RE: [Paddlewise] Modern history of kayaking

Peter Chopelas wrote:
>>>>>Does any have a guess how many commercially manufactured sea kayaks are
sold today world wide?  And how many folding kayaks?<<<<<

No, but I could give you a minimum number for "ever was kayaks" rather than
just those still sold today. Obviously, there are more that I don't know of
yet.
The number of one-person kayak builders I know of worldwide as of today is
689. These aren't all commercial builders but most of the non-commercial
builders fall into the wood kayak subsection. The breakdown is 146 wood
kayak builders (those with distinct designs--not just those building someone
else's designs) with a total of 450 models among them, 131 skin on frame,
folding, or wood/canvas kayak builders, building 510 models of singles (and
doubles--this category only)(this isn't counting any of the true Eskimo
designs--in museums--see David Zimmerley's website www.arctickayaks.com for
21 pages listing those), 222 North American builders of fiberglass and/or
plastic kayaks (excluding whitewater, wave skis, competition kayaks and
competition surf skis--but including recreational, rec. sit-on-top, touring,
and sea kayaks) with 943 models. 190 builders of glass and plastic singles
in 21 countries outside of North America building 737 (substantially
different) named models. That's a total of 2640 models from 689 builders
(including the double folding kayaks--I haven't yet separated them out into
their own spreadsheet--I'd guess maybe 150 to 200 of those I listed in the
fabric kayak category are doubles). Actually, because of the individual
variations easily possible with most of the non-folding kayaks in the skin
on frame category there are probably many more individual models unnamed
that actually vary more than some of the plastic or glass kayaks with a new
deck or hatch arrangement and a different name attached. The biggest listing
of folding kayak companies and models is at
http://www.faltbootkabinett.de/index.html.

Some designers of their own personal kayaks or commercial kayaks posting on
paddlewise are:

PETER CHOPELAS:Peter A. Chopelas is one builder/designer with two skin
kayaks so far.
	BPB-01  (10-4) (1st. predotype)
	Stretched Retrieval Kayak (10-4)(folding)

COMPANY NAME UNKNOWN:Fernando López Arbarello
	Name unknown (?) 	1991      (would you like to fill me in on the details
Fernando?)

DUANE STROSAKER:Duane Strosaker  is another with his new wood kayak
	Prototype Sea/Surf kayak  (14-0)

ROBERT LIVINGSTON:Robert Livingston  (all fiberglass)
	Excalibur  (17-1) 	<1981
	Ursa Minor (15-7)(first plug)1983
	Ursa Minor  (15-7) 	1984
	Ursa Micro   (13-2) 	1985
	Ursa Major   (16-5) 	1986
	Ursa 350    (?)	2001  (mold just completed, have you named it yet Robert?
dimensions?)

FERGUSON KAYAKS/SEALAND PUBLICATIONS:Alex "Sandy" Ferguson
	Seaward W  (17-2.5)(W=wood plans)	<1990
	Coastal   (?)	<1985
	Mac 50   (?)	<1999
	Mist  (?)(tortured plywood)	<1999
	"T" Class  (?)	2000
< in front of the year means "older than"

There are several other kayak designer's contributing to paddlewise
including Nick Schade, and John Winters
Who have I missed?

BTW, if you have designed a kayak (or know of someone who is designing or
building kayaks locally but hasn't done any advertising nationally) I would
be most interested in knowing about you (or them) and the kayaks. I collect
the following data (when I can), Country of origin, Company name (year Co.
founded, Co. address, phone & fax #'s, e-mail and website address), company
owner's name, Single kayak model name, designer's name, year of first
introduction (or oldest reference found), the kayaks length, width, volume,
depth (inside cockpit front from bottom of the coaming to the inside of
hull), inside length and width of the cockpit. On the 550 plus kayaks I have
paddled I time how fast they can spin in place and turn at speed (both when
level and leaned up to where water is not quite spilling into the cockpit if
I don't have a spraydeck on--or as much as I dare given the outfitting if I
can't safely lean that much). If I'm testing near my store I also time top
speed in a short sprint over a fixed course.


Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com


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