A note about the new kayak

A note from Christopher Cuningham:

The “Special Bulletin” I posted recently asking for help getting a new kayak to Freya generated a lot of comments about replacing Freya’s kayak halfway through the circumnavigation. I thought it well worth noting that the kayak Freya has been using from the start until now was a stock 18x Sport from Epic kayaks, with some reinforcements added just prior to the the beginning of the expedition. It was not the kayak that Freya and Epic kayaks had intended for the trip. I asked Greg Barton of Epic Kayaks to provide a brief explanation:

“We intended from the beginning to provide Freya with a custom boat built to her specifications, but we were unable to supply it because our molds were being held hostage in a manufacturing facility in China. We finally re-tooled from scratch in our new factory and this boat was in the works long before Freya spent the night stranded on the reef. So she’ll now be getting the boat that we hoped to have for her back in January at the beginning of her expedition. That being said, our standard light construction model has held up remarkably well (until the reef incident). In the past 5-1/2 months Freya has covered more distance than most paddlers do in a lifetime.”

We have a few leads on transporting the new kayak from Perth to Broome, but the call is still out for volunteers or suggestions. We’ll let you know when we have a solid plan to get the boat to Freya. Many thanks to all that have written to us with possible solutions.

10 comments on “A note about the new kayak

Der Matrose

As far as the boat is concerned, there’s another point no one seems to see. If Epic provides the boat, they may have a product development interest in seeing how two different layups (stock and custom) hold up over a similar stretch of time. By replacing halfway through, they’ll be able to compare the two boats at the end and improve the already amazing design for future model years.

Martin

Well, isn’t Paul Caffyn’s original Nordkap still afloat? I think that boat took quite some punishing as well and survived many trips.

Anyways, the boat-discussion does not make much of a differnce to the overall performance of Paul, Freya and many other expedition paddlers.

Cheers, Martin

Marcus

Glicker compared apples with apples (or, pending on the point of view, oranges with oranges).

NDK’s and Valley’s one-piece boats are indeed trusted work horses, but as glicker says, fiberglass has a tendency to break when approached by a rock or reef (or vice versa).

– My then brand new “Ireland Explorer” (a one piece, not a sectional) was holed 6 times during the Ireland circumnavigation (1,100 Miles) and had to be brought back to the NDK factory for an overhaul.

– Similar fate struck my “Iceland Explorer (a “one piece” as well) which suffered 7 larger holes and one 12″ crack, only after 210 Miles, and became un-paddable after a badly timed surf launch.

– The also brand new “Falklands Explorer” (also a one piece) was holed 2 times, took in water and thus was almost un-paddable on the last day of the circumnavigation, after only 680 Miles.

John, please give Epic, and Freya a break!

john f

This is an apples-to-oranges comparison: you can’t compare Epic’s 1-piece boats to NDK’s rare 3-piece boats. Don’t most people who paddle the NDK boats paddle the 1-piece variety? I believe they are the most widely used boats on long expeditions, with great success.

I would like to see how many other production lightweight kayaks (the Epic is light, very) would take the abuse that Freya has given to hers already. While it is possible to destroy any kayak in surf conditions the fact that hers has no splitting seams or other structural failures shows that the laminate of the Epics is kosher.
Putting a hole in loaded kayak running over a reef is probably unavoidable in any kayak.

glicker

i think it’s also worth noting that when freya’s set her solo record around New Zealand’s South island she snapped the first third off her expeidtion layup (non Epic) sea kayak launching through the surf. and marcus demuth, who recently set a record for his solo around the Falkland Islands, did much the same in the same expedition sea kayak during his attempted solo around Iceland…. both of those trips were shorter (by a large margin) that what freya has already done in the Epic kayak she’s been using. in short, when it’s a contest btw heavy surf and/ or a reef, fiberglass loses every time…

Paul Rosenquist

I’m impressed to Greg how the boat held up! Impressive. It says a lot about A: How Feya handles her craft, and B: How the thing is built.

We have had stock boats to on various expeditions and it is amazing to see how they often return in a far better state after thousands of kilometers of non stop paddling than from 2 months of rental here in the city center….

Best of luck to Freya on the rest of here trip and to Epic for getting the new boat out there.

Paul (Ex Point65 Sweden)

Comments are closed