anyone paddled one? Just saw one yesterday and was struck how much Necky has changed hull shapes within the Looksha model line. The hull shape looks as different from the older Lookshas as the Chatham is from the Arluk.
Yes in 40 knot winds, Johnstone St.
It is a departure for Necky and was Spike’s design directed toward the fast touring hull. It’s steeper stem angle, longer waterline, swede form, and rocker, along with depressions on the deck for good paddle technique etc, make it more of an efficient distance touring boat with tons of storage space.
I liked it a lot more than the traditional multi-edged looksha hulls, but it was rudder dependant in huge winds, which is OK and designed to be so.
Quite playful as well I found, and I enjoyed paddling the kayak. It’s not my kind of boat as I prefer the “feel” of the skegged Greenland / Brit (if you will) designs. I’ll take play over an extra half knot or knot of tourig efficiency, but that’s me, and my current spot on the paddling curve.
For a paddle to Alaska with lot’s of geat, or a guide in the Sea of Cortez etc, this would be a great boat. Probably not quite as efficient as an Epic or QCC 700, but more that type of hull in a super strong, stable expedition lay-up with excellent hatches, etc.
Hope that helps.
thx
I saw Neckys video of it and it was obvious the stern could swing around easily, I hope it’s not as swingy as the old Dagger Cortez(in plastic) or the Sea Lion. It sure looks like a fuller boat in the water compared to the old Lookshas and I’m glad to see the hollow ends of the Arluk/Looksha finally dissapear. I was guessing it would be rudder dependent in high winds given the aft freeboard and loose stern but it looks like it would be more sea kindly with waves from the stern compared to the older Arluks. My total time in Lookshas has been pretty small.
It’s interesting to see Current Designs change the Solstice line bit by bit as well.
I do appreciate the Necky layup, the seams look much better than the first “ACL” layups I saw with the Chathams. I like the solid laminate with selective core as needed on the interior. I’ve been doing some minor repair on CD boats that use a continuous core material and noticed some cracks on a WS Systems boat that uses a continuous core and it seems that they don’t provide as much resistance to point pressure as the Necky layup. It looks to me that Necky is going for a thicker solid laminate with selective stiffening core material while other folks are going for a complete core with thinner exterior skin.
Not sure about the others
Haven’t paid attention really. Cores provide stiffness as you know, but, the nature of the core, and skin can vary greatly. A very light Nomex or Divinycell core provide great stiffness and light weight but not much impact resistance, thus will dent / deform with impact. Some of the China built stuff I’ve seen is fairly light and rigid, but delicate.
Necky and others use Soric core, which is a polyester with channels that form a hex pattern with dry cells between. Soric aids with infusion as it works as a flow medium, but “can” be used in a hand lay-up if done correctly. It’s not as light as other cores but it is terrific for impact resistance. You would not use it in a race hull, but it’s super for a touring, expedition hull. Compromises…
Resin fills the channels forming a hexagonal resin skeleton which provides for thousands of little beams of sorts which bond to the outer and inner skins.
If used in a hand lay-up care must be taken to break the core at bulkhead areas, and or be sure the channels have enough resin. Failure to saturate the channels can lead to water wicking through the core between compartments. That’s rare, but has happened and is easy to engineer around. With bagging or infusion this isn’t an issue. Soric is also kinda cool to look at Vs core-matt etc.
Just ain’t the same
Necky’s gone through a couple of cycles of evolution from some really innovative designs like the Thasis, Looksha Sport LV and of course the full size Looksha series. Wonder what ever happened to the moulds and who owns them now?
See you on the water,
Marshall
The River Connection, Inc
Hyde Park, NY
www.the-river-connection.com
they oughtta bring back the Tofino
Indisputable proof that B and B
people really are paddlers.I know FY is one even if it is a means to go fishing.
Wow, that’s amusing
Molds are property of JOI. Most are crude, non-symmetrical examples of their era. Mike Neckar hired Spike Gladwin away from his Olympic Team coaching job. Spike’s reputation as a paddler, surf kayak champion, WW kayak innovator, and world class designer is so far in excess of Neckar’s it makes your comment amusing. Spike is still with Necky and in my mind his designes are not only legitimate hydrodynamically, but driven by a passion for paddling, not following marketing gimmicks, and making whatever sells regardless of authenticity. If you knew the truth behind some of the designs of old you’d be shocked I think.
I’ll leave it at that…
bingo
I’d be surprised if Marshall didn’t know. It must have been an interesting arrangement having Spike change the designs while other elements representative of Neckys remained. There’s a glass Necky Elaho in the shop and it was a quandary for for a paddler working there to sell it. “how do I explain this hull shape?”(er, it feels stable on the floor?) . I on the other hand am re-doing the rudder deployment line on that Elaho because the nature of the rudder design and the enclosed plastic tube housing for the deployment line requires insane amounts of effort to pull it up and down. I could gurantee that 50% of the size of paddlers that boat would fit, women, couldn’t get the rudder up or down.
Anyway I was taken by how different the new Looksha looked and how it makes a lot more sense than the old Arluks.
it’s interesting
the soric makes a lot of sense where point impacts are likely and I could see where the channels retain more resin compared to coremat. My beef with coremat is that when a thin exterior layer of glass is used the coremat can compress and dent more easily. It also looks like coremat can allow more soaking of water into the laminate. A friend has a very well used CD Extreme in kevlar and I noticed that the dings and cracks it was collecting resulted in darker kevlar on the interior surrounding the cracks/damaged resin. Maybe the kevlar would do that with water anyway.
Those color changes
in the Kevlar 49 may be indicative of inter-laminar breakdown secondary to impact. You’d see that in early hand layed-up Necky Kevlar boats.
Nothing against Neckar
Fun guy to party with, flambouyant, larger than life (literally), made good money selling sea kayaks, knew the market he was selling to, didn’t over-engineer anything, made good hand lay-ups with cheap materials, sold to JOI and became a millionaire. Pretty savvy guy. Mike’s instincts were good and his timing was excellent, and he was smart enough to make whatever sold, even though he knew much of it was just hype,even laughed about it.
I used his products in rental and instructional fleets years ago, and found him good to work with, funny, etc.
But, to my comments above, Spike Gladwin is in another league as a designer IMO, and I supect the opinion of industry peers.
Just don’t call it “Honeycomb” : )
Roger that!
marketing sells things
good design can make a good thing. I appreciate the person who can catch opportunities and make them, recognize good people to get a job done and keep the business together.
It irritates me off when really marginal elements get passed on in the success of the sales.
Agree Lee
Used to blow me away the marketing crap I’d read in catalogues including the company I did work for. It’s rarely about facts, and it makes it hard for well meaning consumers to wade through the information and discern fact from BS. Internet is both helpful and terrible, depending… Marketers hide R&D types far away from consumers 
I read stuff on internet about products I designed with my own hands and it’s often BS, which just makes me chukkle. So long as folk are happy and using the product to have fun it really doesn’t matter if their facts are accurate or not in most cases.