Has anyone found a kayak spray skirt that will work on an Alpacka?
I hate the Alpacka spray skirt. I admit it is a huge improvement over the cruiser deck, but I am sick of it pooling with water and popping. I have heard that some people have improved the situation by wearing an inflatable donut around their waste.
What I would like is to use an actual kayak spray skirt.
My cockpit measurements are 35" L, 21" W, & a circumference of 90". This is almost the exact size of the Remix 79 cockpit (35"x21"x89"). There are several skirts that should work for these measurements, but the rands (bungees) are too large for the lip of the Alpacka combing.
I am thinking that I might be able to modify a skirt like the NRS Neotouring Skirt by removing the bungee and installing a smaller rand.
Any thoughts? Is there a skirt out there that might work without modification, perhaps a sea-kayaking skirt or a skirt with a removable/adjustable rand?
John, I think Alpacka needs to build a beefy deck for people who don’t hike as much as they boat. I would gladly add a couple of pounds to my boat for a tighter skirt. I have whined about that problem alot, drives me nuts.
They work awesome on pool drop, ledges and falls, but under certain conditions, especially continuous whitewater streams, when they’re really wavy with lots of holes to punch through, no chance to dump some water, we get heavy and cannot ferry 50lbs of water effeciently.
A beefier Alpacka skirt/deck would be nice, but I am not giving up hope that there is a kayak skirt that will work.
Here is what I have tried so far:
-Several rubber rand skirts: Will not work, must be a bungee rand.
-NRS Shock Cord Sprayskirt & Drylander Shock Cord: Might work, I did not have the large enough size to try. Bungee cord is quite large for Alpacka combing.
-All Black weird brand that Alaska Raft and Kayak had: Fit the Alpacka combing perfectly, but popped quickly when knees were raised.
I am going to try a few more today. IR, Snapdragon, and Bomber all make bungee styles that might work.
On another note, I was able to repair all my spray deck tent pole sections by gorilla gluing the PVC sections back on.
Jim at Alaska Kayak Academy let me try a Snapdragon bungee style that he has. It fit perfectly and did not pop when I sat in it. You do have to pull quite hard to remove the deck.
I ordered one immediately. I’ll post an update after it comes in and I give it a try in some whitewater.
If you smear seam seal the inside of the skirt rand ( old kayaker trick) the skirt will stay on much better (super sticky and hard to get it to blow off even with lifted knees) and install an implosion bar (also a kayaker trick) you will not get puddles. The seam seal trick works very good and the skirt is far easier to put on also. Made the implosion bar out of a cheap flexy strip of cutting board ( $4.99). No need for a heavy neoprene skirt if you redesign the skirt to actually work and take a hit of water like Alpacka should have done in the first place.
Here are a few pictures… not the best sewing job, If I were to do it again I would probably glue instead of sewing it. Sewing mixed material, one slippery and one sticky did now work great with my machine but still work out only ugly by my standards. I still need to seam seal the stitching as I ran out when doing the rand of the skirt. The sewn cups for the end of the bar are made out of mid weight PVC (similar to the floor of the boat) and a small velcro tab in the middle to hold it from coming out and also top make it removable.
Very important that the extended flap that holds the end of the bar goes under the string that tightens up the combing, and the bungee goes over the top as shown in the photos. When it starts collapsing it actually tightens the skirts hold on the combing. This also in no way restricts the skirt from being safely removed. If the flap is laying on top of the combing it makes it blow out easier when pressure is applied, hope this makes sense. The bar is flexy (or spring loaded), it will spring down with enough pressure is applied but pops back up on its own to shed water. The trick is getting the right plastic, I have one strip made out of a flexy cutting board, but I think the one I made out of a Tupperware lid is a little better.
On a side note if you put seam seal in the skirt rand to make it sticky, make sure it is stretched out smooth and clamped when applying the sealer and smooth untill it dries. It takes several sessions to get all the way around but worth it. I would think this was obvious but just making sure.
Hope this all makes sense, or if you have any questions.
Oh nice! I have been pondering the skirt problem for oh so long. That is 2 mods added to the list (I also still need to install those thigh pads on your blog).
I reckon you might have the most bling ride in town now, ha. How are the thigh and foot braces coming along?
Hey Jeremy,
Actually I now have a whole new set up, one piece foam seat with a inflatable under-seat, molded hip pads that attache directly to the boat (now the seat anymore), foam bulkhead and two different foam floor set ups. Although not designed for extended hiking (bulky) I feel a lot safer about running big shallow drops on shorter trips with this set up.
I still need to try the system out, I have been piecing the parts together for a while but headed out tomorrow for some after work creeking with a couple good sizable vertical drops and some good bolder gardens so I`ll post some on our blog on how it works after that, but here are a few pictures of what I made.
Still working on the rigid thigh braces but at the rate it is going I`m sure I will have mine done before Alpacka releases there new boat with them (how many years has it been now?).
Heya Kirk, how is that new deck and seat treating you?
Also, if someone could make me a 3 kilo kayak i would buy it tomorrow! I got stuck for about 40 seconds in a big grade 4 hole While in Nepal. In a kayak I could have presented my edge and made my way out ( I also ran the same rapid in a kayak and went straight through), but in the raft i had to leave it pretty much to luck before it pushed me far enough to escape. I find that Packrafts rock in most conditions but i often find myself dreaming of an ul kayak ha.
I am interested with solutions to improve the alpacka spray skirt. Water is pooling behind me and I think you may have a solution but I don’t quite understand all the things you wrote(I am not an english speaker) and pictures are no longer online.
Does anyone have find a good design to improve the alpacka spray skirt ?