Re: [Paddlewise] Granta Folding boats & Need kayak identification

Ralph_at_PouchBoats.com wrote:
>>>>In fact paddling on the whole only survived because of the emergence of
cheaper plastic kayaks. This in turn has allowed a modern renaissance of
folding boats (which the other Ralph has been documenting for the last
decade
of its growth on this continent).<<<<

Is this the general consensus out there?
I've been around this business since before "cheaper plastic" sea kayaks
(and before sea kayak retail stores existed outside the NW corner of the
US--and SW corner of Canada) and sea kayaking (much less paddling) never
seemed in danger of not surviving to me and in fact was rapidly gaining in
popularity even before plastic came on the scene. Sea kayaking stores had
started popping up around the coastal and Great Lakes areas of the country
by the time the first plastic sea kayak was introduced in 1984 (the
Aquaterra Chinook). Aquaterra/Perception certainly signed up a lot of new
dealers, sporting goods, and hardware stores across the country with the
introduction of the cheap plastic Chinook and later models but I think all
the major folding kayak companies were already in existence before then and
Feathercraft never seemed to be doing anything but expanding as long as I
can remember them (since about 1982). I wonder if Folbot would give us a
sales history from well before 1984 to as recently as they would be willing
to. I think I recall Folbot ads in Canoe magazine since the mid 70's and in
magazines like Popular Mechanics since the 50's. Those sales figures might
be interesting, to see if the popularity growth of plastic kayaks correlated
well with their sales history or did it more closely follow the popularity
of sea kayaking in general, or maybe some other reasons yet to be postulated
will correlate better still. Our company never felt in danger of sea
kayaking not surviving, quite the opposite, the popularity brought much more
competition into the field and for us this certainly began before plastic
sea kayaks were introduced and became widespread. Since Canoeing is also
"paddling" I don't think those companies were saved from extinction by
plastic kayaks either. Sea Kayaking's popularity has probably come partly at
Canoeing's expense.

Marion,
Yes, ASKC was my abbreviation for Advanced Sea Kayaking Club but my memory
inserted Anglesey as my best guess at the time without looking it up (which
is why I added the "I think" after it). I kept the data and sources of it in
abbreviated form because pre 2000 versions of MS Excel had "I think" a 256
unit limit in each cell and I had to abbreviate a lot to get some data to
fit. I even checked my source publications abbreviations list at the top of
the spreadsheet but alas I hadn't listed ASKC among them and had therefore
had to wing it (or work too hard in order to check it). I apologize for the
blunder.

I'll bet the kayak Wayne Smith wanted to know about with the "wings" behind
the cockpit and the groove down the middle is an older model Downriver
Racing Kayak. If so, it will be about 14' 9" (4.5 meters) long and about
24.5" (62cm) wide at the wingtips. Prijon (of Germany) is probably the
largest builder of that type of kayak so if forced to guess I'd go with the
best odds. I seem to remember a DR boat with a groove down the middle too,
?maybe a Phoenix Mach II?--nope, that was built in the USA and would
probably be older than 14 and with clear fabric. Hope the paddler of it had
big float bags in it. Some paddlers have used DR boats as sea kayaks in a
pinch but I wouldn't recommend it. Not only were the ones I tried quite
tippy but they weathercocked horribly in side winds (even empty) and don't
come with rudders.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com



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