Kayak Constructions

All of our kayaks are hand built using high specification epoxy resin systems combined with a variety of woven technical fabrics to give a careful balance between weight, strength and durability.

 

Technical Fabrics

Woven Glassfibre - OK, not such a technical fabric but essential in most constructions to provide volume and stiffness in a laminate that would otherwise be too flexible.

 

Diolen - A synthetic woven polyester fabric developed many years ago by DuPont. It has excellent abrasion and shear resistant qualities similar to that of Kevlar but at a considerably lower cost.

 

Kevlar Carbon - Synthetic Kevlar (Aramid) woven together with Carbon fibre giving an extremely tough laminate with some flexibility to absorb high impact stresses without shearing.

 

Black Magic - We call it black magic because it looks like an expensive carbon fabric but it is not. The material is a hybrid of aramid and carbon in which the normally yellow aramid is dyed black. The weave is a little heavier than kevlar carbon with a very attractive appearance and better strength properties. It produces a boat with excellent all round toughness and durability.

 

Carbon Fibre - The lightest but most difficult fabric to work with. Contrary to popular belief it is only strong in high densities meaning that more layers are required to give strength which offsets it's lighter weight. The main upside is that it is stiffer than any other laminate which can improve smooth performance in moves than can stress and slightly change a boat shape. And OK it looks cool too!!