Reinhold Weber wrote: > I have been watching Faltboot.de (the German folding news group) now for some time, but I haven't noticed yet a discussion about rolling > foldables. That is difference with respect to plastic boats, where it is an important safety feature. This might be a function of the German folding kayakers in general: they seem to be rather conservative in learning "new" things and they are also quite lazy whern it comes to safety issues. Wearing a PFD almost all the time puts me into the position of an outsider (although the call for more safety begins to work!). The same with things like paddle or bracing techniques. If I recall it correctly, there are more fatalities among the German touring paddlers than among the WW paddlers (the latter are very safety concious). Ralph Hoehn: >> And, dare I point it out, the Pouch singles E65 (no sponsons) and E68 (sponsons and 27" beam) roll with little trouble (pictures on www.PouchBoats.com to prove it in the case of the latter). Reinhold Weber: > I am looking forward to see a Pouch RZ 96 double being rolled on your site. This would be some kind of "Ersatz" to PW Members for the picture of the Klondike (print only). I'll be putting that Klondike picture some place on my website so that PW members can have a look too. I won't be able to get my hands on a RZ 96 double soon, so I have to rely on some willing American paddlers rolling Ralphs boat on the demo day in CT. > But let's get a bit more serious: I wrote that folders with air-sponsons are dificult to roll, not foldables in general. Let's remember that the eskimo-roll was re-invented by Eddi Hans Pawlata in the twenties in a slim greenland style folding kayak. For an example see: > http://www.mariangunkel.de/moell.html > (It's the Gesa-Möll Marian Gunkel, maintainer of Pouch inofficial has acquired and restored. German text and lots of pictures.) Shame on me, I don't have any pictures with the boat on the water yet (although I paddled it twice since I got the new skin last week). The Moell-Kayak had been constructed to paddle mainly WW but also coastal water with some touring luggage. Rolling in it is definitively easy and the boat contact can only be compared to a Kathsalano. Unfortunately, the boat has only been manufactured in the 50's an early 60's and some 20 models were produced. On rolling: I can roll a K-Light very easily as well as an Pouch E 68, and with some little difficulties my 45 year old Pouch E65. As has been stated already, rolling a kayak is mainly a matter of good boat contact and good technique: both the K-Light and the E 68 provide very good boat contact. > These were folding kayaks to be rolled. Today they have nearly died out. Some German kayakers are quite successful in designing and building foldable sea kayaks. There's a world besides the commercial boat builders ... :-) > Two models subsist: > Nautiraid Greenlander (with 'stabilairs') > Pouch Falt-Eski > Both don't seem to be commercial successes. Perhaps you might comment on the Falt-Eski. I am not Ralph but may I comment? The Pouch Falt-Eski (www.pouch-inoffiziell.de/boote/falteski.html in German) had been designed by someone more than 2 meters (thats somewhere above 6 ft ..): apparently the boat wasn't very well received by the market (also due to some changes in the ribs that improved the boats initial stability) so Pouch decided to stop it's production. In my opinion and in the opinion of the few Falt-Eski owners, the boat tracks really great and it handled good on choppy waters. So, the boat might not be dead. On commercial success: both boats aim for a very small target group. Since the folding kayak market is a niche itself, those boats really *can't* be commercial successes. Disclaimer: I am sympathising with Pouch and am the webmaster of Pouch-inoffiziell.de (non commercial) and PouchBoats.com (commercial). Regards, Marian Marian Gunkel Berlin, Germany http://www.mariangunkel.de *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Sep 13 2000 - 13:28:02 PDT
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