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Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:16 am

It’s. A total pain to cartop but this plastic boat has served us for 18 years of kid and adult abuse on rocky shores

Unlike inflatables it can be rowed well in rough seas , and ships two set so oars if it is heavily loaded

Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:22 am

Pakboats is still offering up folders:

https://pakboats.com/folding-kayaks/ with recent change of ownership after a warehouse fire https://pakboats.com/ .

I have an old Puffin II and Sport.

The Advanced Elements craft look like a good compromise all-round.

Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:35 am

I have no idea when they were first offered, but we have had a plastic 12' portabote for... 20 years?

Still works great. Paddles really easily.

Mon Jul 20, 2020 11:51 am

I recently had the opportunity to pick up two Feathercraft K-light folding kayaks. They do not make this model any more... but what a kayak! 30-ish pounds, fairly easy to set-up and take down. Fits in its own backpack with room to spare. Super capable and quite fast paddler. Never knew how much I needed them till I had them ;-)

J

Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:00 pm

Edit: Go to page one to see more on the Orukayak...

Have Orukayak folding kayaks been mentioned here? They assemble faster than my Advanced Elements inflatable and I have a friend who loves his.

https://www.orukayak.com/

Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:41 pm

if anyone is interested in folding kayaks I just wrote this up on the foldingkayaks.org forum for a newbie considering a Folbot to buy. The are plentiful if your patient in looking for one.

"If you are looking for a folding kayak I myself knowing what I know now - for a two seater I would only be interested in a Greenland ll between the years of 2001 and 2010.

Reasons being:
It's younger then the "vintage" antiques being sold.
These years still have the Hypalon hull. After 2010-2011 you might get one with an Evaloy hull. It's harder to repair holes in the hull from scrapping or hitting something in the water. The hypalon can be repaired in the field if you like going on camping trips. The "Evil-oy" cannot.

Other changes that might help identify the year built.
Aluminum washboards came into being around 2000-2001. (Washboards being the edge frame around the top of the cockpit.)
the Frames were first made of glass filled polycarbonite from the 1990 to 2003. then they went to aluminum frames.
The "Eviloy" I think was definite by 2012, but trying to put an age on these boats can be inaccurate sometimes because the seller does not know what they have. So 2010 is my guidepost for an age range to stay away from "Eviloy".

I would only buy one with the aluminum washboards, they add some stiffness to the hull.

The decking should still be in good shape. If the seller hasn't taken care of the boat then you might wind up with a dry rotted deck from UV sunlight. Or if they put it away wet without allowing it to dry you might have some shrinkage. I've never had that problem, but some people talk about it happening so it does exist.

There are good deals still to be had out there. You can find a good shape G ll for less then $150-500 if your are patient and diligent in your searching. You can find an old one that needs some work to try to see if you like one before spending money on a really good one.
These boats if kept properly will last years and there are always people who buy one and then put them in a closet for years forgetting about them.

Also in buying a boat consider where the seller lives, near salt water or fresh water lakes...if near salt water then I am very cautious about buying if I get the feeling they did not care for the boat properly. What kind of use did the boat have? Building a rapport with the seller is key in finding out.

The forum here is a wealth of information. Do your research. You might find someone close enough to where you live to to go see what your getting into!

There is a lot of good info here regarding when what model was built.
http://jeeps-folbots-etc.epizy.com/folb ... t.html?i=3 "

Embarrassingly I have 3 Greenland ll's, 2 Yukons, a Kodiak, an Edisto and also a Klepper Aerius ll. One of the G ll's and the Edisto are literally brand new never having been paddled. The Edisto was never assembled until I did it in a hotel room.
My other insanity aside from my Syncro!

Mon Jul 20, 2020 5:23 pm

foldingkayaks.org is a great resource. Being into german cars and german engineering, my first folding kayak was a klepper A2. Perfect family kayak, extremely stable and could fit my wife, I, and 2 kids in it the first couple of years. Now that the kids are a little older, I added a long haul folding kayak Mark II (very similar to klepper) to the mix. One parent now with each kid. They are not light (70 lbs plus each) but extremely stable and there's something nice about feeling the kayak flex and move with the water.

Mon Jul 20, 2020 6:25 pm

skyboy wrote: foldingkayaks.org is a great resource. Being into german cars and german engineering, my first folding kayak was a klepper A2. Perfect family kayak, extremely stable and could fit my wife, I, and 2 kids in it the first couple of years. Now that the kids are a little older, I added a long haul folding kayak Mark II (very similar to klepper) to the mix. One parent now with each kid. They are not light (70 lbs plus each) but extremely stable and there's something nice about feeling the kayak flex and move with the water.

I think the Long Hauls are now the state of the art since Feathercraft went out of business in 2016 along wth Folbot.
Long Haul, Wayland(U.K.) are making new hull skins for the Klepper. Wayland is sending your frame over to Poland to the Klepper factory for a new skin. Long Haul is supposedly making a better skin then the original.
Nice thing about Long Haul is that they are in Colorado.

Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:22 pm

Steve M:

The "vintage" 'ol Folbots aren't so bad. My '84 Super Folbot has a PVC hull and that stuff -- besides being toxic -- is indestructible. It does weigh a ton, though, because I added keel strips etc and it hasn't seen service in years. I bought the Pakboats due to less weight but that Super Folbot is a brute in the water. I used cut-in-half pool noodles on the sides, tucked behind the longerons, for extra flotation. Absolute beast!

Mine is blue with foot pedals for the rudder:

https://folbot.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/vintage-folbot-catalog-pictures-1_page_1.jpg

http://www.shorebase.co.uk/boating/canoes/toblof/toblof.asp

Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:44 pm

VdubVanner wrote: Steve M:

The "vintage" 'ol Folbots aren't so bad. My '84 Super Folbot has a PVC hull and that stuff -- besides being toxic -- is indestructible. It does weigh a ton, though, because I added keel strips etc and it hasn't seen service in years. I bought the Pakboats due to less weight but that Super Folbot is a brute in the water. I used cut-in-half pool noodles on the sides, tucked behind the longerons, for extra flotation. Absolute beast!

Mine is blue with foot pedals for the rudder:

https://folbot.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/vintage-folbot-catalog-pictures-1_page_1.jpg

http://www.shorebase.co.uk/boating/canoes/toblof/toblof.asp

They're good boats...but they are 'Vintage" In some owners hands they have not aged well.