What kind of
Kayak is this?
All I know is that it is an old Gaybo
I was wondering if anyone knew the model?
Often in the 70’s and 80’s these were hand-built by individuals, not by manufacturers – my outdoor club had molds for whitewater and slalom kayaks and would lay up the fiberglass ourselves to create the two halves that would be joined by a side seam.
It had a gaybo sticker on it
According to that link, as of 2017 Gaybo was the European producer of the Perception line of kayaks. As has been pointed out, what you have is a competition slalom racing kayak. It is designed for making tight turns rather than tracking straight.
it could be quite old - the history on their site seems to indicate they ceased. production of this type of boat in 1998. If you plan to use it, you will probably need flotation bags to fill the bow and stern areas since most older boats of this type lack bulkeads. And be sure you practice self rescue near shore before taking it out because that small cockpit will require some technique to get out of in a capsize.
I have a friend who was a Canadian national champion in slalom kayaking who competed back in the 70’s thru 90’s. I’ll forward the photo to him and see if he is familiar with it.
All I can add here is that it looks like a great boat for learning to roll in. It makes sense that Gaybo is/was the European Perception. The boat definitely has a “Pirouette” shape to it. All us roll class students used to scramble to get the Perception Pirouette model at the pool.
I was thinking it appears to have little rocker (not sure), fairly straight down bow and stern, plus the length would make it a fast touring boat.
Having briefly owned an old school slalom boat (inherited from a friend who moved overseas) I can report that it did not have much rocker but did it turn smartly by leaning it onto the curved soft chines. It did not like to track worth a damn straight up though and I had to fight to correct i’s wanderings on the long flat sections of the Class I to III whitewater run where I last used it. Though it was only 13’ long so probably not a great comparison.
I will say that is a very interesting looking boat.
This is not a slalom kayak at all. We called it a descente kayak in France. Used for speed races down the rivers. Very hard to turn but very fast and a lot of buoyancy to recover from rapids and stay on track. Slalom kayaks have a very different design and purpose. Like one of the previous commenters above, I used to be in a kayak club in France and we would rent moulds from The States to build our own kayaks. Good old days, for sure !
2 Likes
wild water kayak, usually 14 ft 9 inches was a standard length.
1 Like
I wouldn’t like the initial stability or secondary stability of that thing! I call it a thing because I once witnessed an alien invasion- the preworld’s downriver race on the savage river in Md…it was just like watching high level downhill ski racing through waves and holes! No thank you, all my boats like rocks too much. You enjoy that boat. Go straight, go fast, and hopefully go upright through continuous ww. The race started with a drop through a notch in an old dam. Not that much carnage, because of the high skill levels of the paddlers. Me and my buddies would have turned that race into the demolition derby (unintentional 8 ball)! Here’s a video of the equivalent for decked canoes.
here’s 8 ball
“As has been pointed out, what you have is a competition slalom racing kayak. It is designed for making tight turns rather than tracking straight.”
Nope. It is an old wildwater boat, made for tracking. The 14’9" measurement is a dead giveaway as it is ICF spec, if the hull shape is obvious to you.