In a message dated 9/12/2002 3:33:05 AM Eastern Standard Time, teitelba_at_post.tau.ac.il writes: > JoshT: ... The only time we were questioned about it was by a security guy > in Frankfurt who wanted to discuss kayaking! (Ralphs: I even discussed the > Klepper "faltbot" [sp.?]) ... RalphH: The German term "das Faltboot" translated to "foldboat" in English about a century ago (the first US "Foldboat Club" was founded in New Jersey in 1927 already), which surely had some influence on the venerable brand name "Folbot" ... :-) The initially somewhat derogatory German term "der Hadernkahn", applied to above mentioned foldboats by the obviously uninitiated, translates loosely to "rag boat". Picture this (hypothetical! :-) scene: Harried New York City passer-by sees Ralph Diaz walking from subway to the Downtown Boathouse on the Hudson River. He's carrying a bag containing his sleek-to-be, but as yet disassembled and neatly packed, folding kayak. "What are you going to do with that BAG OF RAGS AND STICKS?" she asks, to which Ralph Diaz answers quick as a whip, "I'm going to turn it into my SEAKAYAK!" As Ralph, as usual, makes short work of making good on that promise, she watches in amazement, mumbling under her breath, "it's a RAG BOAT!" Incidentally, "Der Hadernkahn" is also the title of a beautiful pictorial history of "foldboating" by Ursula and Christian Altenhofer, which exhaustively traces the craft through its pre- and post-war heydays. Even if you have no intention of ever trying to decipher the German text (there's not that much of it), the book is worth buying for the pictures alone (there is an abundance of those)! (I have no stake in the book :-). What does this have to do with "flying with kayak gear to the WCSKS"? I'll be "testing" procedures at JetBlue next week, carrying with me some (too much!) of the gear we'll need at the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium. Foldboat alert: Folders on show at the WCSKS will include Ally (folding canoes by Bergans of Norway), Feathercraft (no introduction needed!), FirstLight Kayaks (new from New Zealand), Foldingcraft (Japanese folders), Folding Kayak Adventures (handy Feathercraft rentals), and Long Haul Folding Kayaks (Mark Eckhardt, formerly the "Klepper Service Center", will be showing his brand new "Mk-II" double folder). Under the banner of "Rag Boat Rodeo" we'll be joining the folder line-up on the beach with the Atlatl (new from China) and PouchBoats (I'm commercially affiliated with both of these), as well as samples by Triton (of Russia) and Pakboats (folding canoes from New Hampshire). http://www.wcsks.org/wcsks.htm They even allow non-folders at the WCSKS ... http://www.wcsks.org/2002exhibitors.html ;-)) September 20-22 in Port Townsend, WA. See you there! Best regards, Ralph 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/ ***************************************************************************
----- Original Message ----- From: <FoldingBoats_at_aol.com > > The German term "das Faltboot" translated to "foldboat" in English about a > century ago (the first US "Foldboat Club" was founded in New Jersey in 1927 > already), which surely had some influence on the venerable brand name > "Folbot" ... :-) Legend has it that a decision was made not to use the term faltboot in the US because people might confuse the word falt with fault and think the product was faulty. :-) > > The initially somewhat derogatory German term "der Hadernkahn", applied to > above mentioned foldboats by the obviously uninitiated, translates loosely to > "rag boat". I once was bantering with Andy Zimmermann former owner of Wilderness Systems who regularly kidded me about folding kayaks (not the only one see note on Lee Moyer of Pacific Water Sports below). I pointed out how the skin of a folding kayak might make a nice camping hammock upon which Andy looked at the frame and immediately exclaimed "firewood!" As for Lee Moyer. At one symposium where I was a speaker and had a tag with my name and publication, Folding Kayaker, Lee started poking my name tag and saying "Ah, you're kayakers that fold." Or Dr. Hannes Lindermann, who crossed the Atlantic in a folding kayak in 1955, also looking at the tag at another symposium and poking me with the remark "The boats don't actually fold." They don't fold in the sense of like an accordian. They assemble from individual frame parts and frame subassemblies. The skin folds or rolls up. > > Picture this (hypothetical! :-) scene: > > Harried New York City passer-by sees Ralph Diaz walking from subway to the > Downtown Boathouse on the Hudson River. He's carrying a bag containing his > sleek-to-be, but as yet disassembled and neatly packed, folding kayak. > > "What are you going to do with that BAG OF RAGS AND STICKS?" she asks, to > which Ralph Diaz answers quick as a whip, > > "I'm going to turn it into my SEAKAYAK!" Actually something happened to one of our kayakers who with a group of us had taken the Staten Island ferry and local train to a put-in spot on the Arthur Kill to visit the Graveyard of Ships. He was making his Feathercraft Kahuna in the shade away from the rest of the group and close to restaurant on whose lawn we were doing the procedure. Some worried staff came out cautiously as they watched him let the bungeed aluminum tubes spring into shape. They were worried that he was setting up a tent and intending to camp out! In paraphrase of Rodney Dangerfield, "We get no respect!" ralph diaz *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 9/12/2002 10:20:04 AM Eastern Standard Time, rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com writes: > RalphD: ... I once was bantering with Andy Zimmermann former owner of > Wilderness Systems who regularly kidded me about folding kayaks (not the > only one see note on Lee Moyer of Pacific Water Sports below). I pointed > out how the skin of a folding kayak might make a nice camping hammock upon > which Andy looked at the frame and immediately exclaimed "firewood!" ... RalphH: "Der Hadernkahn" illustrates some very (!) twentieth century early folding boats, which lacked a certain longitudinal stiffness, especially when they got older and the natural-fiber skin substrates stretched. "Floating Hammocks" was the common term for boats like that ... the book also contains pictures of "firewood" resulting from overly ambitions white water runs! I guess that's sort of like the pictures of aluminium canoes getting wrapped around boulders and trees. Of course you wouldn't expect pictures of crushed and/or ripped-up plastic boats, unless someone dove for them on the river bottom ... (ducking the hardshell flames :-) Best regards, Ralph 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/ ***************************************************************************
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