep water from filling the cockpit.  Also dirt.  A
sea sock works well for folding kayaks that, by their very nature, lack
bulkheads.  A sea sock limits the amount of water that needs to be
pumped out in the event of a capsize and keeps sand and gravel from
getting to the inside of the boat where it may rub at the deck and hull.

Feathercraft provides sea socks with all their models as standard
equipment.  I never use one and therefore I did not have one on my boat
when we were paddling at West Point.  If I had, you would not have been
asking this question.  I don't use one because I like to get at gear
inside the boat and the sea sock complicates such access.

I am not sure you could get one to work well on your plastic kayak.  The
cockpit coaming is probably too rounded to be able to accept both a sea
sock and your spray skirt.  Fiberglass boats have sharper edged coamings
and deeper grooves than do plastic boats and the combo of sea sock and
skirt tends to stay on better in them.  This is also true of the
Feathercrafts folding kayaks all of which have fiberglass coamings
absolutely like those on fiberglass boats with the exception of the
inset groove to which part of the folding kayak skin goes.

Several companies sell sea socks on the after market.  SEDA comes
immediately to mind but I am sure there are others.


best,

ralph

Tom wrote:
> 
> What is a sea sock?
> 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
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"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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Received on Wed May 31 2000 - 07:55:43 PDT

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