by John Winters
Your first sea kayak is unlikely to be your last. Knowledge, skills, and ambitions grow with experience and a boat designed to suit novices rarely suits a paddler in the butterfly stage. That is why the first boat is so important. The boat you start with influences how and what (and even if) you will paddle tomorrow. A good boat nurtures your skills and leads to many hours of safe paddling enjoyment while a bad one becomes an expensive yard sale item.
Unfortunately, most people buy the first boat on impulse. Paddling looks like fun, looks easy, and the sleek and sexy boats promote visions of “Man against the sea.” Thus unarmed, buyers deliver themselves and their credit cards into the hands of well-meaning but not always sympathetic salespeople. “Well meaning,” because I have never met an unscrupulous salesperson. “Less than sympathetic,” because salespeople rarely put themselves in the buyer’s lifejacket. It is not a case of caveat emptor but more humanum est errare. If you have the good fortune to find a thoroughly knowledgeable salesperson who understands you, your goals and your skills better than you yourself do then you can ignore this article. If not, this course, Boat Buying 101, will help you avoid a few pitfalls.
First, organize your priorities. Will you paddle casually with no illusions about your abilities nor any strong desire to excel or do you have lofty goals? Do you have a long-range goal of extended expeditions or will inshore paddling in protected waters satisfy you? Are you cautious or daring? Will you paddle for relaxation or thrills?
With your goals defined, you can fill out your personal boat buying questionnaire realistically. Like those questionnaires in Cosmopolitan about you and your lover’s compatibility, you should answer with brutal honesty. You must also do this before you look at boats! Keeping your head in the presence of beautiful boats is not easy.
Your Personal Priority List
- How do you rate your current skill level? (1 if you have never paddled, 10 if you have forgotten more about paddling than most people will ever know). ______
- What skill level do you expect to reach two years from now? (See above) ______
- Where will you paddle? Will you paddle on the ocean, or on large lakes, or just around the cottage, warm or cold water? ___________________
- What weight do you expect your boat to carry? Total Weight _________
- Arrange the following from most to least importance to you.
Aesthetics 1.__________________________
Controllability 2.__________________________
Durability 3.__________________________
Maintenance 4.__________________________
Price 5.__________________________
Seaworthiness 6.__________________________
Efficiency 7.__________________________
Stability 8.__________________________
Weight 9.__________________________
Other Requirements 10.__________________________
I have deliberately left “Comfort” out of the priority list. Your safety and enjoyment depend upon your mood and your mood varies with how good your body feels after several hours of paddling. Why a particular seat or cockpit suits one and not the other eludes me but the importance of the proper cockpit environment does not. For instance, small cockpits and hard molded seats get no raves from me. Any kayak that I cannot enter and exit with ease or a seat that does not coddle my butt gets an immediate negative response. The same applies to canoes. An uncomfortable seat can destroy an otherwise enjoyable paddle. Much better paddlers contend (and probably correctly) that I am a wimp, or worse, but that will not change years of conditioning. So, do not negotiate your comfort. No matter how appealing a boat looks, if it feels like a tight pair of shoes, look elsewhere.
Comments
Questions #1 & 2
The sexiest boats have long, slender, responsive and demanding hulls. If you lack confidence in your abilities, a more stable user-friendly kayak will provide more enjoyment. By “user friendly,” I mean one that does not require exceptional skills to keep upright or on course. Remember, your skills will improve in direct proportion to your enjoyment. When you feel ready for something more challenging you can get it.
Yes, some gurus of the sport insist that everyone learn to paddle in a high performance boat. “How else will you develop proper skills?” they ask. This has some validity but assumes that everyone has the same lofty goal when many people just want some good safe fun. Fast learners might step right into a high performance kayak with impunity but those with less confidence might prefer a gradual introduction to paddling. Better to fit the boat to your abilities and goals than vice versa.
Question #3
Where you paddle has qualitative and quantitative aspects. One can paddle extensively in the ocean and never, ever meet anything more than a gentle rolling swell. On the other hand, some small lakes can rattle your fillings. Nevertheless, large bodies of water carry large risks. Tidal currents, breaking surf, rapidly changing weather can make a pleasant paddle a nightmare. Your boat should handle the worst you will experience but remember that no boat can save you from bad judgment.
Question #4
Do not let “Volume” figures mislead you. You will want to know how much weight the designer intended the boat to carry or its “designed displacement.” Abundant room under the deck does not mean the boat will handle well when stuffed like a Christmas goose. In the absence of the designed displacement figures (not unusual), you must load it up and try it out. If it feels sluggish and unwieldy with you and your gear, it is too small no matter how much room it has.
