Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board

Re: Necky Chatham 18

Posted By: rick
Date: Thursday, 27 January 2005, at 11:41 a.m.

In Response To: Necky Chatham 18 (Carl Tjerandsen)

Necky's Chatham 18 is a great boat to paddle. I'll by one as soon as Necky fixes:
The easily damaged stiffening foam in the layup by sandwitching it between the layup (it is damaged by paddler's heels);
The placement of the bulkheads -- the placement of the bulkheads keep this 17'9" boat from being a touring boat -- there is almost no storage. The for'd buldhead needs to be moved back towards the footbraces and the aft cockpit bulkhead should be right behind the seat (the boat has a day hatch so why have the space behind the seat when there is so little storage?). Moving the aft cockpit bulkhead would allow the day hatch bulkhead to be moved for'd, increasing the limited storage space for camping gear.

: Disappointed by my long ordered but unpaddleable Explorer carbon/kev (and
: having just sold my glass Explorer) I had resolved to buy another Explorer
: out of the new shipment. Nick urged me to give the Chatham a close look,
: and the salesperson suggested I give one of their just arrived Chatham
: 18's a try on the pond. I was favorably impressed. The glass Chatham is
: lighter and less expensive than the Explorer with much more value in the
: finish and better constructed. Stability was impressive for a 20 inch beam
: boat. Still the niche I would use the Explorer for would be big water, and
: I could not have a trial in the Necky in our local tidal races or a
: nor'easter. What clinched the deal was that it rolled, if you can believe
: this, even easier than the Explorer. If I get dumped, I'm right back up.
: The hull is Explorer like, but the sides drop straight down from the
: coaming. Saturday morning I'll be surfing the reversing falls at Blue
: Hill, ME and in the afternoon playing in some 5-6 foot swell breaking in
: on Schoodic P.. I'll let you all know how it does next week.
: BTW, the dealer got two of the first shipment - eleven Chatham 18's (a glass
: and a carbon)delivered to the east coast. Myself and another customer,
: also looking for an Explorer, were the only two to paddle the boats. We
: each left with an 18. Sold out on the 5th day.
: Carl

Messages In This Thread

Necky Chatham 18
Carl Tjerandsen -- Thursday, 29 July 2004, at 8:15 p.m.

Re: Necky Chatham 18
rick -- Thursday, 27 January 2005, at 11:41 a.m.

Re: Necky Chatham 18
M. Hamilton -- Sunday, 30 January 2005, at 4:25 p.m.

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