Re: [Paddlewise] Has anyone seen a Long Haul Mark II

----- Original Message -----
From: "John MacKechnie" <bigmac1_at_enter.net>
>
> Since your very familiar with Kleppers et al. How long do the red decks
last
> before they pink out? I really like red for visability, but kin general,
red
> dyes seem to fade rather quickly. I've never seen a red Klepper with a few
> years on it. Any thoughts.

The red canvas deck holds up pretty well against becoming pink.  I suppose
it would fade eventually if gruelling left out in the Sun.  I have seen this
with the olived drab deck on Eric Stiller's Southern Cross Klepper which he
and Tony Brown paddled some 4,000 miles along the Australian Coast from
Sydney to Darwin.  It had turned a khaki color.  But I have not seen a
Klepper deck faded to pink.  I did see a Feathercraft turn that color.  They
were once offering a nice magenta but they dropped it because of the quick
fading to pink.  I am confident enough of my masculinity in a magenta boat
but not in a pink!  :-)

Mark Ekhardt of Long Haul does indeed have a stellar reputation for his
workmanship in repairs and innovation with Kleppers when he ran their repair
service and began his Long Haul line of aftermarket products and
modifications (he preceded Klepper in making zippered decks).  I have not
seen the Long Haul double that he now manufacturers but I did discuss the
innovations and updates he made to the basic Klepper and they do seem to be
advances from what he describes.

I believe I told this story before.  I first became aware of Mark's work
around 1991 when I was at the first Balogh sail get-together on the North
Carolina coast.  Someone had a single Klepper that made me do a double-take.
I could tell by some tell-tale small details that it was a version that was
at least 15 years old at the time (Klepper makes minute changes that only
the literati could detect) but it looked as if the boat had come right out a
factory shipping box.  I learned that it had been an older boat refurbished
by Mark.  I asked around and Klepper was not even aware of his existence
although one would think that his purchasing of lots of fittings etc. would
draw some raised eyebrows.  I told the owners in Germany about him.  They
saw his work and brought he and his wife for a few weeks stay in Rosenheim
so that he could get more formal training, not that he seemed to need much,
if any.  They then set him up as the official repair center.

Sadly, last year there was a business-related falling out between Mark and
the present owners and ties were severed.  Lots of accusations from both
sides.  I tried to intercede over several days when I was in Rosenheim last
year for the opening of the Klepper Museum even offering some temporary
solutions.  But my efforts over there were to no avail since by then the
battlelines were too hardened and embittered.  Such fallings-out are not
unusual in the kayaking business.  There are a number of these that several
of us on PaddleWise could relate from the hardshell world especially
involving importation of British boats.  In one case I know of, the falling
out also resulted in the local guy starting to produce his own line of boats
to make up for the loss of the imported ones.  I don't know what became of
this eventually.

ralph diaz


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