Rockpool Kayaks were originally approached to develop an intermediate race kayak for Wild Water Racing (WWR). The boat was to be a fast, lightweight fully race legal kayak that was easy to paddle and manoeuvre. The aim was to develop a boat that would provide a stepping stone between intro boats (such as the Perception Wavehopper) and full top-flight white water racing. As a bonus, the lessons learnt during development would feed back into our future sea kayak development: faster boats, improved handling and top class lightweight constructions.
The outcome was the SPARK and the DEMON.
These boats are designed to be easy to paddle, race and maintain. They are aimed to encourage paddlers to take the first steps from plastic into full composite race boats.
Between the Lines:
These boats make ideal fitness boats for the paddler who may not (yet) be interested in racing but fancies a boat to clock up a few miles with an aim to improve paddling fitness.
Note: These boats are not designed for open water paddling.
DEMON
This a stable and highly manoeuvrable WWR kayak. We are pleased with the speed of the DEMON; it is faster than we originally intended but still with high levels of manoeuvrability and stability! The reduced deadwood in the nose gives a linear progression in the turn rate and minimises over-turning for tight moves. The distinctive flat hull section combines with the cut away nose to give shallow water speed and impressive acceleration when paddling through a wash.
The high bow and shaped deck combine to give an unusually dry ride along with good water shedding through the rough stuff. The bow and the transom rear have been designed with life’s little mishaps in mind. Both have been shaped to give maximum strength and with ease of repair in mind.
The DEMON has higher speed but slightly less stability than the SPARK; this is the boat for the paddler with previous white water experience making their first forays into Wild Water Racing or taking the next step on from the SPARK.
SPARK
The SPARK is a stable and highly manoeuvrable WWR kayak based on the successful DEMON design. We are pleased with the surprising speed of the SPARK; it is fast but still with high levels of manoeuvrability and stability! The centre hull volume of the SPARK has been shaped and increased to return higher levels of stability. The rear deck has been lowered just behind the cockpit to improve comfort for the smaller paddler. The reduced deadwood in the nose gives a linear progression in the turn rate and minimises over-turning for tight moves. The distinctive flat hull section combines with the cut away nose to give good shallow water speed (for UK rivers!) and impressive acceleration when paddling through a wash.
The SPARK shares the same high bow and shaped deck of the DEMON, to give an unusually dry ride along with good water shedding through the rough stuff. Again, the bow and the transom rear have been designed with life’s little mishaps in mind. Both have been shaped to give maximum strength and with ease of repair in mind.
The SPARK has been designed with greater stability in mind, this is the boat to take the first step from the Wavehopper.
Currently the SPARK is undergoing testing and will reach production in the very near future.
All WWR kayaks are supplied with airbags (front and rear) and seats. Inside seams are 2” diolen tape and coloured outside seams are 1” glass tape (unless stated otherwise).
Vac 1:
· Vac bag construction
· Polyester resin
· Glass and Diolen cloth
· Spheretex Reinforcement
· Glassfibre seat
The use of Polyester resin minimises cost and is suitable for deep water/club/fitness use. A polyester resin construction is not as robust as an Epoxy resin construction and so we feel this construction is not suitable for prolonged use on moving water.
Vac 2:
· Vac bag construction
· Epoxy resin
· Glass and Diolen fabric
· Kevlar/Carbon fibre reinforcing patches
· Spheretex Reinforcement
· Glassfibre seat
The combination of Epoxy resin and Diolen give a very tough boat. This hull will take some serious stick; we recommend this as the best combination of value for money versus robustness.
Premier:
· Vac bag construction
· Epoxy resin
· Kevlar/Carbon and Diolen fabric
· Kevlar/Carbon fibre reinforcing patches
· Spheretex Reinforcement
· 2” Kevlar inside seam, 1” Kevlar outside seam
· Lightweight Kevlar/Carbon seat, cockpit rim and footplate
This gives an ultra lightweight and rigid construction, for an instantly responsive kayak on the water. Though this boat is strong and rigid it demands a little more care and attention than the Diolen construction.
Seat
Kev/Carb or Carbon seat can be supplied at additional cost for Vac 1 & Vac 2 constructions.
Footrests
We can provide BADGER adjustable footrests for all WWR kayaks as required.
Artwork
As for our sea kayak range we more than happy to build your boat with custom colours, glitter and artwork – but remember: the more colours the more weight! See the Constructions page for details.