thanks!!I 'm not an old salt
It would be nice not to sound like a total landlubber though!
Not to go off on a tangent…
… especially with sunch a tangential discussion as this one, but I think it was Bobby McFerrin, not Bob Marley, with the “Don’t worry, Be happy.”
Good advice for all of us.
If they are so high performance
– Last Updated: Aug-07-04 1:16 AM EST –
how come no paddling races of top caliber are won by folks paddling them?
And talk about performance per dollar. Folders are not the way to go unless you need them to fold.
No skin will last through 30 years of hard use either. Not without big time repair.
Plastic kayaks last about half as long as composite kayaks.
Foam cored plastic kayaks suffer when the foam degrades. It's foam, that means a lot of surface area; lots of degredation.
Did we cover the fact that rotomolding cannot give the crisp lines that composites can nor can they execute a design as accurately. Thermoforming like eddyline does gives close to composite results in form. Have we covered the stiffness issue on this thread yet. Stiffness correlates with speed, (or so the designers of kayaks for olympic racers from every country believe). Of course, such fields are often revolutionized by folks with little experience and a lot of unique insight.
I think this is the first post of yours I've read. (did a search for what you have posted here. You've posted in one other thread.) Pretty pushy way to start. Then you plea for folks to respect your opinion. Without your saying that the difference is "between the ears" (thus insulting the intelligence of those us us who for reasons of performance and longevity prefer composites for some uses), your use of emoticons (which I found rude and insulting), and "attitude" "sorry composite lovers" maybe folks you not have jumped on you so hard. As it is, welcome to paddling.net.
People who are disagreeing with you are folks like boat designers, paddlers who paddle in places I would not yet dare (and I dare a wee bit) and other paddlers whose worth and wisdom are much respected by this community. Then there is me, resident wiseacre, and self-styled P.I.T.A.
From an owner of 5 boats; 2 glass, 2 kevlar, one rotomolded, all of which have their place in my fleet. (Though I confess that the white water boat and the pintail are not seeing enough use)All of which are in the material they are in for good reasons.
Agreed
My income bracket makes me much more comfortable beating hell out of a $1300 boat than a $2300 boat… and I don’t want to worry about scrapes and scratches. I kayak to relax.
well put! (nt)
face it…
every plastic boat owner dreams about fiberglass or kevlar in their sleep. If $$ is not an obstacle, everyone will buy composite.
So, is Trylon a composite?
Does anyone know anything about the performance characteristics of this “Trylon” material?
http://www.touringkayaks.com/hurricane.htm
I’m looking at this boat for my first foray outside of plastic boats.
Don’t Care, Really…
if the boat fits, that’s more important to me. I have a couple of plastic touring boats, a wood stitch and Glue (wood composite), a fiberglass boat, and a skin on frame. My S&G and fiberglass boats haven’t seen water in almost a year. My SOF gets the call most since I am always day paddling. It helps that it’s the lightest but more important, it fits me the best, and handles the easiest on the water for me.
I wrote EMC, the manufacturer of the plastic EPIsea, a plastic boat with “greenland” inspired lines. I asked whether they would consider lengthening the boat to 17’ for Greenland enthusiasts. They said, they didn’t have room in the manufacturing site to handle boats of that length (? huh). So no go. But, I would gladly paddle a lengthened plastic EPIsea because it would have the hull shape and narrowness in beam and low deck height that I would prefer over any of the current fiberglass boats (or “tubs” for my size) out there.
sing
I wish I’d had a plastic boat
a couple weeks ago on a shallow, fast rock bottomed stream when my skin coat fiberglass boat was grinding across rock beds removing the finish. I was grimmacing the whole time thinking of the resurfacing work to come. I wouldn’t have cared at all about the rocks in my plastic boat.
I know, the original post was in regard to coastal waters, not streams, but I’d rather drag my poly boats across rocks than my glass boats. Maybe I’m just squeamish because of my newbie ignorance. I know that some river running and white water boats are still made of composites.