Hey Gang,

Well, a day long cruising session at the gigantic OR show has yielded some very interesting previews of new boats from Necky and Wilderness Experience. Both companies have new sea kayak offerings in the British Style.

I spent a good hour in the company of Necky designer, Spike Gladwin, along with new company president, Nando Zucchi, discussing the features and design thinking for their new, Chatham series of boats.

The Chatham is being offered in 16 and 18 foot lengths with the 16 being available in composite glass or carbon along with a new polyethelene version. The 18 is only available at this point in glass or carbon. Plans for a plastic version of the 18 are on hold for the time being.

Necky is now fitting out their cockpits with a molded aluminum seat cradle that is adjustable fore and aft for trim. They are also including the fully adjustable back band system derived from their successful whitewater boats. A totally adjustable system for thigh bracing is also part of the package. The thigh brace system can slide fore and aft as well as having an angle adjustment to really fine tune the overall fit of the boat to the owner.

The shape of the hull, while obviously an evolution of traditional British kayak designs, shows some distinct departures, especially in how the ends of the boat have been shaped.

Spike has chosen to carry the fullness of the center of the hull farther out towards the bow and stern to raise the prismatic coefficient along with imparting some new handling characteristics. One of those characteristics is an increased initial stability over trad designs in this class of hull.

Overall outfitting is excellent as is quality of finish.

Over at the WIlderness Systems compound, I was introduced to the Tempest line of Brit styled boats as a logical progression of its involvement with the form. They have models in 16.5, 17 and 18 foot lengths. I saw composite hulls in the 16.5 and 18 sizes with the 17 being displayed in poly plastic.

The design of the Wildy boats was a cooperative venture between Steve Sherrer from Alder Creek Kayaks in Portland and Bob McDonough at Wilderness Systems. This boat also exhibits the fuller ends that are seen in the Necky boat but the Wildy team has taken the liberty to clip some of the traditional, high bow and stern points as unnecessary windage.

The Tempest displays some elements of the new, Phase 3 seating system that has been incorporated in the Wilderness line-up. See the link below to the site for detailed descriptions of the boats in the Tempest line. The new, 18' boat is not currently shown as it's still going through another round of sea trials before being sent to the production side of the company.

For all the paddlers in the Northwest, two models of the Tempest will be available for test paddling at the Symposium next month. My guess is that Necky will also be showing the Chatham so that side by side comparisons will be not too difficult to arrange.

Both companies have outfitted the new offerings with fore and aft deck hatches as well as day use hatches immediately aft of the cockpit.

They both show a shallow vee hull line with transitions that I would call a very soft, chine shape to the shear line. Both solutions will tend to give the boats more apparent stability inspite of their narrow beams. The word is that Necky company president, Nando Zucchi, put Johnson Outdoors CEO, Helen Johnson, in a Chatham at the on-the-water demo at one of the local lakes and she had a blast, feeling right at home in the craft as a novice paddler. A fairly strong statement on product confidence.

Both boats also have rather slick skeg systems. The Tempest system is a fairly traditional approach done with exceptional materials for utility and durability.

The skeg on the Chatham takes the concept to another level, though, with the use of a "memory loaded wire" to acctuate the deployment. This heavy duty wire can bend if a pebble or chunk of debris gets into the skeg slot and jams the fin. By bending and not breaking or forming a permanent kink, the wire can return to its original shape when the debris has been cleared. Really slick.

I operated the deployment slide for the skeg while one of the Necky crew held the skeg in its trunk against my control. The wire gave as it would due to a jam, and then returned to its original position automatically. With the skeg unrestricted, the deployment slide worked perfectly. Again, slick.

My overall impression of both boats is that each company has done a lot of homework before developing their new products. The attention to detail is impressive. I can't tell you how they paddle or how they handle conditons. I can only relate that two very experienced design teams with dozens of fine boats behind them have produced craft that will create entirely new options for boat owners if they choose to purchase a boat in this style.

The Tempest can be seen at the link below as well as on the home page of Alder Creek Kayaks at: www.aldercreek.com I have photos of the Necky boat showing the deck layout as well as hull profile. I will post them next week when the dust settles.

Next week I will post a more comprehensive report of the show and the other goodies that will be coming down the road for our kayaking pleasure.

Chris Ostlind