Warren Williams

      This article outlines some of the practical aspects of taking a folding kayak on the sort of vacation many of us make, or hope to make, rather than an extensive kayak trip over perhaps many weeks or months. For this type of trip see A Boat in our Baggage – Around the World with a Kayak by Maria Koffey. I include a number of practicalities with respect to transporting and assembling the boat, as these may be useful to any reader considering the purchase of this type of kayak.

      I have one of the smaller models of folding kayaks: a K-Light Feathercraft made on Granville Island in Vancouver. (It weighs about thirty five pounds and costs about $2400.) Although Feathercraft make a larger solo model and a double suitable for extended travel, I preferred the smaller one as it is lighter and much more easily and rapidly assembled. Maria Koffey and her partner took the large double on their trip. It takes me about thirty minutes from the time of opening its carrying bag to launching it. With practice, I am told that this time can be considerably reduced. It consists basically of an ingenious system of alloy tubes which fit together to form a frame inside a hypalon or synthetic rubber/canvas outer skin. The frame and skin are of very high quality, which accounts for the rather high price. In fact, the hypalon is imported from France, and is considered to be the best available. There are several different makes of folding kayak to choose from, but I settled on the Feathercraft after some extensive investigation using the Internet. A mechanical engineer in California finally settled it for me – he simply raved on about the unique way in which the boat was designed and the quality of the materials used. The manufacturers claim that with care, these boats will last for thirty years.

      We had booked a week’s vacation at Jack Tar Village in St. Kitts (a small island in the central Caribbean) and were to fly from Toronto. On a previous trip to the South Coast of France, where I had also taken the kayak, I had considerable problems in transporting the paddles. The airline insisted in placing them in a "special handling" bin. It was really special – the paddles never left Toronto, and were still at the airport when we returned. Fortunately my brother in law from the U.K. who we were meeting, was able to bring a spare set he had for me to use. This time I packed the paddles inside a cross-country ski bag lined with rubber backed carpet as they are wooden and easily damaged, and placed a large visible label with the destination on the outside. They arrived on time, despite again being considered in need of so called special handling. The tubular frame of the kayak itself was heavily wrapped in old towels to prevent it damaging the carrying bag – something that had happened on the trip to France. By the way, most airlines it seems allow sports equipment to travel free, above the baggage allowance.

      In St. Kitts we booked into the Jack Tar Village – a resort that I would highly recommend. The airfare, accommodation, food and drinks came as a package, and apart from being jammed into the plane with minimum legroom and room for other parts of one’s body, the trip was excellent

      The resort runs a shuttle bus, supposedly every thirty minutes to either the Caribbean or the Atlantic side of the island. Both are within a five-minute drive. My first paddle was on the Caribbean side, where the water is calmer, as the prevailing winds are from the east. I had previously checked out a pleasant, grassy area on which to assemble the kayak, and did so. Assembly on sand is not a good idea, as the sand finds its way into the junctions of the alloy rods, which form the frame of the boat. I launched the kayak and paddled south from Frigate Bay, through South Friars Bay to White House Bay. The water was a beautiful shade of aquamarine, with cliffs to the east and volcanic mountains to the north and south, the sort of paddling one would expect to do in the West Indies. The wind was strong and directly ahead, but waves on this side of the island were minimal. Several flying fish flew from the water close by me. The beach that I had left and the beaches that I passed all had local people barbecuing on them, a big recreational activity on St. Kitts. They use a forty-four gallon drum cut in half lengthwise, covered with a wire grill, and cook chicken or goat. The smell emanating from them is of course delicious. There are also small sea caves to investigate along the base of the cliffs, and deserted beaches on which to land. The return trip was fast, with the wind now steady at about fifteen knots behind me.

      Back on the beach I disassembled the boat, found the shuttle bus, and went back to the hotel where I washed off the salt water and put the kayak, now out of its carrying bag, on the balcony to dry. It is not a good idea to leave it packed for any length of time when wet – I had tried this in France, and even after twenty-four hours the odour was quite strong.

      My next paddle was to be on the Atlantic side of the island, but by then the wind had risen to over twenty knots, was onshore, and waves were up to eight feet high. These conditions did not appear suitable for a twelve-foot non-rigid kayak, so it was back to the Caribbean. This time I paddled north towards Basseterre, the capital of St. Kitts, although I later turned round and went back to South Friars Bay, as, to be frank, Basettere is not a pretty place, especially its waterfront. Here I stopped at a deserted beach where I collected some shells, saved a beach ball for a group of children as it was blowing out to sea, and visited an anchored sailboat flying the British ensign. The couple crewing the boat told me that they had sailed from the U.K. and had spent the last three years sailing and working in the Caribbean. Again the paddle back was fast, with wind and waves from behind. Back at the hotel the kayak was washed, dried, and repacked, this time ready for the plane back to Toronto.

Back to Top

[Index]  [Current Issue]  [Back Issues]

email: glska@canada.com