Folding Kayaks Forum

This week I completed reskinning my 1960 Tyne Slalom kayak. Since there were not instructions on doing it there was a lot of mulling in the process. Tom Yost's web site suggestions on lacing the hull on and then attaching the deck was the one piece of information that made this possible. The cockpit was a little unusual so I had to invent a system that worked and the second try worked. I also added inflatable sponsons to the skin that turned out to be much more work than it was worth. But once finished I like the way the sponsons tighten up the skin.

From what I have been able to gather, this individual kayak was owned by the North American Distributor of Tyne and passed through one owner before me. It was designed by graduate students at a university in Tyne, England around 1960 and was the design used by the winning kayak river racers. The original colors were a red deck, now faded to pink, and silver for the hull. I kept the red deck but made the hull black. The old skin is so weak it almost failed in several places when I assembled it for the photos.

I hope you enjoy the photos. I will include some with the frame in the old skin and then some with the new skin.

Steve

Here are some more photos. In the second photo you can see the foot brace. It is very well designed, strong and adjustable. There are slots attached to the deck beam and a brass stopper on the keel. There is about a 12 inch difference in adjustment. The seat includes plywood sides for hip support. I'm pretty impressed for a 1960 kayak.

Amazing work. That's something to be proud of.

Mary

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Not in Oxford any more...

I agree with Mary ...

Splendid job; looks like a new boat.

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Kenton

Congrats on a nice job. That is a beautiful looking frame too. How does it paddle?

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Blackhawk Combi Canoe 15' 8"
CLC Chesapeake 16'
Klepper Aerius 2
Klepper T9 / Heise Skin
Pionier 520-Z / Heise Skin
Pouch E65

Barry,

I don't know how it paddles, I've never had it in the water. I live in the Texas Panhandle with very few lakes and we are coming off of a 10 year drought. Because of that we have strange jokes here like, "it is so dry the catfish have ticks... it is so dry here that for baptisms the Baptists are sprinkling and the Methodists are giving rain checks". I am planning to take it out to a lake in the next month and I will post a report then.

Being a whitewater kayak, it has enough rocker that you have to lift one end when assembling it to make the cockpit rim fit so I am interested in how it tracks. Since it was originally designed as a whitewater kayak its handling qualities might be a surprise.

I also have a frame for a Klepper 58 Slalom which was the competition model for down river racing of the time. When I get the Klepper reskinned I would like to compare the two and post a report.

Steve

I like your handiwork- and your sense of humor. Excellent job.

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Michael Edelman
FoldingKayaks.org Webmaster

Hello Steve,

As a kayaker I feel fortunately to live in the Great Lakes region. Hope you folks a get a break from the drought soon. It has been drier than average the last several week here SE Michigan/NW Ohio.

I just ordered a new skin for my Pionier 520-z from Markus Heise in Germany. Should be delivered in late July and will have some pix for folks then. I've never seen a Klepper 58 slalom first hand, they must be pretty rare these days. I'm very happy with my T9, a really great handling kayak.

Intrigued about the Tyne though, are there any good sites dedicated to the history of that make?

Barry

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Blackhawk Combi Canoe 15' 8"
CLC Chesapeake 16'
Klepper Aerius 2
Klepper T9 / Heise Skin
Pionier 520-Z / Heise Skin
Pouch E65

Barry,

I don't know much of the history of Tyne, only bits and pieces I found on the web and some paper old paperwork that came with the kayak. I also have a Tyne Solo Sport, much like the Klepper solo T9. It needs a new skin too. I will try to post photos of it sometime. I would appreciate any information or PDF catalog copies anyone has.

As for the Klepper 58, there are a few photos on the web of it. It is a little larger than the Tyne Slalom. Tyne - Length 13'10", Width original 24", Width with sponsons 25.5", Cockpit inside length 28", Cockpit width 14". Klepper 58 - Length 14' 6", Width 26.5", Cockpit length 29", Cockpit width 16".

As you can see, the sides are flaired on both kayaks. If you will look on the modern Kleppers and Folbots, the sides are not flaired where the sponsons are located. This flair is what complicated the pocket design and construction of the sponsons on the Tyne. I will not attempt it on the Klepper.

For a different note, my daughter and her team won the West Texas A&M University Engineering Camp boat battle. They had to build cardboard boats skinned with plastic sheets and fight it out in the University pool. All the other teams were older and boys. But it might have always been a one sided fight since she came from a household of folding kayakers.

Steve

Barry,
Here are some more Klepper 58 photos. I added on photo of the Tyne cockpit to show how the skin fits into the rim. It took an extra piece glued onto the deck piece with numerous darts cut into the deck and cockpit piece. The part that fits into the wood slot is double thick.

