| B.Y.O.K.: Bring Your Own Kayak
"While a three-piece does give you some wonderful options for traveling, the price is a few gray hairs and some cold, hard, cash."
Greg Stamer
About the Ups and Down of traveling with a sectional Kayak
The Concept
Traveling to the far corners of the world with a regular 1 one piece kayak is either impossible, or you will depend on the highly expensive services of a shipping company. If you are lucky enough to find a shipping company which agrees to transport your 18 feet box, you may face an invoice of over $2,000 for the one way shipping, and the possibility that the kayak may never make it to the destination, no matter what the shipping company promised you (see our experiences to have our kayaks shipped from NYC Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina). Then again, the idea of lugging around 3 over sized pieces of parcel halfway around the globe all the way to Perth/Australia, or Patagonia/Chile does not look very appealing either at first glance. While traveling with a 3-piece kayak there will be many moments where you will feel like Klaus Kinski as "Fitzcarraldo" as he moves his ship over a mountain. Add the frustrating moment after being for 2 days on planes or airports, when you realize your pride and joy, your brand new 3-piece kayak, just won't fit into the cab at the rural Puerto Montt airport.
Valley Nordkapp 3-piece kayakAfter google-ing for kayak outfitters before the Chile trip in 2006 it became painfully apparent that I would have 2 really bad choices and one quite appealing choice for my month long trip in the waters West of Patagonia: The first option was to rent a plastic Prijon boat from an outfitter close to Puerto Montt, and thus to paddle in a quite populated area (close to the populous outfitters base). The second option was to bring a folding kayak with me on the plane down to Chile. Both options seemed funny to me: Why paddling a true expedition workhorse kayak at home in the protected waters of NY harbor, and then paddling on your much anticipated trip in foreign and exciting waters a bulky, plastic rental watercraft? Option 3 just looked the best: Go there with a 3-piece, or "sectional", kayak. At first glance, the 3-piece concept looks a little like a mad scientist's idea. The second question, which might be much more interesting than the first, is: Who wants to paddle such a fragile looking object?
And now a 2-piece kayak: 2nd incident, now the bow section came off, Western Australia, Feb 2007
The Advantages of going sectional
- Asides from taking a sectional kayak on a plane, owners or 3-piece kayaks can transport the three sections of the kayak sections inside a car (by folding down the rear sets), rendering a car topping device unnecessary, and making the drive to the launch site safer and faster.
 
Photo: Simon Osborne Photo: David Stenglein - You will be able to store your kayak in a closet in an apartment. Due to the short length of the sections, it is possible to navigate the pieces up and down the narrowest inner-city staircases. - You will be able to commute by public transportation with your kayak to rolling class by bringing only the middle section.
- You will quickly become an expert in fiberglass repairs (due to your accumulating experience fixing your 3-piece kayak)
Joining Methods
Kayak manufacturers are using 3 different methods to join the 3 pieces to a single hull:
- Valley Canoe Products uses 4 nuts and bolts at each double bulkhead connection, creating a truly "invisible" connection if you ignore the tiny seam between the segments.
 
The 4 nuts and bolts, as seen from inside The tiny seam, with black window sealant inbetween
- One of 2 connection methods Nigel Dennis offers in his sectional kayaks: 2 Clips on top of the hull of the kayak, and 2 bolts connecting the bulkheads close to the bottom of the kayak.  - Nigel Dennis, like Rockpool, also offers a clip-only connection, with 2 clips on top and 2 clips on the bottom of the kayak.  Clip-only, w/clips on top & bottom of kayak
Bolts of Clips? The Pros and Cons
Advantages of Valley's Nuts-and-Bolts Connection:
- A simple, solid, invisible connection which is pleasing to the eye, and which needs little maintenance.
- Very sturdy.
Disadvantages of the Nuts-and-Bolts Connection:
- The bulkheads have to be drilled, creating 4 holes to accomodate the bolts, which creates sources for possible wet hatches.