Question #5
Aesthetics
I know of no law saying a boat must be ugly to be inexpensive, durable, safe, or perform well. Paddling is an aesthetic experience and you should never have to explain that the boat on your BMW is not a bathroom fixture. On the other hand, if it stirs your soul, that is all that matters.
Controllability
This includes both tracking and maneuverability. The balance between the two depends upon how and where you paddle. You will need less maneuverability in open water and more in confined waters or surf. Only a test paddle will tell you if a boat will do what you want. Be sure to test the boat loaded though. This brings up the topic of rudders.
Most well designed kayaks track straight yet turn readily using just paddle strokes and the purist will accept nothing less. Nevertheless, a rudder can make an abominable kayak handle reasonably well and can help when you lack skills. Quartering waves and wind make most boats difficult to hold on course and a rudder can provide just the right amount of course correction to ease the drudgery. No, the Inuit did not use rudders but they spent their lives in their boats. If you paddle to and from work and the grocery store is out in the ocean, you probably will not need a rudder. Canoeists rarely have the option because the added complication of a rudder would destroy the beautiful simplicity of the type not to mention making portaging a hazard.
Durability
If you do not coddle your boat and rarely have to carry it far polyethylene and other thermoplastics (Royalex® et al) boats make sense. For best performance, however, nothing beats lightweight. Unfortunately, less costs more so let your ability and pocket book guide you.
Maintenance
Unless you have bought something exotic, maintenance should not pose any problems. Modern boats are relatively maintenance free. Oddly enough, most damage occurs when loading or storing so good roof and storage racks are a wise investment.
Price
Set a flexible range. Adhering slavishly to a price limit is often false economy and a few extra dollars might buy a significantly better boat.
Seaworthiness
Seaworthiness means more than just keeping the paddler dry and the water out. The boat must be controllable in confused and large seas, fast enough to get you past dangerous shoals even when you have to paddle into the wind, and stable enough to keep you upright even when you are tired.
Here is a good time to talk about the Eskimo roll.
Experts differ on the importance of the roll and whether a boat should roll easily or capsize rarely. The jury remains out on this. Nevertheless, thousands of miles of trouble free paddling have been logged in kayaks that roll poorly or not at all. Since easy to roll kayaks also capsize easily that may provide as hint regarding the kind of boat you want. Fast learners and enthusiasts can step right over here to these skinny boats. Casual types with a strong fear of getting wet can step over here by these wide boats. Canoeists will just have to stay upright.
Efficiency
Do not confuse efficiency with speed. Do not expect to cruise at 8 mph unless you have the muscles and skills. Fast boats need strong paddlers. You want the fastest boat at your normal stroke rate and power. Increasing length (the important “length” is the waterline and not the overall length) increases the top speed potential but because length always adds wetted surface, added length reduces efficiency at lower speeds. Most people buy kayaks much longer than they need.
Stability
Boat “X” may feel “stable” to the salesperson but like sitting on a basketball to you. Since stability varies significantly with the load, test the boats fully loaded. Mind you, it does not take long to become accustomed to a boat but that does not mean you should have to. Some sneer derisively at stable boats but don’t let them influence you. Many stable boats feel just as responsive as some of the tippy, super boats.
Weight
Even if you rarely or never portage you still have to get the boat on your vehicle. If you cannot get it on your van without help, you might consider paying more for a lighter boat. Lighter boats also handle better in rough water, turn more easily, and paddle more easily.
Other Requirements
If you consider it important put it down.
Now, examine your list. Adjust it if needed and you can start looking at kayaks.
Looking at Boats
Rule #1: Stick to your priorities and stick to your list. Ask the salesperson how each boat fits your criteria not his or someone else’s. What the rest of the world paddles means nothing to you. What skill level does the boat suit? What load is it designed to carry? Accept no compromise on your important issues. You will always regret giving up something you value for a passing whim. For items of middling importance, you can accept some compromise. For instance, if you rank aesthetics fifth, a plastic boat should do fine even though you might prefer something a little sleeker and shinier. You can usually ignore the items at the bottom of your list if all other requirements are met.
The keenly observant will notice that I have said nothing about test paddling and nothing about the advice of experts or friends. You definitely should test paddle a boat but you may not know what makes or breaks a boat. To find out you can take professionally run paddling lessons, join a kayaking club, or paddle with friends in rented boats. This is where experts and friends come in. They have been the same route, already made some of the mistakes, and might even know that first class salesperson I mentioned earlier.
This article is excerpted from the e-book, The Shape of the Canoe, by John Winters. It was reviewed in this the Summer 2008 issue of Qayaq, and is available from the author at jdwinters@eastlink.ca.