Wouldn’t this be fun? Just another oddball boat popping up on my local Facebook market. For once I won’t buy it (though I admit I am tempted, I have not even had two of the most recently salvaged unicorns in the water yet). The included trailer is nearly worth the $1200 they are asking for the whole shebang. In 2010 the boat itself was over $6,000.
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I saw that too. If only I had infinite room and infinite time to play with an infinite variety of toys!
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My problem is that I am retired and still have a huge amount of room. But not a bottomless budget. i may try to talk a nearby friend who loves to sail into getting it, He doesn’t have room to park it at his place but I do.
My dad was in the airforce, those were nick-named “The Widowmaker”.
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I just realized that it would match my yellow camper van…
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I wonder how you duck under the boom when tacking. Or I guess you just lift it over your head?
That is cool. I like the idea of being down close to the water when sailing. But I suspect most sailors would rather be on a beach cat.
I used to sail a Sea Snark (small solo styrofoam hulled dinghy) with a similar low boomed sail. When the catenary cut of the sail fills with wind it luffs up at enough of an angle that it can usualy pass over your head . But you can get bumped in a sudden crosswind gust. The sail was small enough and the boom was light enough that it wasn’t a hazard. But since it did not have a window in it, it could make you temporarily blind to where you were headed until you ducked under it.
After seeing this post, I saw a photo on Facebook of a friend in a Hobie triak on a local lake flying along in a 10 knot breeze. They are out there.
Yup. My uncle flew transports (C-130s) and air to air refueling tankers (KC-135s) during that era. He was not a fan of the F-104s.
I have a fiend who has one and really likes it. He is a sailor of monohull boats also, so it has to sail reasonably well. He never mentioned having to duck under the boom, so I assume the boom is high enough to clear his head. The pontoons give it the stability to sail, but are not too much drag to paddle.
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When I looked at pictures online, it appears there are two models or versions of Triak with different mast and keel. The more common type has a black (carbon?) mast anchored in the deck and a larger rectangular keel board. The action pictures I saw of this type didn’t have a boom rigged. The less common type, like in the Facebook ad above, has the mast and boom hanging from a tripod and a smaller keel board. The boom looks too low for me, though I bet that rigging all collapses down nicely.
Here’s a guy sailing a Pakboat folding kayak in the Virgin Islands (Maho Bay). I used to have the model he is using (an XT-15) but never sailed it. I notice the guy he passes in another PakBoat using a Sunflower sail which would have been the same as I had on my Sea Snark mini sailboat (the Sunflower was just a Sea Snark with a fiberglass hull and nicer graphics.) The guy seems to still be in business (sailboatstogo.com) and sells a range of rigs for many small boats including kayaks.
Paddled next to a Hobie tri like that that had to paddle when wind light to get through irons in a tack. Until wind picked up. Just like cats and other trimarins .
I’ve been eyeing this one … too bad it’s a four hour drive. It doesn’t have outriggers, so I bet the very real threat of capsizing makes it a thrill ride in good inland lake gusts
That’s a very good price for that Klepper. They are pretty indestructible. The guy who inspired me to buy my first folder had been taking his vintage Klepper tandem to Alaska every summer to paddle and camp backcountry rivers with his son for 23 years.
Wow, that’s remarkable two ways – a) his Klepper has been so durable, and b) that he puts so much faith into the safety of an old boat as to use it in such a remote place.
From what I’ve seen of them over the years, if you take good care of the old Kleppers and Folbots they will last many decades. That means dismantling and cleaning them well after use and assuring they are dry before storage and storing them in a reasonably temperature and humidity controlled environment. The fabric skins are the most vulnerable to degradation when stored wet or in excessive heat. Some owners prefer to clean and dry them and then assemble for storage. Sometimes older skins get hard to put back on the frame after a while and have to be soaked to stretch more easily.
The wooden frames hold up very well and can be mended more easily at home or in the field than modern plastic and metal frames. There are some companies in Eastern Europe that will make new skins for some of the older folding boat models.
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