- Nuts have to be re-tightened from time to time. Despite the nuts featuring plastic inserts which should prevent slippage, the nuts do come loose after a while, thus letting water into the compartments,
- Longer assembly time of appr 15-25 minutes, involving yoga-alike positions to reach and turn the bolts inside the hatches. Some 3-piece assemblies with the nuts and bolt construction require a 2nd person to hold the bolt on the other end (to prevent the bolt from turning).
- The boat has a very heavy lay-up due to the large amount of fiberglass needed in order to reinforce the glassing-in of the bulkheads, and in order to prevent the bulkheads from popping out under stress, such as in dumping surf (see pics from yellow NDK Explorer with popped out bulkheads).
Nigel Dennis Kayaks (NDK, or "Sea Kayaking UK"), and Rockpool Kayaks are using a design featuring clips at the joints of the hulls instead of nuts and bolts. 2 clips on the bottom of the kayak, and 2 on the top. The clips are adjustable in length, and thus tension.
Rockpool Kayaks states some advantages of the clip-only connection in one simple sentence on their website:
" [Our] Three-piece-kayaks are available with a bolt-free connection
which guarantees leak free hatches, weigh saving and less stress
on the kayak's hull."
Other advantages of the clips-only (clips both on top and bottom) connection:
- Simple, fast assembly time of less than 1 minute.
- No tools needed. No nuts, bolts or tools can be lost.
- Boat design/lay-up is appr. 3-5 pds. lighter since much less fiberglass reinforcement is need to glass-in the bulkheads since there is virtually no stress on the bulkheads in order to keep the kayak pieces together.
- Truly watertight connection since bulkheads are not drilled.
Some disadvantages:
- There will be clips on the bottom of the hull. Although they are recessed, the clips and the recesses create some fraction. This fraction can be limited by putting a piece of duct tape over the clips.
- Clips may come loose under extreme stress, such as bow contact with the ground when landing in (dumping) surf.
- Just like the nuts and bolts, the clips do come loose and have to re-adjusted from time to time, sometimes even daily.
There are currently 5 manufacturers I know of who do 3-piece sea kayaks: Valley Canoe Products (VCP), Rockpool, Nigel Dennis Kayaks (NDK), Nimbus, and Easy Rider Kayaks.
You may also convert your current one piece kayak into a 3-piece kayak, as described and illustrated in a DIY article in Sea Kayaker magazine (see right column of this website).
Quanto questo, por favor? Pricing for Shipping a 3-piece Kayak
 3-piece Nordkapp under stairwell (bottom left) on ferry Puerto Montt to Puerto Chacabuco, Chile, 2005
Patagonia/Chile Trip (2006)
New York City to Santiago de Chile: $100 on Continental Airlines Santiago de Chile to Puerto Montt: $50 on LAN Chile Puerto Montt to Puerto Chacabuco: $25 on Ferry (24 hours ferry ride)
Australia Trip (2007)
Perth (Australia) to New York City: Free ($0.00) on Qantas Airlines Ireland Trip (2007)High Speed Ferry Dublin to Holyhead (Wales): Free ($0.00) Falklands Expedition (2009)$225.00 for the one-way shipping of a one-piece Explorer by sea freight from Southhampton (UK) to the Falkland Islands with Darwin Shipping Ltd. (no return shipping costs since kayak stayed in the Falklands). Tierra Del Fuego Expedition (2010)$710.00 by UPS from NYC to Punta Arenas, Chile, one way. No return shipping costs since kayak stayed in Caleta Falsa, Argentina.   Carved foam pieces to protect the ends of the connections.
