Folding kayak

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Main article: Kayak

A folding kayak is a direct descendant of the original Inuit kayak made of animal skins stretched over frames made from wood and bones. A modern folder has a collapsable frame made of some combination of wood, aluminum and plastic, and a skin made of a tough fabric with a waterproof coating. Many have integral air chambers inside the hull, making them virtually unsinkable.

The earliest commercial folding kayaks were developed in the late 19th century in Rosenheim, Germany by Johannes Klepper, and were very popular for their compact size and ease of transport. Klepper's Faltboot was introduced in 1906, many years before hardshell boats were commercially produced. Their Aerius II model was introduced in 1951 and is still in production in 2006. In 1956, Dr. Hannes Lindemann crossed the Atlantic Ocean in an Aerius II, proof of the folding kayak's integrity and seaworthiness! Their light weight and non-metallic construction has made them the choice of many military Special Forces. Nautiraid of France produces a special model for military use, as do Klepper and Long Haul, who supply German and US Special Forces, respectively.

There are about ten major folding kayak manufacturers today, and a handful of small, one-off makers. In addition to Klepper the best-known brands are Feathercraft, Folbot, Long Haul, Nautiraid and Pouch. Long Haul double kayak hulls are identical in form to Kleppers, so a Klepper Aerius II frame can be used with a Long Haul MK-II skin, and vice versa.

Framework of a 2-man kayak

Most folding kayaks have very similar construction, even though the materials may differ. Some boats use frames made of spruce and marine plywood, while others use aluminum tubing and various plastics, and a few newer boats such as Fujita and Firstlight use carbon fiber or fiberglass composite tubing. Typically there are solid bow and stern pieces, and anywhere from three to seven ribs connected via some sort of flexible attachment to a number of longerons. Many boats follow the basic design pioneered by Klepper in having a folding set of floorboards and gunwales as well as additional longerons to add stiffness and shape.

Most folding boats have two-part skins, with different materials used for the deck and the hull. Decks can be made of a breathable cotton/hemp blend, as Klepper has done since their early days, or of coated synthetics, as Feathercraft, Folbot, Nautiraid and Pouch do. Each approach has its own particular benefits and drawbacks; all work well in practice. Hulls are generally made of a heavily coated synthetic fiber. In the early days, rubber coated cotton canvas was used, while the modern boats use a synthetic rubber —Hypalon, polyurethane or PVC—over a synthetic (typically Dacron) cloth.

Folders are known for their durability, stability, and longevity: The Klepper Aerius I (a single-seater) has been used successfully for white-water kayaking (before the era of modern polyethelyne boats), due to its durability and excellent manoeuvrability, while many Kleppers have been in frequent use for more than 20 years.

Although some hardshell kayakers are critical of folding boats and do not regard them as true kayaks, they exhibit many of the same paddling characteristics as the original skin-and-frame vessels of the circumpolar north. Some folding kayaks, like the Feathercraft Khatsolano, are equal in performance to the fastest hardshell kayaks. Other than contemporary replicas of Inuit, Aleut, and Eskimo kayaks and baidarkas, they are the closest relatives to the skin-and-frame boats of the past.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

FoldingKayaks.org (from which some of the text above was adapted, with permission)
Faltboot.de A non-commercial site on folding kayaks in German
Folding Kayak Builders Manual A great site with details on building your own folding kayak.

Incomplete list of folding kayak manufacturers, in alphabetical order: