Advice on new boat: Kayak Centre or Vadja???

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What about local ?

www.kirtonkayaks.co.uk/home/index.php/our-boats/k1/3-typhoon

I got one for the year I am in the UK as a step up from a Swordfish.

no 11 -10 kg high volume typhoon was 1333 GBP

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Hi having been thoroughly beaten by Hank - him in a bulldog surfski and us in a K2 carbon eagle I would not worry about what Hank paddles. He even had to wait at the turn bouys!

Find a boat that is comfortable - you want to be able to spend hours in it and enjoy!

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The other thing to consider is feel versus results. Often boats 'feel' faster but when measured aren't.

Coupled with this is a boat on the verge of being too tippy might be fine for the first 5km and be faster than boat B, but then once you get tired boat B all of a sudden gets faster.

Then there is the all important looks....

The Velox Raid has won a few converts amongst our Division 1 paddlers here in Western Australia due the great value they present over the European brands for us here.

Another South African brand to consider if available is Knysna. They used to build Vajda under licence and now have their own line of boats.

Also quite quick for stable boats, they don't have the top end of sprint boats but for marathon they are ideal.

Very similar build type to the Kayak Centre boats, I have just ordered a marathon weight Carbon K1 from them after having some great results in their Carbon/Kevlar model (12kg).

Unfortunately their website is pretty crappy www.knysnaracingkayaks.com/

you can see some good pics of boats on their facebook page www.facebook.com/knysnaracing?fref=ts

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There's no doubt the Nelo's and Vajda's have much nicer finishes and the attention to detail in the fittings is outstanding.... and if money were no issue I wouldn't hesitate at forking out around 50% more for one.

We have access to Nelo and Vajda and a whole swag of others.
(Quantam, Advantage, Mango, DD3, Grafton, Evo and I know there are others I'm forgetting)

Being on the West Coast of Australia, bringing in boats from South Africa is pretty straight forward and the importer is also the retailer so with slim margins he is very competitive on price making it hard to go past him to boats brought from the Eastern states that are usually at least hundreds of dollars more, up to over 50% more for the latest and greatest European brands.

The guys that paddle the Velox Raid here wouldn't be paddling it if it weren't a fast boat. These guys average over 13 km/hr in our marathon series races and can hold and sustain over 14 for long periods so they wouldn't want to be pushing a slow boat against their competition. At the pointy end of our Division 1 you see Epic Legacy, Nelo, Vajda and Velox Attack/Raid.

Only reason I haven't entertained getting one is fit, they are a narrower boat in the hips (I have wide hips).

I'd be surprised if the importer bringing in the Kayak Centre boats couldn't also bring in Knysna, that's what our importer does. Actually he brings in the Avon Descent race boats that Hank and the other top South Africans use for the Avon.

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