The Praxis
The most interesting part in manovering a 3-piece kayak is actually on land. It starts with the task of getting the 3-piece kayak into a cab at home (preferably a van), and to convince the driver that "I am doing this all the time ... " and that the kayak does, or better has to (since your plane is leaving in 90 minutes), fit into the cab. This discussion with the cab driver serves as a warm-up for the real challenge: Your discussion with the multiple airline representatives who are getting summoned to your check-in counter "to help you" with the check-in process. These customer representatives actually try to prevent you, or your kayak, or both, or any other chosen combination, from boarding the plane by all means necessary. You now and here have to display a confidence, bordering to arrogance, that "you are doing this all time" (yes, again), and to convince the enlarged check-in crowd on the other side of the counter that you chatted just yesterday 1/2 hour on the phone with an airline representative, with the airline's very own John Smith, or Susan Jones, who assured you that checking in the 3-piece kayak would be "no problem at all". Since most airlines do agree to take surfboards on their planes, but prohibit fiberglass kayaks, it considerably speeds up the check-in process if one mentions the item to be checked-in is a "surf-board-kayak", which in fact, is not that far from the truth. Right?
Some airline or ferry crews are flexible when the kayak isn't
"The biggest issue with 3 piece kayaks is moving the bags. One has a sense of 19th century Victorian era expeditions with the camel trains and porters, merely by moving the bags from the car and through the doors to the ticket counter."
Rob G.After landing at your destination with your 3-piece kayak in the belly of the plane, the fun does not end. After picking up the pieces at the oversized luggage counter and putting the 3 pieces of the kayak on the luggage cart either vertically or horizontally, you will come to the conclusion that - no matter how you place the kayak on the cart - the doors and hallways of the airport are either to low or too narrow, or your kayak is too high or too wide to make your way through the airport. Another disadvantage handling a 3-piece kayak is the heavy weight, caused by the double bulkheads design, the extra fiberglass material which has been used to reinforce the connections and bulkheads, and the weight of the hardware (nuts and bolts, or clips) needed to keep the sections attached to each other. | |
Transporting boats to faraway places usually involves logistical challenges, such as moving mountains.
Interview with Misha Hoishman Kayak Sherpa & Expedition Kayaker
 Misha Hoishman
You asked for it, and here it is: The interview with expedition kayaker Misha Hoishman, who - like probably no one else - has done a large amount of traveling with his 3 piece kayak, both before and after the day airlines started charging for even taking a piece of hand luggage on board their flying sausages, and $200 for one Greenland paddle (by Continental Airlines in November of 2010. $150 for "oversized dimensions" and $50 on top of that for "2nd piece of luggage").
Misha circumnavigated Ireland and Tasmania with his friend and long time expedition partner Ohad, and just returned from a trip along the coast of Mozambique with his friend Youval.
You can read and see his amazing photos about their voyage along the coast of Mozambique here.
Misha, to how many countries have you taken your 3-piece kayak so far?
Both my girlfriend and I took the 3-piece kayak abroad. So far it has been traveling to Mozambique, New Zealand, Thailand, Ireland, UK, Turkey and Greece. It makes it seven countries, though the number of actual flights was higher. For instance, we took it four times to Greece. All in all we traveled a lot with it.
Do you see that there will be a limit to the lifetime to your sectional kayak due to the wear, tear, and abuse during transport at the airports?
Any problems with the kayak connections? Any damage after you picked up your kayak at the over sized luggage counter at the destination after the flight and the handling by the ground crews?
So far we’ve been lucky with the flights. The damage that we ever experienced was minor, nothing beyond simple gelcoat repairs. Our luck is probably linked to the way we pack the kayak for the flight. There are two basic tactics for packing: wrap or trust. By wrapping I mean protection of your whole kayak as much as you can with foam pads, air bubbles, blankets, Russian fur coats, burritos, condoms, whatever. The disadvantage of this tactic is that even a well packed kayak still can be damaged by an less careful handling. Drop it on a concrete from high enough and all the layers will be useless. The more you wrap the kayak the higher is the chance that the ground crew will treat it as another bag. And you know how they treat bags... The other method is to protect just the most sensitive parts of the kayak (sharp corners, bolts, clips) and deliberately expose the main surface of the kayak. By doing so you put yourself into the hands of the crew: you hope that once they see the fiberglass they will handle it with care. And they usually do. We always use this method and it proved itself over time. The most severe damage was caused in our first flight when we wrapped it all properly.