Because the Klepper does not have an adjustable foot brace, it is too small for me and my smaller wife fits perfectly in it. Because of the adjustable foot brace in the Tyne, that will become my kayak and my wife will get the Klepper.

Steve

Hello Steve,

Thanks for the info and all the nice shots of the Klepper 58, it certainly has a nice frame. I recognize some bits that it shares with my T9. Did you happen upon these boats where you live, or did you get them on line?

I'm also impressed that you are taking on fabricating the skins for these boats. I have a couple of old Pfaff sewing machines that I use to make repairs/modifications to my boats (mostly the wayland skin for my T9). These machines certainly have the power to sew though heavy canvas and Hypalon or PVC, but I think it would be a struggle to sew a skin due to space constraints. Now if I had some of the old Singer free-standing (I think one calls them treadle) sewing machines my dad had in his shop back in the day, those would be perfect for sewing up skins.

Barry

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Blackhawk Combi Canoe 15' 8"
CLC Chesapeake 16'
Klepper Aerius 2
Klepper T9 / Heise Skin
Pionier 520-Z / Heise Skin
Pouch E65

I have two TYNE kayaks made from TYNE kits so thay are skin on frame and are not folders. As far as i know the owner of Tyne was Mr F.O.B. HIRSCHFELD who escaped from Germany in 1933 and went to England he was allowed to stay in the country if he started a buisness, so he started Tyne Folding Boats and he also joined the Richmond Canoe Club where he demonstrated rolling in the local swimming baths for the first time, most members, if any, hadn,t seen an Eskimo roll as it was called then. I think he had worked for Klepper in Germany. I have one of the last catalogs from about 1977 and the only two folders left in it are the Sports two seater and the Prefect single seater. By 1977 they were producing a good array of fibreglass boats for touring and white water. The white water ones look like "proper" kayaks and good designs. At least one member of the Historic canoe and kayak associatian has one of the two seater folders. Barry i am just above Lake Superior and our smaller lakes are the highes i have seen.

Barry and John,

John, thanks for the info about Tyne. Do you still have copies of the plans you used? I got a few sets of plans with my kayaks but they are packed away right now. It would be interesting to try and get the sets together. Would you be willing to make a PDF scan off of your catalog? I first started kayaking in 1981 in roto molded plastic kayaks. I forgot what brand they were but they cost $250, were shaped a lot like my Tyne but had lots of rocker and would not paddle straight. We ran whitewater with them. I think these first hard shells were copies off of the folders.

Barry, my skin is glued together. There is not a single stitch on the who skin. I used the techniques described by Tom Yost on his website yostwerks.com/. I would put two layers of glue on each piece, let the glue dry, and then assemble the parts dry and reactivate the glue with a heat gun. I would not call it easy but I don't think I could have accomplished the job by sewing it. I used 16 oz. truck tarp vinyl. The vendor where I bought the vinyl also made signs and awnings and they have never heard of or used the dry glue - heat gun method of assembly. They assembled their vinyl and glue, wet, like I did on my first kayak. After learning about Tom's method, now they use it. Tom's method works great.

I have attached a few photos showing some of the progress. The cockpit photo shows my early ideas on making the rim fit. In that photo I was trying to stuff the deck piece into the slot but I later changed to a separate piece glued to the deck piece. When I attached the deck, I bridged the cockpit with a dowel rod so the deck vinyl would drape correctly and removed it to work on the rim. You can also see how the hull was laced on. Since I do not have a zipper on the deck I had to reach inside and cut the string and then make a rod with a hook on the end to pull the lacing out. Tom Yost cuts the string when he installs the deck zipper. The way the Tyne assembles, there is not need for a deck zipper and I can assemble it through the cockpit hole.

Steve

Barry,

I forgot to give you the history of the boats. My two Tynes were originally owned by the North American Distributor of Tyne Kayaks. He sold them to the man who sold them to me. They were both offered on ebay at different times. He also gave me some of the documents that originally went with the kayak dealership, which are interesting.

The Klepper 58 was also sold on ebay and was owned by an engineer in Arizona. I don't think it was ever placed in the water. There are no water spots on the skin or frame. The hull is brittle and will not straighten out but the canvas deck is a perfect dark blue. There was also a Klepper paddle in perfect condition.

Steve

Steve, i will see if i can find the plans of my tyne boats, i have moved twice since i built them and my better half could have dumped them, although i think i lent the plans of the two seater to someone and never saw it again. Scanning my catalog i will see what i can do. Two things, have you looked at http://www.clarkcraft.com who have many plans of kayaks including folders, quite a few are Percy Blandford designs which i think are also what Tyne used for some of their boats, if they didn,t they are very close, also contact The Historic Canoe and Kayak Association in the UK http://www.hcka.org.uk they might help with details of Tyne.