This fellow has put up a good series of comparative photos of the Feathercraft Kahuna and the new Folbot Cooper: http://faculty.bus.olemiss.edu/jwee/kayaking.htm The Cooper is Folbot's entry into the "performance" folding kayak market. It retails for a lot less than the Kahuna, and is supposedly selling fast. No commercial affiliation with Folbot or Feathercraft. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
> This fellow has put up a good series of comparative photos of the > Feathercraft Kahuna and the new Folbot Cooper: > http://faculty.bus.olemiss.edu/jwee/kayaking.htm > > The Cooper is Folbot's entry into the "performance" folding kayak market. It > retails for a lot less than the Kahuna, and is supposedly selling fast. > > No commercial affiliation with Folbot or Feathercraft. Good review. Performace of Cooper shouldn't be too bad, with such a length, width and weight.. I'd like to read how he will glue keel and stringer strips. Feathercraft strips are probably welded - they just don't come off, unlike any glued-on strips or patches. Or may be factory glued them using some thermo-processing. There is very good and flexible Aquaseal glue for urethan, and there are some glues for PVC, but PVC/uretathane blend of Cooper puzzles me. Glueing PVC is trickier than urethane - vinyl glues are mostly contact, good results require re-heating before joining the surfaces. I was never good at such jobs anyway, and results were always ugly, though urethane (Aquaseal) joints were quite reliable. I don't subscribe under his worries about irreversible glue residues on or around such joints, be it Copper's blend or Feathercraft's urethane - anything short of epoxy can be cleaned if fabric surface isn't textured (and Cooper's hull is probably not). On the other hand, glueing or cleaning in such volumes isn't something that I would suggest to apartment dwellers (and some Cooper owners are). $1200 price... well, with sprayskirt, 3 strips (but without a seasock), plus pretty expensive glue for such a surface it becomes close to $1350 (adding couple of lbs too). It should be close to the price of Kodiak ($1450) after this introductory offer ends (plus $100-120 to add strips and sprayskirt). I admire Folbot marketing policy (including extremely fast customer service, which takes a lot of nerves). As to the Feathercraft factory-dirrect discount - right now I don't see any, compared to dealer's prices. 2 years ago, when $US just began sliding down, but prices didn't change, it was cheaper to buy Feathercraft in the USA, where some dealers offered discount towards extras like hatches or rudder (and may still offer it). So down south I went, very sad :-), considering 10 miles distance to Feathercarft facotory and 100+ miles to Seattle. Today $CDN is 10% or 15% more expensive relatively to $US than 2 years ago. Feathercraft factory now sells Kahunas for $US 2100 (or $CDN 2900), and Seattle dealer sells them for the same $US 2100, and Vancouver dealer has posted bright "discount" stickers on each and every kayak - which brings Kahuna price to the same $CDN 2900 :-).... *************************************************************************** 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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