Alpacka removable ww deck vs permanent ww deck

Anyone have a experience with both that can give me an idea as to how much “wetter” I will be getting with the removable deck? I jus ordered a gnarwhal with removable deck and was told it’s not as dry as the fixed deck. Are we talking a little leakage or will I be sitting in a pool of water?? And if you Eskimo roll it does it fill up quite a bit? Any insight would be welcome.

If the removable deck is like the zippered design on my old Llama the extra water will be pretty minimal; however, if you are considering rolling the boat I would scrap the removable deck. A person able to roll an Alpacka is clearly using it in difficult whitewater. There would be little point in having a removable deck.

Thanks for the reply… I don’t think I’ll be rolling my alpacka anytime soon, but wanted to just use that as a frame of reference. I can only afford one boat so I kindda needed a “do it all” boat so I got the removable so when I hike with my daughter she can sit in front of me in high sierra lake trips. (Yes I know it will be cramped, but possible)

It sounds like you definitely made the right purchase for your desired use. I loved my old removable deck when I was taking my bike and dog on trips.

Awesome. Did it keep ya relatively dry?

No, but it was the model before the whitewater decks and sprayskirts. In the old models the decking wrapped around your body. They are significantly better now.

Oh got it. Thanks for the insight.

You mentioned bike,how did it handle that? I have a full suspension stump jumper and was woundering how it would do with that…

I don’t have this experience. :angry:

nickrp83, what do you think of the removable whitewater deck? Are you happy with it? Does it leak a lot or stay reasonably dry? I’m planning to get a gnarwhal and I’m agonizing over the removable deck. I like the flexibility but don’t want to have to pull over to dump water constantly.

Hey all, I just saw this. Love the removable deck and the gnarwhal. I have only had it out a few times due to working too much but here is a link to a video of trip I took last June with it. did some nice flat water paddling as well as some small rapids (no clue on class). as you can see from the video below, i get quite a bit of splash but with a cheap splash jacket and spray skirt i stayed almost completely dry. The zipper lets in very little water And yes feel free to mock the full face helmet, i had just had bone graphs in my face and i was a bit paranoid lol

Gnarwhal handles amazing and does well both on flat and white water (though i have limited white water experience). can’t wait to put it to the test a little more this summer when the local rivers are a little more reasonable for my experience (SoCal rivers were all flooded last year and too big for my comfort).

I have also cruised a lake with out the spray deck works great. And packs up real nice and small without straps and deck.

enjoy :slight_smile:

Keep in mind this was my buddy’s first time ever in a kayak… he did well!

also not towards the end of the vid how filled my buddies boat got without a spraydeck even in just small rapids.