> <chrstjrn-11113745_at_mailblocks.com> wrote: > > >>As most of us know, Klepper doubles and other folding kayaks have a > long and distinguished record of open-water use. The party-line in the > folder community seems to be that foldables are so stable and magical > that they don't need to be able to roll (and the image of the sailboat > doing a roll in "The Perfect Storm" swims into my head...).>> I agree with some of the gist of the fellow's statement above in that folding kayakers often are complacent and won't wear PFDs or cold water exposure clothing or have any idea of how to get back in their boat in the event of a capsize. They are mistaken and I have spent countless hours saying so and killed many trees to go into publishing in articles and books about just how foolish it is to absolutely rely on the magic of foldables. A couple of thoughts: 1. Any boat can be flipped given the right set of tipping conditions. So foldables will tip. I have had one flip on me a single Klepper when pinned against a strainer, i.e. every boat will go over in one unless you are awfully lucky. 2. Foldables for a variety of reasons tend to have enough stablilty that they are harder to tip over. And they tend to tip more slowly giving you somewhat of a better chance to brace if caught unawares. I have seen this on several occasions. On one, my wife was in a Feathercraft K-Light with fairly calm conditions. To this day I do not know why she went over. I was slightly ahead and to one side of her about 3 boat lengths apart. She had not been paddling much and lost any instinctive bracing that she did have. I heard her call out "Ralph, I'm going over!" I turned around and said to myself "she is." It seemed to take about 3 seconds. Any righting movement even a head snap or anything would have stopped it. 3. Foldables are a devil to empty out because they have no bulkheads. Air bags are mandatory...the air sponsons are simply not enough. Even with air bags they still can take on a lot of water if it is allowed to be scooped in over time. 4. When filled with a lot of water, foldables become remarkably stable unlike hardshells which can be difficult to paddle under such conditions without tipping over again and again until you are too exhausted to continue self-rescues. (the air sponsons work to dampen the sloshin around of water that would otherwise make a flooded kayak unstable). 5. Foldables tend to be easier to re-enter once capsized. Probably because of those sponsons stabilizing the sloshing around waters. 6. Regarding rolling a foldable: a) Any one of them can be rolled. I have seen double Kleppers rolled as well as a number of singles (and not just the Khatsalano but also a single Klepper b) The secret to rolling one is to make certain you are well braced and to realize that the rolling up motion is also slow (sort of like the tipping motion) and so make certain your body doesn't get ahead of the rolling up foldable c) What I say in b immediately above tends to be less critical once one gets proficient at rolling a foldable. There is a fellow from Philadelphia, Dubside, who can do all the Greenland rolls in a Feathercraft K-Light and Kahuna. I have seen him demonstrate this in NYC and people on the list who go to the Greenland Paddlers Retreat at the end of September in Delaware can certainly pipe in to confirm this as Dubside has been going there for a few years now demonstrating this. d) Except for people like Dubside who has worked to perfect his rolling and bracing skills(BTW and by way of another series of discussions here, Dubside is the "Greenist" kayaker around, moves around strictly on public transportation with his kayak and doesn't own a car), rolling a foldable is more of a circus act and not generally a reliable self-rescue skill. People can do it under controlled conditions with lots of setup but find it difficult to do as a combat roll. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 1365, Highland, NY 12528 Tel: 845-255-7742; 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 Fri Feb 06 2004 - 08:55:16 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:12 PDT