As to the lifetime: the 3-piece kayak is definitely more delicate and should be handled with care and inspected each time after the flight. It can be quite annoying indeed. The wear and tear is naturally higher once you take the kayak on a flight. The overall lifespan is like of any fiberglass boat: you can repair it endlessly.
The properly built 3-piece kayaks are extremely strong. My partner Alon Ohad and I tested them in very harsh conditions around the globe including a horrible 3-store high wall of water that crashed on us in Tasmania. The joints had never failed. Previously we paddled old-designed NDK kayaks that used two bolts + two clips system. We enforced it with additional aluminum plates, stick foam pads at the bulkheads to increase the friction surface. The new NDK system uses 4 recessed clips + male / female bulkhead. It seems to be perfect and almost indestructible. I used the latter one in Mozambique and was extremely happy about it.
Photo: Misha Hoishman
In the past 2-3 years, most airlines started to prohibit "fiberglass sports gear" and kayaks as checked in luggage, but there still seems to be a gray area, and most airline personal does not know about this rule, and may - or may not - take a kayak anyway.
What is your experience with this new rule, which may end a highly publicised and expensive expedition before it even starts (namely at the home airport)?
The official rules generally don't favor transporting sea kayaks in the planes, to say the least. You might be charged for overweight, oversize, excessive number of checked-in bags or simply being refused to fly with the kayak. However the most frequent case is that the crew itself is not aware of these rules. Or they don't know how to apply them properly. For instance, they might have a rule to charge a few dollars for transporting a WW kayak. Since they are usually not aware of the difference between a playboat and a 5.5 meters sea kayak (they are both called kayaks!), they might charge you 20$ for transporting your monster. It happened to me a few times. In June-July 2010 Youval Nehmadi and I flied to Mozambique with a pair of 3-piece kayaks. We had 5 flights overall (including the connection flights), with two different companies. We were charged 100$ just on one lag.
Are there any "magic words" you can recommend using at the check-in to avoid being refused, and/or to get the surcharges down for the additional and over sized luggage? And how much have you paid to get your darling on the plane (your kayak, not your wife) on your recent trips?
I never informed the air companies in advance, I always came straight to the check-in desk. Usually I pay nothing or very little for transporting the kayak. The highest fee I paid so far was that 100$ in Mozambique. However once I missed a flight and stayed a night in Warsaw because the company wanted to charge me 400$ and I argued with them till they closed the check in counter. I spent a wonderful night in the city, and they put me on the next-day flight and charged nothing ...
There are no magic words, it's a wild game. You usually deal with human beings who might not know rules or can make an exception for you. Your smile and the ability to feel the mood of the person and act accordingly is the key here. You want to have a young guy at the counter with whom you can exchange jokes and tell him about the kayaking experience. Young, merciful girls are good too as you might develop other subjects for conversation. Of course you shouldn't rely solely on your communication skills: shrink the weight of your luggage as much as you can, put the heavy stuff in the carry-on (they rarely weigh it), dry your gear before flight.
Photo: Misha Hoishman
In general don't get nervous, try to always smile and be relaxed. Tell them funny things. Try to avoid weighing the kayak. If they insist, put the lighter part first. Say that the whole kayak is probably the weight of that part multiplied by three. If they insist, don't argue, life is tough. Put the pieces on the load one-by-one... Note that the bow and the stern look exactly the same to someone who is not a kayaker, but the amount of the equipment inside might be not equal. If you still don't get it, I can't help you more... If they want to charge you, tell them it's sport equipment, the companies usually give discounts for that. If they say you're not allowed to transport a kayak, tell them it's a sit-in surf board. Add that you flied a lot with it, and you never-ever got charged. And you have sponsors. And you ask them a favor. And you will thank them in your super-duper blog that the whole world follows. And you love their company and chose them because you knew they were kind. And you are poor. And you have allergy to chicken borscht which your mother always forced you to eat. Ask them for mercy. Be creative!
