Wash After Wearing

A Feathercraft kayak is an amazing boat, from its traditional Inuit design, to its ability to fold, to the welded skin that eliminates water seepage. BUT, like any boat, car or bicycle, it does require basic maintenance.

It is important to rinse your kayak after ever foray into the ocean. The easiest method is to leave your kayak assembled and use a garden hose to completely wash the outside skin.

If any seawater has pooled inside the kayak, use a sponge to dry and then rinse thoroughly with fresh water.

You can also use a mild detergent and a soft scrub brush to clean the welded urethane skins.

Allow the skin ample time to dry before storing.

If you plan to disassemble your kayak, rinse the frame separately after removing the dry skin. 

You can lubricate the spring buttons and inserts. We suggest using a Boeshield T-9 lubricant.

Take care of your boat and it will last you a lifetime.

Don't Forget to Sponge the Interior

Feathercraft. Made in Canada. Paddled Worldwide. 

Skin Welding

The largest organ in your body is your skin. It wraps around your skeleton in a seamless weave of cells that protect your inner organs. At Feathercraft, we wanted to replicate the same seamless characteristics in the design of our boats. Fabric welding technology has allowed us the opportunity to create an exterior skin that eliminates water seepage completely.

The outer skin of our kayaks is made of two parts: the deck and the hull. In the past, Feathercraft stitched the Cordura deck layer to the hull.

With the advancement of urethane fabrics, we are now able to weld our Duratek hull layer to a polytech deck layer, using radio frequency welding technology.

Radio frequency welding joins polyurethane fabrics by exciting the molecules and creating a permanent bond. This bond acts like a gasket creating a water-tight seal between the two fabrics.

The end result is an exterior skin that is completely waterproof. Pretty amazing eh?!?!

Exciting the Urethane Molecules 

(Like Dancing - Without the Awkwardness)

Feathercraft. Made in Canada. Paddled Worldwide.

Connect with Feathercraft

I hope you are enjoying reading our weekly blog.

We are trying to cover a wide breadth of topics, from local classes being offered, to environmental concerns, to kayaking functions, to our own product line.

We feel a blog is an unobtrusive way of supplying information to the kayak community.

So far, it has been a pleasure to contribute to. We appreciate all the positive Feedback that readers have shown us on Facebook and on Google +.

If you have any kayak related events that you would like us to share on our blog, you can email us at feathercraft.kayaks.vancouver@gmail.com. We would also love to hear about any recent trips or expeditions, especially if they involved a Feathercraft kayak. Send us your photos and your stories and we'll publish them on our blog.

For day-to-day updates, follow us on Twitter or befriend us on Facebook. 

Curious about our skin kayak designs? 

Connect with us.

Feathercraft. Made in Canada. Paddled Worldwide. 

Innovation Rewarded

In 2011, Feathercraft Kayaks was honoured with the British Columbia Creative Achievement Award of Distinction. It was a honour that we received for our innovation in kayak design.

Innovation requires a leap. It builds on a present solution and offers a superior process for engagement. It can be tedious work that leads to dead-ends, long nights and grey hairs. Years of asking, 'what if we did it this way,' can end in, 'well, I guess it can't be done.'

The Feathercraft Company is built on innovative thinking. We began making kayaks in a time when fiberglass boats dominated the market. We knew that the Inuit had succeeded in making skin kayaks, but their design needed a new spin.

We asked the question, "Why can't we make a modern skin kayak with an aluminum frame and a welded urethane skin? And if we can, why not make it collapsible?"

After years of experimenting, Feathercraft created the first modern collapsible kayak.

In 2012, we are still designing new boats. We are the leader in the folding kayak industry because of our commitment to innovation.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who supported our dream and bought our kayaks. We hope you're having as much fun paddling them as we have designing them. 

Former Premier Gordon Campbell, Doug Simpson and Keith Mitchell,  Chair of the BC Achievement Foundation

-Previous winners of the British Columbia Creative Achievement Award of Distinction include, John Fluevog, Karl Stittgen and Toni Cavelti.

Feathercraft. Made in Canada. Paddled Worldwide.  

Space Saver

The world population grows, housing prices rise and our private spaces shrink. The room we have to store our outdoor toys is constantly being reduced. We crave the exhilaration that comes from our outdoor activities, but the biggest burden becomes storage.

Skis, harnesses, wakeboards, bikes... they all take up room. Add a canoe or kayak into the mix and your living room space could quickly be a thing of the past.

Enter Feathercraft. A Feathercraft kayak is designed for those people with a passion for outdoor play. Feathercraft knows that outdoor gear quickly adds up (you should see our bike locker), so we designed a kayak that can be folded neatly into a backpack. This bag can then be stored in a closet, in an apartment storage locker, or underneath the stairs.

You don't need to fill your carport with a cumbersome boat or rent a drydock slip at the marina. You can own a boat and store it next to your shoes.

Crazy, we know – but it’s true.

"See that space between the pillow and the shoes...? 

You could fit a kayak there!"

Interested in seeing one of our boats assembled? Check out this sped-up video of a young couple assembling one of our kayaks in less than 30 minutes. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g8YWsdpyQI

Feathercraft. Made in Canada. Paddled Worldwide. 

Rudder Envy

Whether at an outdoor exhibition, or on tour in Japan, or on a beach in the Bahamas, our boats attract attention. A kayak that folds into a backpack is a beautiful thing.

Often the item of interest is the rudder, at the stern of our kayaks.

Every Feathercraft we sell comes with a unique rudder system to keep our boats heading in the right direction. Hardshell kayak owners have admired these rudders for years.

Fortunately, for those set in their hardshell ways, we offer adaptable rudder systems for a variety of kayak types. For doubles, we have a large fin design that comes in three mounting options. We make a cotter pin design for a stern mounting bracket, an end pour pin that fits into the stern deck and a threaded bolt mount. For singles, we offer the same options with a smaller, sleeker fin.

The fins and bolting packages can be purchased separately or as a package. These can be bought online at our website or at our factory store on Granville Island, in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

Double Rudder with Threaded Bolt Mounting Pin

Feathercraft. Made in Canada. Paddled Worldwide.

The Stable Life

Sponsons, on a Feathercraft kayak, are the urethane compartments filled with air that give our boats stability. They also stretch the deck and hull fabric of our kayaks, providing a necessary tension between the aluminum frame and the exterior skin.

Like the top layer, the urethane components needed to create the sealed sponson chambers are welded together seamlessly.  

The sponsons of a Feathercraft can be blown-up with a few hard breaths; no additional hand or foot pump is needed.

For patching a sponson, use an Aquaseal adhesive with a Cotol accelerant.

If you plan on storing your Feathercraft kayak in its built format, always remember to release a portion of the air held in the sponsons. This is especially important if you are leaving your boat in the sun.

You can see the rounded sponson compartments on either side of the kayak, just above the foot pedals.

Feathercraft. Made in Canada. Paddled Worldwide.