[Paddlewise] Folding boats

I'm very glad that my hasty comments on the developments of folding and rigid kayaks prompted Matt Broze and Ralph Diaz to take serious issue. Thanks, guys!!

I do maintain, from a European perspective, that the increased popularity of cheap outboard motors in the sixties reduced the customer base for folding kayaks / boats, which did not recover and begin to thrive again until the advent of kayaks sold at entry level pricing. To wit Klepper's attempts to partake of the motorboat and sailing dhingy market to stem the flow. When I was a kid in Germany in the late sixties and early seventies, Kleppers were well known, of course (as was Pouch, incidentally), but considered "relatively" exotic compared to what the situation had been when my father lived with them 10, 15 and 20 years earlier.

:-)

Times have changed for the better!!

Ralph C. Hoehn
Ralph_at_PouchBoats.com
www.PouchBoats.com
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************