Regarding the first use of bulkheads and hatches in kayaks, several years ago at the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium, Sam Cook related how he and the other expedition members designed them for use on the Nordkapp expedition of 1975. One of the most interesting things about his talk was a slide show of the several stages of the design process, in particular of the different hatch designs they tried. They persuaded Frank Goodman to build a longer, faster kayak for the expedition that incorporated not only bulkheads and hatches but a built-in bilge pump and a prototypical day hatch that was a removable watertight cylinder placed into a well in the afterdeck. This was the origin of the famous Nordkapp kayak. Goodman was reluctant to put bulkheads into a kayak out of concern about the stresses they might cause, but did so for the expedition. Before the Nordkapp kayak, the expedition members paddled Anas Acutas that lacked bulkheads. It was a difficult rescue during a training trip that persuaded the expedition members that they needed bulkheads and pumps (as opposed to balers), and of course bulkheads make hatches necessary. The pumps were intended only for operation by kayakers assisting the flooded boat, hence the awkward placement behind the paddler. Sam modestly said there was some controversy in Britain about who invented bulkheads and hatches, but this was his personal experience. I suspect that they were probably all independent inventions. For another account of the Nordkapp kayak, see http://www.nmmc.co.uk/index.php?page=Collections&type=Boat&id=190&choiceid=149 Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Oct 10 2007 - 13:18:43 PDT
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