> I just spent a vacation in Maine and saw millions of corporate made kayaks
> - but not one kit. I had so hoped to be able to compare the performance of
> say, an Arctic Tern vs. a Nordkapp Jubilee. I know most of you kayakers
> out there are partial to the beauty of wooden boats, but as I saw a
> beautiful Nordakapp, I wondered how a well made strip and glue kit
> compares in terms of performance. Can somebody give me their honest
> assessment?I hate to think of spending a fair amount of money and time
> only to wish I had saved more money and bought a professionally made boat
> from one of the top companies. I love the idea, and know how proud I would
> be to build my own kayak - but I also would feel better knowing if it
> would be the performance equal of a top notch professionally made boat.
> Any feelings? Do any of you paddle both?

My guess is that a lot of us do. I paddle a Valley Canoe Products (VCP) Pintail, a Miata-like cousin of the Mercedes-like VCP Nordkapp, and can make one observation: 90% of the "performance" you're talking about is not in the boat. It's in the paddler.

Sure, a good composite hull, maybe with a Kevlar layup for weight savings, is going to be a wonderful boat to paddle, but if you compare apples with apples --- say, a hard chined VCP Anas Acuta with a Chesapeake Light Craft stitch and glue North Bay, two high performance boats I'm familiar with --- you'd find that probably 98% of the subjective "performance" difference is in the paddler. The boats aren't the same in specific areas of technical performance, but they're going to be more alike than they're different. If you were to compare overall performance of the Nordkapp with one of the faster strip built --- i.e., round chined --- boats, which I'm not personally familiar with, I'd bet you'd find the same thing. But be careful comparing the Arctic Tern to a Nordkapp --- the designs are totally different, and the performance is not easily compared.

The other factors in favor of a plan-built or kit-built boat over a corporate boat are numerous: cost of ownership is the most obvious --- a new Pintail would set me back about $2700 today, and a Nordkapp a bit more than that! --- but, when you build your own boat, there's a personal investment, more than just a sweat equity, that transcends the economics of the situation. That boat is part of you, and there really is some kharma in the deal, and in the boat.

So don't get hung up on "performance" issues of kits. If it's a good design, suited for your needs and capabilities, it will have every bit as much "performance" as a composite corporate boat. Maybe more.

Jack Martin