Before Buying Your First Kayak    by Bob McIlvaine of Splashdance

You have probably noticed that flatwater kayaks are divided into two groups….recreational and sea-touring. Sea-touring indicates (to me) that the boat is suitable for rough seas and strong winds and is built to cover distance with minimal effort.  I would expect a sea touring kayak to be built with different parameters in mind than one used for recreational use. I feel that a recreational kayak should be used in bays, lakes and other  protected waters, or in coastal areas only during calm weather. Rough water is generally caused by wind but remember rough seas may have been caused by a wind which was far away, a wind you did not feel.

A sea-touring kayak may be used for recreational use, but a recreational kayak should not be expected to handle the rigors of sea-touring. 

PLASTIC OR FIBERGLASS? 

If you plan to use your kayak in fast running rivers, Class 2 and above, then polyethylene is the  material of choice for you. Otherwise make your selection based on the following three items of suitability.

1. Is the DESIGN of this kayak suitable for the purpose I intend?  Here you will need help from a trusted friend or someone who knows something about kayaks  These boats are very personal and must be carefully selected to accommodate the expectations of the owner.  

2.  Will the boat FIT me properly?  Of course not.  Unless you plan on purchasing a custom built boat, it is not going to fit properly.  You will have to adjust the fit of the cockpit and footrests to suit you - and since you are unique,  plan on spending some time on this.  However, you MUST HAVE sufficient hip room, leg room, and a comfortable seat to start with, so be sure and mention you height and weight (and age) to the supplier.  Old folks need larger cockpit openings as their joints don't bend as readily as youngsters.  

3.  Is the kayak AFFORDABLE enough ? Keep in mind any necessary auxiliary equipment such as paddle, skirt, cockpit cover, roof rack, life preserver, and pump.

If you do not paddle waters where collisions with hard objects are expected, and the three criteria listed above are met, then fiberglass is the material for you.

Many kayaks are designed for a particular purpose, and the builders take into account which material should be used in the manufacturing process. If performance was the only criteria, then fiberglass would be the material of choice, however under some conditions the durability of plastic takes precedence when selecting a boat. Plastic is softer than fiberglass, and will bend where fiberglass may break under an impact. Fiberglass on the other hand has the advantage of being stiffer than plastic and boats built of this material are lighter than those built of plastic. A stiff boat is a fast boat, and light weight allows quicker acceleration. Plastic is affected by the heat and will become soft in direct sunlight, allowing the boat to dent. These dents are called  "wows"  because dent is a dirty word in the kayak industry. Over a period of time a plastic boat will become scuffed and fuzzy due to the surface material being abraded. A fiberglass boat will  also become visibly scratched and scuffed but it has an advantage in that it can be resurfaced and brought back to its original finish.

You will often see a plastic boat which is better suited to fiberglass construction; you will rarely see a fiberglass boat which is better suited to plastic construction.

WHAT IS ROCKER? Imagine the curved part of a rocking chair where it touches the floor. Let's call this a rocker. If you take a rocker (disconnected from the chair) and give the end a sideways push, the rocker will spin. If you take a straight piece of wood and place in on the floor and give the end a push…it won't spin worth a darn. So, if the bottom of a kayak is shaped with some rocker (hull curved from bow to stern ) it will turn more easily than a boat which has no rocker (straight from bow to stern). This simply is a definition of the shape of the bottom of the boat. More rocker - easier to turn;  less rocker - harder to turn. The best of both worlds would be to have rocker AND no rocker then all your bases would be covered. An expert prefers a boat with little or no rocker because he can cock the boat up on its side when he needs rocker, and drop it back to its bottom when he needs tracking. There is plenty of rocker along the side of a ka yak.

TRACKING

Tracking describes the ability of a kayak to go in a straight line. Obviously the paddling motion contributes to a zigzag forward motion. Wind which hits the kayak from the side may cause it to turn upwind (toward the wind) or downwind (away from the wind). In order for a boat to maintain a straight course in a side wind, the amount of affected material in front of the centerline of the kayak must be equal to the amount of material behind the centerline of the kayak. This is a fine line. What happens if the paddler leans forward or back? Boats are described as good trackers (meaning that they go straight) or bad trackers (meaning that it is difficult to keep them going straight). A long, narrow boat will usually track better than a short fat boat. A fine entry at the bow and stern will contribute to good tracking. The thin rudder-like underwater parts of the bow and stern (I call them the bow blades and stern blades) also contribute to good tracking.

Janautica is the only company I have seen who make their bow and stern blades lower (deeper) than the rest of the kayak bottom. This means better tracking and also assures that when the boat is run aground, the bow or stern (both of which are the strongest part of the kayak bottom) will bottom first. Another point to note is WINDAGE. The higher a kayak sticks up out of the water, the larger the target which can be hit by the wind. Notice how Janautica kayaks have the deck and cockpit at hip level which assures low windage, where many other kayaks have a waist high cockpit and higher deck. Janautica kayaks do not require rudders and you can see how much windage is caused by a rudder in the raised position.  (Of course in the lowered position its a real drag).  It's easier to paddle a rudderless boat with a low cockpit, and advanced maneuvers are more easily performed. .Low windage kayaks will outperform those boats with high windage, and if you own a skirt to keep the water out, the only excuse for having a high windage kayak is so that you can carry more stuff in it.

ROUND BOTTOM or FLAT BOTTOM?

FIBERGLASS

Fiberglass is my favorite material for kayak construction. Kevlar is stronger and is frequently used to keep weight down…..consequently less material is used and the overall strength of the kayak will remain the same. Some kayaks are built so lightly that the boat will drum, or oilcan while being paddled. The woven cloth you see imbedded in the resin of your kayak is the fiberglass cloth or kevlar cloth we are describing. If instead of a woven cloth, you see a jumble of threads pointing every which way, then the kayak is made of "chopped" fiberglass and you don't want it. Chopper gun construction is fast and cheap but it is not as strong as "laid up" cloth construction.

Fiberglass cloth and Kevlar cloth are somewhat different. You can't cut Kevlar without special tools. It's tough. Fiberglass cloth can be cut with scissors; it is not very strong until saturated with resin. Usually when you damage these types of kayaks, you will destroy the resin and the cloth will remain intact….though stretched. The damaged area will appear to have been pulped. To repair, I usually press the damaged area back into shape, and put some cloth and resin on the inside of the boat. Then I grind off all the damaged material on the outside of the boat and add new cloth and resin. After some sanding, the repair can be painted with gel coat (a very hard colored surface paint for fiberglass); it is then sanded and polished and becomes almost invisible. Kevlar cannot be cut with ordinary tools so the repair is more complex. However, the kevlar will withstand abuse which might damage a fiberglass boat.

One interesting point to note is that the cloth (fiberglass or kevlar) must be saturated (filled) with resin for maximum strength but any overage in the amount of resin will not contribute to the strength, it will simply make the boat heavier. Lots of manufacturers "vacuum bag" their kayaks, a process where excess resin is removed by suction (vacuum) and the finished hull is thinner (lighter) , free of air bubbles and more uniform in appearance. Other manufacturers believe that the thicker structure including air bubbles and debris actually adds to the strength of the boat and the small increase in weight is more than offset by the
gain in durability. These people say that vacuum bagging is a very good technique for applications other than kayaks. Janautica manufactures a variety of fiberglass boats and does not use vacuum bagging.