Introduction

Our kayaks are designed and constructed to take on the sea at its harshest. From pounding out through heavy surf to crashing ashore on a remote coastline, our boats survive.

Our hulls are reinforced throughout. We pay particular attention to keel strength as this is the key factor in making the boats last many years. Repeated landings, especially on boulder strewn or rocky beaches can be damaging to a kayak, and we build into out kayaks a high degree of survivability. Our kayaks are slightly heavier than boats from other manufacturers due to the extra reinforcing we specify. All gelcoat is sprayed; this guarantees a consistent coverage to a correct thickness, not too thick as it risks cracking. Strength comes from a laminate high in fibre mixed with the appropriate amount of resin. We employ different laminate materials across our construction range, including: glass, polyester, Kevlar and carbon. We believe a kayak hull should not oil-can when sat under its own weight on a rocky shore, nor should it deform when held securely on a roof rack.

Give our kayaks “the squeeze and flex test”! Grab either bow or stern keel section just above the waterline, then squeeze and flex the boat. You’ll notice the difference compared with other manufacturers’, and feel the rigidity that we specify in our construction.

We also pay particular attention to the deck construction. Decks often receive localised stress over different areas. Our back deck easily supports the weight of the paddler, and is ready reinforced to take a towing system. A large pressure is exerted through the knees while paddling in rough water conditions, this area is made strong. The front deck is designed to take the weight during a rescue, and hatch recess areas are stiffened by shape and laminate to reduce flexing while fitting hatch covers.

All seams are Kevlar reinforced, inside and out as standard, as this is a key area in a boats’ overall stiffness. Recess deck fittings are bolted in place and then glassed over on the inside. This gives a smooth interior finish and a high degree of reserve strength to the fittings. The kayak tips are made solid, and the bulkheads are glassed into place for ultimate security. Our seats extend the rigidity of the kayak’s structure by closely conforming to the hull shape, and making contact over two large base flanges padded with high density foam. Bolts join the seat tops to the cockpit rim and also secure the backrest.

We have tested many constructions over the last two decades, and have kayaks undertake remote and long distance expeditions as well as playing dangerously close to inhospitable shores. We believe in not taking chances with the sea, and equip ourselves with the best possible boat designs and constructions on which we can depend.

We enjoy paddling our kayaks and are committed to our products...

TideRace Core Technology (TCT)

The purpose of adding a core is to stiffen the laminate. It employs "Euler-Bernoulli beam theory" (also known as Engineer's beam theory, Classical beam theory or just beam theory).

TCT works in our kayak laminates by increasing the distance (thickness) between the inner and outer layers of fibre. In traditional GRP laminates, the greater the thickness, the stiffer the laminate, but a thick laminate becomes heavy. A core replaces the middle part of the laminate sandwich, by inserting a lighter less dense layer in the middle. The problem with the original foam type cores was that they were easy to crush, negating any advantage of the stiffness and weight saving. These old type foam cores are still used in racing kayaks as they give the ultimate weight reduction and high stiffness. The latest core technology that we employ (the material we use is unique to us in the kayaking industry), has easily proved itself over the last three years, and does not use a foam core but a glass fibre core. This core fills with resin during the vacuum infusion laminating process - creating a single structure, and forms very small solid vertical towers of glass and resin within the laminate. These towers are approx 1.5mm in height, and at this size are crush resistant to forces acting on the kayak's hull - even heavy landings on boulder beaches.

We tested one of our TCT hulls on a major expedition during 2008/9 where the paddler carried 80kg of film and expedition equipment in a HardCore Xplore. The review, written by the expedition paddler, was published in Ocean Paddler (Dec 2009) reporting that this was the toughest boat by far he has ever seen/used - it came back from this punishing expedition with virtually no damage - it cemented our commitment to this technology.

Our TCT laminate has proven to be much stiffer than traditional single thickness laminates, reduces weight, and keeps the tough bullet-proof British spec laminates that we enjoy. We use our core in both the hull and deck of our HardCore and Carbon-Pro boats. We use a heavy grade cloth along with multiple layers of additional reinforcing in the hull and a lighter cloth in the deck - the core thickness remains the same. In summary - we have a core that creates a single structure, full of glass reinforcing, no soft foam in the middle, that hugely increases strength and stiffness without a weight penalty.