As the kayakclub bought herself a new Romany S rm, I got the opportunity to take a close look to this new kayak which is introduced by P&H (OEPS: I mean NDK of course) in march 2008.
Later I will take her along for a paddle, but first I will take a technical look underneath:
The hull
Looking at the hull I noted that the hull is quite different from the Romany's I have seen before: This kayak almost looks like a hardchine kayak with an almost flat bottom. At first I thought this was a deformation of the PE-material (although we ordered the 3-layer material with extra stiffness) by storage on her bottom. Thinking about to prevent oil-canning, the kayak was stored on a flat bred and just in that area the bottom was very flat. So I started to "awake" Wieger by proposing hanging the kayak in bands to prevent this terrible oilcanning.
HOWEVER it turned out NOT to be that bad: looking at the internet I found that the Romany S rm is a copy of the Romany S, which is a different design with flatter bottom than the normal Romany´s. So no problem, I just discovered the difference between the normal and the S-Romany!
I only felt pleased having noticed the difference.
The cockpit
What is new to me with a PE-kayak is that this Romany has an glascockpit rim. That´s what I call a real good invention. Because such a cockpit rim will not have the usual problems with the sprayskirt slipping off OR having a sprayskirt that fits very (= read: too) tight. Yes I like this invention.
What I dont like is the width of the seat: Sitting in the cockpit I had at least 10cm free space next to my hips. So no boat contact at all. The foamblocks at the spot were ca. 5cm outside of the cockpit-rim which means this is only suited for heavy people.
But again: the internet brought the solution: I found a picture (see left) were the foamblocks were different resulting in better hip-contact. Probably NDK forgot to add the second foamblocks left and right to close the first foamblock, which is built around the bolts attaching the seat to the kayak.
The seat has no backband. Instead the backside of the seat comes high up and is padded with a foamlayer. For me this felt quite comfortable. However I can imagine that someone wants the old backband. In that case I don't see an easy solution to apply such backband to the seat.
The cockpit-rim has the NDK keyhole shape. New to me, and I regard that as an improvement, is that under the widest part of the rim the deck rises a bit. (from he picture underneath you can get an idea). This makes it impossible to put your fingers very far underneath it. This is more safe as the rim on the older polyester Romany could cause injury to fingers when someone, rafting up at sea, grips the rim at that spot.
The finishing off at the underside of the rim is a bit sharp; I would advice a bit of sanding for a more gentle feeling for your hands while carrying.
What I also like is the profiled deck at the spot were the knees come in: the deck has a little bulb fitting nicely around the knee and improving the grip you get already from the keyholecockpit.
Personally I don´t have much benefit as my knee does not reach the "bulb". Only when moving foreward for 10cm I can feel how comfortable this is. Strange issue as this kayak is designed for people from 1,60-1,90m. As I am in the middle with 1,80m my knee should fit as well. It seems that only the 1,90m-guys fit in properly.
For footbraces are installed the JR-braces on a rail. Personally I don´t like these as they force your feet into one position and having the risk of your feet slipping off them when applying much force. Your feet even can cramp. For a PE-kajak this footrest however is a practical solution. Certainly because the bulkheads are made from foam and not suitable to use as footbrace.
For individual owners I would advice to install a tube, sliding it over both footrests, creating a much more convenient footbrace. You are welcome to visit my website for more details. The text is in Dutch (sorry!) but the pictures will speak for themselves. Click here!
For paddlers wanting to mount a footpump another solution has to be found. Click here OR CLICK here
The same solution is also used already on the Rockpool and Tiderace kayaks. So the simplest idea is buying a footrest from them and install it in the Romany.
The deklayout is standard as for all NDK-kayaks and has 3 compartments. The layout has enough lines and elastics on deck. In front of the fronthatch a Silva compass can be mounted.
The hatches are the flexible ones from NDK. Honestly I have problems in closing the hatches. I experienced it as almost impossible to close them properly because they don´t slip over the rim of the hatchfittings on deck.
Could it be that the PE-material of the kayak is much less slippery than polyester. In that case a bit of lubrication could help. I am always a bit careful with lubrication because that can also work the other way around getting the hatches pop-of by themselves.
The toggles were not single-lined, but that´s something owners can easily correct themselves.
The bulkheads of the compartments are made of a thick foam block which are glued. It looked very neat, but I wonder how the watertightness of the compartments will be on the long term. As this Romany S is a clubkayak (mostly handled a bit more rough than a privat kayak), this is a good testcase to review that issue over time.
For the variable skeg is mounted the system from Karitek. As I can see it´s the version with a cable and not the hydrolic system.
The control-button is placed in the side of the deck; smoothly at equal level with the decksurface. The advantage is that you can not interfere with your fingers nor paddle. But there is also a disadvantage because, while paddling, the control-button is invisible from the cockpit so it is not possible to see what the position is of the skeg. The only way is to feel with your fingers wich is not very comfortable in a rough sea. When adjusting the skeg you have also to feel where it is before sliding it. I trust however, after some time, you can find the controlbutton blindly.
More on this kayak will follow.