As a rule of thumb: try to avoid connection flights with two different companies. The second company that accepts your luggage will not see your charming face. It will only see your horribly big load. They will be dull and they will weigh it and decide on how much to charge you before they get a chance to know you colorful personality. From that point it will be much more difficult to change their mind.
Try to avoid flying with US air companies. The representatives at the check-in are sort of humanoid robots who strictly follow the rules. They call it good service. Unfortunately for folks who fly with the 3-piece you try hard to avoid "good service". You look for a gap to sneak in. Otherwise you get screwed.
Are there other disadvantages, or advantages, problems of a 3-piece you have experienced during your travels?
Well, the main advantage is that with the 3-piece you can reach almost any place on the globe! I transported the 3-piece by air, ferry, train and numerous number of taxis of all types and sizes. The bad news are that each time you do it you swear it would be the last try. You swear till you sit inside in the cockpit, close the spray deck and pick the paddle. Then you forget it all. From that moment it's the kayak that you are familiar with, the one you trust, the one that will carry you through the big seas. Your real friend.
Thank you for your time, and for sharing, Misha!
You're welcome!
Photo: Misha Hoishman
DIY: Convert your Kayak into a sectional Kayak
In 1991, "Sea Kayaker" Magazine run a DIY workshop portraying the efforts of a handy kayaker from New Jersey who converted his Valley Nordkapp HM into a 3 piece kayak by the means of a band saw, and then put it back together with amazing results by using the described Valley method. The extremely handy and ingenious kayaker and author is Steven J. Szarawarski, who wrote the article "You can take it with you: Making your own kayak a take-apart", as published in Sea Kayaker Magazine issue 29, Summer 1991, starting on page 56. This particular Sea Kayaker magazine issue is out of print, but Sea Kayaker Magazine is offering to xerox the article and mail you the copy of this DIY workshop for $4.00 + shipping.
See www.seakayakermag.com for contact info and for Sea Kayaker magazines back issue ordering details. Also, check out this DIV video offering some insight into the cutting process of a kayak into 3 pieces. This link will lead you to a thread on the ukriversguidebook.com site which documents the consequent build-process of the same talented builder as shown in the video.
Purchasing a Sectional Kayak
New made-to-order 3 piece kayaks run appr. between $3,900 (Nigel Dennis Explorer) to up to $4,900 (Valley Canoe Products), pending on the chosen customized options such as a rope or wire skeg (wire skeg with slider control mounted in stern section), and the amount of times you would like to have the kayak cut. Any amounts of cuts between one (2-piece kayak) and 8 (Valley built a 9-piece double "Aleut" kayak for a customer who needed the kayak to fit in the luggage compartment of a Twin Otter).
When ordering a new 3-piece kayak it is propably a good idea to think about available weight saving options such as:
- Ordering the kayak with customized (which means a usually shorter) bulkhead length, with eliminates the need for foot pegs (eliminates appr. 1 pd. of weight). - Ordering the kayak in a lighter lay-up, such as the "Elite" lay-up from NDK. Weight savings appr. 7-9 pds.
- Pass on the built-in compass, and use a tiny hand held compass you slide into your deck mounted map case instead (another 1 pd of weight savings).
- Choosing the Clip connection over the nuts-and-bolt connection. Another weight saving of appr. 3-5 pds.
If you go used, you can either search the kayaks for sale ads on paddling.net or other for classified boards (connyak.com etc.), but it may be somewhere between difficult to impossible to find a used 3-piece.
Bryn from the Australian State Emergency Services (SAS), openly questioning the Clip-Top-Bolt-Bottom connection 3-piece concept, after retrieving the broken kayak in dunes of a fairly unaccessible stretch of coast on the west coast of Australia
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