Hiking and paddling for 35 and 23 years respectively I’ve dealth with a lot of gear and every now and then there is a product that should be raved upon.
The ChillCheater/Reed hatch covers and their spraydeck as such products. After having installed the hatch covers and inspected for tightness I wonder if implosion would really be a problem for them, the fit is just that good and I would also wonder if the construction and the material itself would even lessen this small concern.
I chose to sub out my OEM Valley hatch covers to simply save weight. My typical paddling is long distance lake paddles with little worry of implosion, that said the ChillCheater hatch covers were the perfect in my quest to save weight.
The spraydeck is an answer to those paddlers who have tired of neoprene’s resistance to drying quickly, the weight of wet neoprene, and the cold feel in the morning when putting it on.
I can only wish I had discovered these products sooner. I’ve enjoyed the ChillCheater Coveral Cag for some time now.
Also a thanks to SecondWindSports, after the order was taken the products showed up at my door in 3 days, shipping was a little over $9 and came from Washington to TN. The owner of SecondWindSports is an avid paddler and a pure professional to do business with.
one thought
I own a Reed Tuiliq that is absolutely brilliant with a double skirt that enables me to use it on either the strand skin on frame or the Outer Island with no issues whatsoever. Agree that the material dries very quickly and is indeed waterproof. I also have a spray skirt with the same configuration (double skirt).
The only comment I can make that could be construed as problematic is more in the manufacture of boats than the reed products. For example, the coaming lip on the Legend is very close to the deck making the double bungee rim on the sprayskirt very difficult to slip under the lip. I had real issues with this during my BCU 4 star training in Tybee when I got sucked out of my boat.
Absolutely great products. A little overpriced IMO but you do get what you pay for.
Paul
Weight?
Have you had a chance to weigh both sets of hatches to see how much you are saving?
Greyhawk
funny. I wasa going to e-mail you about this…might cut a couple of pounds off the wonder boat.
Paul
I never should had started…
weighing them in the first place. I don’t think the new VCP hatches are as heavy as the older Waldons.
The only time the hatches would be a factor is loading it on the car and then you could remove them for loading.
The wonder boat should be here this weekend. Will know more tomorrow.
wonderboat report
I for one want to know more about its arrival,wasnt it an ultra kevlar Nordkapp? Hope your results were as good as mine, just fomented and cemented the idea that Valley is quality bar none…always as soon as I say that I have to sing a song on Feathercraft.
Yep.
An Ultra Nordkapp LV. Just in time for our winter conditions. I’ve been using my Tern for camping but I sold my Caribou too soon and miss a good day boat.
It should be an interesting transition from very hard chines to very soft chines.
Emergency Hatch Covers
Can the 10" hatch cover be used as an emergency spare on the 8" hatches of NDK or other Brit boats?
It would be nice to be able to have one emergency hatc cover that can be used on both hatches rather than carry two.
Suz
Reed 8" hatch cover
Suz,
According to the Reed UK website they make a 8" spare hatch cover.
Chris (Falcon) doesn’t show it on his website, but I am sure he could get one.
http://www.chillcheater.com/products/shop.asp?cid=794&p=3
Safe paddling,
Joe
Reed Hatch cover
The 10" Reed hatch cover has a bungy draw cord that can be cinched up that could work on an 8" hatch in an emergency. Not optimum, but will work. They are available in the US from a Reed Dealer near you www.reednorthamerica.com or from www.secondwindsports.net/products.
Falcon
Robert
I have read about these before on P.Net. In terms of a spray skirt how would you compare them with an all neo skirt? The all neo is waterproof rather than resistant and works well in all respects except getting on and off, (just a bit difficult doing that.)
Mark
Reed Spray Skirts
Hi Mark,
Neoprene spray skirts are heavier, less flexible, and provide a less waterproof seal on Composite boats. That said, the Aquatherm fabric on the Reed Spray Skirts (Decks) is more prone to nicks while doing rescues where boats are dragged up on the rescuers coaming. Particularly, poly boats with lots of fuzz. The Reed spray deck feels like you aren’t wearing anything and due to the stretch of the fabric you can fit a lrge range of boats with one skirt.
We don’t recommend the Reed decks for poly boats, although reports for the field indicate that some people are using them successfully.
As a professional Instructor myself I always take a Neo deck with me for teaching rescue classes.
Falcon