Can someone tell me which model Nordkapp kayak this is? I’d like some specifications. As far as i know it’s a model from the 90’s. It has a rudder on the end making it easier to handle.
Thank you in advance
To determine the model, you need to see the hull, particularly the stern. A shot of the cockpit area would help, too. I don’t recall every seeing a Nordkapp with a rudder - and I don’t see one on this boat - but several models were made with retractable skegs. If you want to know what model year it is, the last two digits of the HIN will tell you (it’s typically engraved close to the tip of the stern on the hull).
A word of caution, Nordkapps are not easy boats to handle in their stock configuration. The high seat position makes they quite unstable unless and until they’re loaded down with expedition gear. Lowering the seat can make a dramatic difference, but it requires cutting it out and either glassing it back in lower or replacing it.
so does that make it a stern and rudder in one. With your feet you can adjust this from side to side. Thanks for the info by the way. I’ll look into it!
1980’s, I did find this one.
“According to the Nordkapp page of their 1985 brochure, Valley offered 12 variants of the Nordkapp in those early days. (Thanks to Arnold Kuiter for the .pf). You could have a basic boat with no hatches and the original hull design (an SS - Standard deck / Standard hull) or a pair of hatches and either the standard or modified hulls (HS or HM - Hatches / Standard or Modified hull). If you wanted a “large, racing style cockpit with a sliding seat”, that too could be yours with the designation L. There was even an R variant, that having a hull fitted with an inbuilt understern rudder.”
Which means this boat is in extremely good shape. Either it was ridiculously babied or barely ever got wet.
Hi Celia. Thanks alot. My dad has always been very caring for it (you could say babying). Unfortunately the string that attaches the foot steering to the understern rudder has been broken and we weren’t able to fix it.
I’m currently trying to sell this kayak. Would you be able to help me give it a rough price estimation that i could sell it for. What would be reasonable?
I can’t help there, I am not tracking prices.
What I can tell you is that the price will likely be low. The Nordkapp is an older design with some impediments for day or casual use, like the boats do not behave well without having a load in them. The Nordkapp LV, aka the Nordlow in casual terms, is the only model in the line that resolved this issue. Plus the foot operated rudders have a limited set of advocates these days, mostly racers and major expedition folks, because for day use many find that a skeg and fixed foot peg is more comfortable.
The boat is from an era when expedition boats were designed to be fixable without fancy tools. So I expect that the broken string is repairable by someone who knows the system.
I’ve never seen that rudder design before and had no idea it was ever incorporated into a Nordkapp variant. It’s interesting and probably pretty rare, but I don’t know if it adds any value or not. It used to be that a fiberglass boat in good shape would fetch $1000 - $1500, but you have to find the right buyer. I don’t know what the value of this boat would be.