A folding kayak is a direct descendant of the original Inuit kayak made of animal skins stretched over frames made from wood and bones. A modern folder has a collapsable frame made of some combination of wood, aluminum and plastic, and a skin made of a tough fabric with a waterproof coating. Many have integral air chambers inside the hull, making them virtually unsinkable.
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History
The first workable folding kayak was built by Alfred Heurich in 1905, a German architectural student. Heurich paddled his creation on the Isar River near Munich and took out a patent on the design, called the Delphin (German: Dolphin), the following year. The Delphin had a bamboo frame with a sailcloth hull stretch over it. It could be folded up and carried in three bags, each weighing less than 4.5 kg.
The folding kayak was made commercially successful by Johannes Klepper, whose factory was at Rosenheim, Germany. Klepper kayaks were very popular for their compact size and ease of transport. Klepper's Faltboot was introduced in 1906, many years before hardshell boats were commercially produced. Oskar Speck undertook his seven-year journey from Germany to Australia in the 1930s using folding kayaks made and sponsored by another manufacturer, Pionier-Faltboot-Werft.
The Klepper Aerius II model was introduced in 1951 and is still in production in 2009. In 1956, Dr. Hannes Lindemann crossed the Atlantic Ocean in an Aerius II, proof of the folding kayak's integrity and seaworthiness. Their light weight and non-metallic construction has made them the choice of many military Special Forces. Nautiraid of France produces a special model for military use, as do Klepper and Long Haul, who supply German and US Special Forces, respectively.
There are about ten major folding kayak manufacturers today, and a handful of small, one-off makers. In addition to Klepper the best-known brands are Feathercraft, Folbot, Pakboats, Triton advanced, Long Haul, Nautiraid and Pouch. Long Haul double kayak hulls are identical in form to Kleppers, so a Klepper Aerius II frame can be used with a Long Haul MK-II skin, and vice versa.
Design
Most folding kayaks have very similar construction, even though the materials may differ. Some boats use frames made of mountain ash, spruce and marine plywood, while others use aluminum tubing and various plastics, and a few newer boats such as Fujita and Firstlight and Klepper use carbon fiber or fiberglass composite tubing. Typically there are solid bow and stern pieces, and anywhere from three to seven ribs connected via some sort of flexible attachment to a number of longerons. Many boats follow the basic design pioneered by Klepper in having a folding set of floorboards and gunwales as well as additional longerons to add stiffness and shape. Many foldings also use air sponsons (up to four in the Klepper Quattro) to tighten the skin on the frame, adding stability and security.
Most folding boats have two-part skins, with different materials used for the deck and the hull. Decks can be made of a breathable cotton/hemp blend, as Klepper has done since their early days, or of coated synthetics, as Feathercraft, Folbot, Nautiraid and Pouch do. Each approach has its own particular benefits and drawbacks; all work well in practice. Hulls are generally made of a heavily coated synthetic fiber. In the early days, rubber coated cotton canvas was used, while the modern boats use a synthetic elastomer —Hypalon, polyurethane or PVC—over a synthetic (typically Dacron) cloth.
Performance
Folders are known for their durability, stability, and longevity: The Klepper Aerius I (a single-seater) has been used successfully for white-water kayaking (before the era of modern polyethylene boats), due to its durability and excellent manoeuvrability, while many Kleppers have been in frequent use for more than 25 years. It is not rare to see on water some Klepper folding kayaks that date as far back as 1930's and 1940's.
Although some hardshell kayakers are critical of folding boats and do not regard them as true kayaks, they exhibit many of the same paddling characteristics as the original skin-and-frame vessels of the circumpolar north. Some folding kayaks, like the Feathercraft Khatsolano, are equal in performance to the fastest hardshell kayaks. Other than contemporary replicas of Inuit, Aleut, and Eskimo kayaks and baidarkas, they are the closest relatives to the skin-and-frame boats of the past.
See also
References
- FoldingKayaks.org (from which some of the text above was adapted, with permission)
- Klepper Folding Kayaks in Canada
- Folding Kayak Builders Manual from Yostwerks, details on building a folding kayak.
- The smallest liner of the world Pouch RZ85
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