Rapid Descents: A Bit About Boat Building

December 2002 - January 2003

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Steve Crow

I recently had the opportunity to learn about innovations in whitewater kayak construction. My parents had just built a deck over the slow-moving river that fronts their property and I was caring for their house while they vacationed. "Don't you jump off that deck," mom had commanded me with a mother's mechanical admonition as she left. The next day I had the picnic table resting on the railing and my friend sitting reluctantly on top in my kayak. "It'll work," I said.

With what was intended as a mighty shove, I slid him along only as far as the point of no return. In horror, I watched him tilt forward until he dropped vertically out of sight. I looked over in time to see him toppling forward, upside-down, into the river. Imagine my relief to see him quickly roll up with a bewildered grin on his face, jarred but not broken.

Satisfied my friend was okay, I became concerned for my boat. But it was barely scratched. Why? Plastic, of course. And that's the innovation. In the days of fiberglass, I could never have pushed my friend onto the rocks.

Adhering logos to the aluminum mold.

With a newfound respect for the construction of kayaks, and a theme stimulus provided by Alan, the editor, I contacted Glen MacPherson, a very agreeable spirits- sampling companion from the days of our youth. Glen is now the sales manager for Necky kayaks and would be my introduction to the world of whitewater kayak construction. I visited Glen at the Necky factory in Ferndale, Washington where the BC born company moved all its plastics manufacturing a year ago. Relieved to be pulled away from the phone, Glen gladly toured me around the facility and introduced me to Spike Gladwin, the product development manager, and Brian Queen,the director of operations and designer of the roto-molding ovens that cook the kayaks. These two willingly and ably answered my questions about the process and the history of whitewater kayak construction.

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

I'll attempt to summarize the construction process:

First, a designer creates a design in his mind and on a computer.

Second, he creates a plug using foam and fibreglass. This plug is the final shape the kayak will have.

Third, an aluminum mold (top and bottom) is created from the plug and costs tens of thousands of dollars. All the eventual boats of this model come from this mold.

Fourth, mold-in graphics with the Necky and model logos are adhered to the inside of the mold. These will be cooked into the plastic, making them impossible to remove.

Fifth, Superlinear® polyethylene powder, a very strong, durable and refined by-product of petroleum processing, is poured into the mold. The colours of this powder are selected by the marketing department. Multi-coloured kayaks are created by swirling different colours together at this point.

Sixth, the mold is sealed tight and rolled into a natural gas-fired oven that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and roasts at 288° C. The oven then tilts back and forth and the mold rotates continuously, hence the term "roto-molding". These actions ensure that the powder, as it melts, coats the entire surface of the mold evenly. On average, time on the spit is twenty minutes

Seventh, upon removal, the molds are cooled as quickly as possible with continued rotation and powerful fans.

Eighth, the boat is popped out of the mold and placed in a fibreglass cooling rack.

Ninth, a detailer removes excess plastic at the seams, and cuts cockpit, drain and bolt holes.

Tenth, the cockpit is outfitted with a seat, thigh braces, hip braces, drain plugs, handles and, depending on the model, foot pegs.

Finally, the kayak is wrapped, shipped, and - when Glen is having a good day - sold.

HISTORY

Preparing polyethylene powder.

As for the history of whitewater kayak construction, it would be speculative of me to suggest that the whitewater industry began a shift towards plastics because more and more people wanted to push their friends off sketchy launch pads, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with rocks. Rivers flow over rocks, kayaks flow down rivers, and inevitably the two meet. I'm sure they met spectacularly many times in the fiberglass past.

Spike, who designed and built his first boat with his dad at age thirteen, told me the first plastic boats were made by Hollowform. The first plastic boats of significance, however, were designed by Bill Masters for Perception in the early 1970s. Though rugged and able to take a beating, the boats were not immediately popular. Paddlers thought plastic boats inferior and deridingly called them "tupperware." There were few serious paddlers at the time, and they preferred to make their own fiberglass boats in their garages or buy direct from the manufacturer. With a small market and exorbitant prices for the aluminum molds and ovens, Perception remained the only company manufacturing plastic tubs for a number of years. The Dancer is a well known boat from the era.

Pouring powder into the mold.

About 1993, Prijon introduced the Hurricane. Although Prijon was (and is) the only blow-molding boat manufacturer in the industry, its design of the Hurricane was radical and affected the whole industry. It was short and had a flat back deck, just like the fiberglass boats. They sold like hotcakes.Suddenly there was a market for plastic boats and other companies launched their own small, low-volume boats. Quickly a new segment of the market appeared: recreational paddlers - average Joes who just wanted to kayak for fun. Over the next decade, the designs, the roto-molding process and the plastics used were refined and improved until today's tiny, rigid boats less than six feet long.

Spike himself was involved in creating one of the most influential boats of the mid- 90s. Spending time kayak-surfing on ocean beaches, Spike (who was the junior world champion slalom kayaker when he was 16 and winner of the Canadian national championships in 1987 - although he was British, and thus not named champion), couldn't help but notice that the surfers around him were going much faster than him on the waves.

Applying the cockpit rim.

The difference, he found, was that the surfboards had flat hulls, unlike the displacement hull on his kayak. Convinced this characteristic would improve whitewater kayaking as well, Spike brainstormed with colleagues, including present western Canadian sales rep Dave Vanderveen, to come up with the prototype for the Rip. When Mike Neckar, the company founder and chief designer at the time, returned from a trip to find this boat on his factory floor, he was so impressed that he decided to reverse his decision to have Necky make ocean kayaks exclusively. Soon after, they released the Jive, which was an improvement on the Rip, and they are making them to this day.

So where is the future of whitewater kayak construction heading? Dave, who I spoke with at his home near Abbotsford, BC where Necky still maintains a composite factory, believes it is in improved outfitting. He showed me models of Necky's new playboats for the 2003 season, the Chronic and the Vibe. Lifting one, I noticed it was very light, indicating thin plastic walls. "Now watch this," he said as he turned it upside down and started jumping on it. Evidently it still had all the strength of heavier boats. "Look here," he said turning it over again and pointing inside.

Jim Hnatiak testing a Jive’s strength on the Bridge River.

I saw a narrow rail of aluminum running the length of the boat, under the seat. This is what Necky is calling its recoil system, which will provide kayakers with a responsive hull so they can bounce off waves to catch air, and less weight so they can jump higher. Dave also pointed out other cockpit innovations, such as a molded foam seat that can be sanded for a personal fit, which Necky hopes will put them at the forefront of the industry in 2003.

Spike, thinking even further ahead, thinks that the future of kayak construction lays in the development of new materials. He doesn't know what they may be yet, but is confident that some chemist in a basement lab of some chemical manufacturer will soon create a new material that will be stronger, lighter and stiffer than polyethylene. Given the right material, he thinks, it is possible that people will again be making their own whitewater boats in their garages. Once that happens, with thousands of innovators racing ahead of the corporate design teams, where the development of kayak construction will go is anybody's guess.