have a current designs nomad (formerly the extreme model) fiberglass high volumn …is there an equivalent boat in plastics that i should be looking at .just came back from kayaking 2 sections of the florida salt water trail …and discovered osyter bars are not where you can pick up a dozen oysters to eat and a plastic boat would have been more suitable.and there are several trips i have planned more approp for plastic…am also looking for a used boat …any suggestions…thanks stan
I have both poly and composite kayaks.
I would rather deal with the damage to a composite boat (visually ugly but superficial) than the deeper scratches and gouges on a poly boat. As long as a composite boat has one or two glass layers for the outer part of the layup, it isn’t going to be “fuzzed” or torn by oyster shells. It will wear fairly smooth.
You have to distinguish between visually ugly damage and damage that is consequential in the long run. A poly kayak will eventually wear through because the plastic is soft, and when it wears through, it isn’t at all easy to fix. Composite boats are easy to fix, especially if you don’t insist on a showroom result.
long poly boat
I don’t think that poly is structurally strong enough to support a boat as long and slender as the Extreme/Nomad. Also the tooling to build poly boats would be excessive for a boat that has a fairly small group of people willing to buy one.
Btw, it’s one of my favorite boats, fast and comfy, though I don’t own one I’ve paddled several.
Bill H.