Re: [Paddlewise] New Folbot Video Clip

> I received an email from Folbot that had a link to their new folding boat
> which, according to the video, comes in one backpack and assembles in 12.5
> minutes.

Oh, yeah.... And covers 12.5 nm in 12.5 hours. This is a 10 ft boat with 34"
beam.  Miracles don't happen. With folders, you either have a well performing
and/or rugged hull and frame (think Feathercraft), or fast assembling.  This
all has been discussed many times at www.foldingkayaks.org. My apologies for
late response to the message. Have just returned from the "undiscovered land"
- Exumas Land and Sea Park on Bahamas, via same undiscovered Nassau, (and
quite deservedly so). Exumas and the Park leave better impression than Nassau,
though. With FC Kahuna - 15 ft boat (true), 36 lbs weight (real weight 51 lbs
with bag, seat, seasock and rudder),  allegedly 20-nimutes assembling (average
reported time 30 minutes with rudder, takes me usually 30-35 minutes). Hot,
sweltering weather, assembe after red-eyes flight from Vancouver (+ 3 hrs time
difference), moving slow like a lemur, few mistakes requiring partial
dissembling and assembling again. Result: 6 hours (!!!), including packing in
all the 2-week food and gear, 30 minuters lunch break, 30 miinutes rain break,
few minutes talking to a police cruiser (no, officer, I'm not camping, I'm
assembling and getting the heck out of here), and to local yachtie about the
closest wilderness campsite. Probably, the assembling itself took some 2 or
2.5 hours. (And I have already assembled it dozens of times before, less than
40 minutes usually). But it is really a seaworthy folder, fast, extremely
rudded, and capable of a 2-week unsupported trip with a paddler under 160 lbs
(3 weeks if you don't have to carry 20 liters of fresh water).

Back to the newly discovered folder. Anybody concerned may visit
www.folbot.com for more details.
..."Bag dimensions: 35" x 18" x 10". Only 24 lbs., it packs down small and
takes minutes to assemble. ...With this urban friendly boat - just toss it
over your shoulder and hop on the subway or bus"...

My 2 cents:
You may safely add 10 lbs to the above 24 lbs of the stated weight of the boat
(bag, seat, sprayskirt, cockpit cover), and another 10 lbs of paddle, pump,
PFD, snack, water bottle, sunblock etc - about 44 lbs in total. Like I said,
packed FC Kahuna weighs 51 lbs, and it DOES come in a good backpack (same size
as this 10-ft Folbot bag), so you don't have to toss it over your shoulder,
risking to dislocate some spinal vertebra. Backpack of that size is very bulky
and makes for uncomfortable weight distribution, so 50 lbs feels like 70.  You
can't walk nonchalantly with such a hump, you can hardly toil along some
100-200 yards.  With FC, there have been some suggestions from European users
on how to use a kayak cart to tranport an FC backpack (they do use trains and
buses - we apparently have bypassed this evolutionary step on the West Coast).
Some carts are not suitable for trains, and some suitable are too bulky for
storing under deck in a single folder, - so this does represent a problem.
"Tossing it over your shoulder", they say?  What manufacturers think, I
wonder, when they attach a gym-bag strap to some 40-50 lbs bag (not just this
one - there are some other too).  Perhaps, they need somebody to injure
oneself and sue these buffoons.
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