: No doubt. Nick's point is that weight does not equal strength. NDK boats are
: legendary for poor quality control in their antiquated hand layups, their
: use of inferior materials (chopped-strand mat instead of glass cloth) and
: excessive amounts of gelcoat, which has very little strength. These
: substandard materials and construction techniques make the boat
: unnecessarily heavy. A boat built built with high quality materials
: (vinylester or epoxy resin and woven cloth fabrics) and modern techniques
: (vacuum bagging or resin infusion) will be much lighter and more
: resilient, making it far more durable.

: It seems that NDK is pretty much an anachronism in the the kayak market, as
: all the other major manufacturers have switched to better materials and
: modern construction methods. The only reason they can sell boats at all is
: that their designs are good and have become "classics", and
: they're living off that reputation, though there are much better
: constructed alternatives that perform just as well. I wouldn't be at all
: surprised if the current recession turns out to be the final nail in their
: coffin. On the bright side, maybe then Nigel will sell the designs to a
: company that actually knows how to build boats.

I think alot of this depends on the age of the boat. Mines not by a long shot new, 13 years old this year. Few seasons back I cut the rear deck, not the strongest part, for a day hatch and while the gelcoat is indeed over thick, the laminate is pretty thick too. The newer boats are just plain awful, wild amounts of quality control issues.

Most production boats are polyester, there may be a few that use vinylester and I only know of one that's epoxy. Takes too long for epoxy to set up to keep the costs down for the price point of most commercial boats, that and the resin is pretty expensive compared to the others, running last I checked (couple years back) around 5:1.

Bill H.

Bill H.