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Plastic Rules

The first word:

I had began to think that maybe someday I would get a composite boat again for touring only in non-rocky areas. Recently, however, there have been three composite boats of different manufacture that have been damaged in surf ranging from 4-to-8 feet.

No rocks, boats, or other hard objects were involved in any of the incidents, just waves and sometimes sand.

Two of the boats were damaged in surf zone practice on 12/7. Here is Duane's description:

"When we moved to the surf zone to practice there, I just landed, watched the carnage, and then launched when we were ready to head back. For me personally, the surf was dumping too hard to play in it, and I didn't want to risk a thrashing there. I think Steve Brown estimated the wave height way low in his report. My estimate is that most of the waves were four footers, and there were even some five footers. They were breaking in only a foot or two of water on a steep beach during a high tide...........One of the damaged boats is fiberglass Eddyline Falcon 18. The other is a Current Designs, either an Extreme or Solstice, in fiberglass (not Kevlar) I believe."

The third boat was damaged in the surf zone on 12/22. It is a Kevlar boat. The following link to Duane's web site shows the damage and has the report:

http://www.rollordrown.com/damage {defunct link}

 A question for those with opinions:

Are composite boats really up to the rigors of open-ocean paddling, including launching and landing in moderately large surf?

              Steve Brown

The nice thing about having your own web site is that you may then have the first and last word on every subject. Being right doesn’t really enter into the equation J. My answer to this question (the last word), can be found on this page.

All the E-Mails were interesting, informative, and in some cases entertaining. They can be found by clicking this link. Be patient because it will take a while. Not everything that is written is worth reading, but every Email has at least some content worth reading - Do read them all.

The last word:

After reading all the emails it was evident that there were as many opinions as there are people. Nevertheless, there were some common threads and conclusions that can be drawn by reading between the lines:

v     Many composite boats are made with weight in mind rather than strength.

v     Since most people actually don’t use their “sea kayaks” in real ocean like conditions, they get by with these weak boats most of the time.

v     If you want a rugged boat, one that is truly up to the rigors of open ocean paddling, you may need to order expedition lay-up British boat.

v     Plastic boats are generally better in an abuse situation

My opinion? The idea that a “sea kayak” is not suitable for use in the sea is unacceptable. The sea includes water, waves of various sizes, rocks, sand, and assorted creatures. There were some who felt the conditions experienced were just too much to be expected of a normal sea kayak, but the waves that damaged the boats that started this discussion were not at the large end of the wave spectrum, except for Southern California.

It's true that some of the boats had cockpits full of water, but that is a typical surf zone scenario. Also, a well designed boat will minimize cockpit volume by customizing front bulkhead placement based on paddler size.

A 5’-to-7’ wave may look scary (it does), but in other parts of the state that size range is business as usual. I haven’t paddled much in Northern California, but when I have I was always glad when the waves didn’t exceed 7 feet. They often do in many areas. I’ve done a bit more (not a lot) in Central California and the same is true to a lesser degree. The few times I’ve camped and paddled at Morro Strand, the waves were routinely 5’-to-7’. A little farther south at Montana De Oro, on an “easy” day (my experience) the difficult areas will be 5’-to-7’. On a scary day the big ones will be 10’+ and on days when I would never go there, Lola says they get up to 30’ or more.

The point: Our usually benign SoCal conditions do not constitute what normal use of a sea kayak is. Neither does the fact that most users prefer or tend to launch in calm areas.

I seem to have a reputation of being a boat breaker, but the fact is that I have broken 1.0 composite boats, and 0.0 plastic boats. I have had several plastic boats, and none of them has incurred hull damage (of the leaky kind), even under the most difficult conditions. Some events:

Although I sometimes had the feeling that I was about to be seriously damaged, none of these boats ever were. I was the limiting factor, which is as it should be.

The one fiberglass boat I owned suffered significant damage adjacent the cockpit area after being side surfed into some rocks by a medium sized wave (4'). It was a very hard impact and frankly I would expect any composite boat to sustain significant damage in that situation. That same boat, NDK Greenlander Pro, never had given the slightest hint of damage in surf zone practice in various sizes and shapes of waves. It was a strong boat and was ultimately repaired by someone with a lot of patience. I had been rock gardening with the boat, and it had required several previous repairs.

The Tsunami rangers Kevlar boats were mentioned in several of the Email. They do use them for rock gardening, and they work well. On the other hand, they make clear that using composite boats will result in damage, some of which must be repaired in the field to continue. In their Rock Garden video, many of their boats have podged together duct tape repairs. These boats are probably indestructible in the surf conditions which broke our local boats, but they also weigh as much as plastic boats.

At the end of the Emails, Pam commented on the strength of her composite surf boat. If that weight were extrapolated to a boat the size of a sea kayak, the weight would be in about the 70 pound range - same as a plastic boat. Nevertheless, this shows the ultimate capability of a composite boat when properly built to be used in the sea.

One lone rebel had the audacity to suggest that wood overlaid with composite material might be a good choice. Personally I agree with him because wood is inherently strong and durable - most trees outlive most people and must withstand constant stresses in the wind, rain, and sun. When sandwiched with glass, or better yet carbon fiber, wood can become nearly indestructible with the right lay-up. I recently made a wood WW paddle to replace a carbon fiber one I had recently broken. It's heavy, but I have plans to build another one with lighter weight. I'll keep this site posted with performance of this paddle and its successor.

Anyway, composite construction still looks better, runs faster, and is easily repairable and modifiable. I would definitely consider getting a composite boat for touring, but only a strong boat with expedition lay-up. My preference would be wood, sandwiched in a heavy carbon lay-up, but as yet I have not gathered the gumption to build a boat. In either case I would feel comfortable with sandy surf zone practice in moderately large waves and launching and landing in rocks, but not rock gardening. When it comes to playing, Plastic Rules!

Steve Brown