: I see a lot of black kayaks and wonder the logic. I owned a black
: Nordkapp and had to be careful touching it on a hot sunny day,
: not something you wanted any tender skin to contact. It was
: prone to raising the hatches to the point of bursting but the
: worst thing it did was structural. On a warm day but not really
: hot, I noticed the hatches sucked in rather than out, odd. Then
: I noticed the bulkhead lines on the outside of the kayak her
: pronounced and I had not seen them before. It was as if the
: outer shell increased in size and left an indentation at the
: front and rear bulkhead all the way around the hull, very
: disturbing.

: This was the one time I left the hatches on but could see it as a
: major problem over time. Pinholes in the bulkheads could have
: prevented but a lighter color would have eliminated the
: possibility..

Hi Dan,
I use black on my SoF's but wouldn't use it on a hard shell. On a 'hot' day the skin gets a bit slack (cotton canvas) but tightens up on the water. A wonderful heat sink, the ocean.
That sucking in of the hatches makes sense in a way. The shell of the kayak heats, expands circumferentially while the air inside doesn't heat up and expand to the same point. That would make a partial vacuum.

I rarely see production kayaks made in black, though.

Mike Savage
South West Cork