----- Original Message ----- From: <Rcgibbert_at_aol.com> > til late spring for the report. The VCP is built like a tank and I suspect no > weakness. However, loose bolts will leak and flood a hatch. (I know this to > be true.) One final thought: Ralph Diaz is right when he says that a folding > kayak can be stored assembled and paddled on a whim just like any other > boat. Folding kayaks do not mean they must be stored that way. It could be > your regular and travel boat. Early in the 1990s when I had no place to store a hardshell or assembled folding kayak I would show up for a club trip that included both hardshells and folding kayaks. Invariably one of the hardshellers would come over to the assembling folk and say "That is what I hate about folding kayaks, you have to assemble them all the time." My reply would be along the lines that if I had a place to store one assembled I would cartop it as did the individual with his hardshell. I now have several places where I do keep folding kayaks assembled but it really takes much longer to operate in that stored assembled mode than in the out-of-the-bag(s) mode if going anywhere. My calculations: It takes me 10 to 20 minutes to drive to one of the storage areas. I have to open gates, unlock boat, carry it out to place and tie on a car roofrack (I no longer own a car and so I need also to add the time to place a rack on a rental car or use the foam block approach), then I have to untie and take the boat off the roof at the launch site. This all takes time. Even if you had the boat stored at home in a garage and had a roofrack permanently sitting on your car, it still takes 5 to 10 minutes to load/tie it on the roof and 5 minutes to take it off the roof at the launch site. I can assemble a K-Light in 15 minutes and a Klepper in about 10 minutes (disassembly is half that time). If you have any level of practice and know the tricks of the trade your assembly time for a K-Light would be 20 minutes and the Klepper around 15 minutes. I know many people who are faster than me...basically the urban East Coast subway/city-bus crowd of K-Light owners. Folbots are in the same range as are Nautiraids. Other Feathercraft models take a moderate amount longer (for the Kahuna and the post 1998 K-1) or a great deal longer (the Khats, and the doubles). I keep several boats assembled because the locations are on the water and I can go to them by public transportation and paddle away just like any hardsheller. This beats carrying a folding kayak bag(s) down from my walkup apartment and later carrying it up again. But all things else being considered, a folding kayak disassembled gives you lots of options and security and you can always leave it assembled for long periods of time. Feathercrafts and other aluminum framed foldables should be take apart every 3-6 months, although there are ways of extending this safely. Wooden framed ones can be left assembled forever. Last year for example, I took apart a Klepper single that had been stored assembled for 6 to 8 years (Not mine...someone had left it that long at the NYC Downtown Boathouse where I volunteer and he was being asked to vacate his spot. He was using the excuse that he didn't remember how to take it apart so I remembered for him :-)) It came apart easily. Only the longerons were a bit stuck in the cockpit area. I sprayed some Boeshield T-9 there and softly banged on the joint with a small block of wood (a rubber mallet would have been better but I had none) and it then freed up. ralph diaz-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jan 08 2002 - 09:55:30 PST
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