Description
Equally at home on quiet estuary back channels, extreme surf and howling winds, glassy high mountain lakes, or long trips down big water rivers with occasional rapids, you’ll be hard pressed to find another kayak that can do so many things so well as the F1. Comfort, lightweight, manoeuvrability, quickness, cargo capacity, handling in surf and wind, and most importantly, customized to your exact body proportions, the F1 feels like exactly what it is: a kayak designed by paddlers. Refined over hundreds of copies, the design omits useless overhanging ends that are a hindrance in caves, tight channels, the wind, and your garage, but left the waterline long enough that you can still punch it up to 5 mph when you need to give it some juice. Optimized for the normal cruising speeds, the combination of lower weight, a flared hull, and a slightly shorter waterline reduces wetted surface resulting in noticeably less paddling effort. This combination of playfulness and touring capability means not only can you get where you are going, but you’ll have more fun along the way, surely the whole point of being in a kayak.
Alan Wolfe –
The main reasons I decided to get an F1 was because of the weight savings. Being able to carry the kayak and lift it in and out of the water easily, is a big advantage over other boats. And it’s definitely far easier to lift and carry than a plastic boat. This is important for many reasons. The obvious ones being lifting it up and down from a car, and portage to and from the water. When you’re tired after you’ve been out on the water for a few hours, any weight savings make a big difference. Also when you’re tired you can make mistakes on slippery ground; so having a lighter boat means that you’re less likely to fall and do yourself an injury.
The light weight also means that two simple straps will hold it in place on the roof of a car without needing to faff around with extra fore and aft securing lines. I’ve had the F1 on the roof of the car in gale force winds on open exposed roads over high ground and it didn’t budge.
Another positive effect of the lighter weight is that you expend less energy pushing it through the water with your paddle, so you can go further and spend more time of the water, knowing that you have the reserves to get back safely.
As for the performance of the boat: I’m not an expert paddler and I’ve only owned 2 other boats before this one, but so far, I have zero complaints about how the boat handles. It’s definitely not the fastest boat in the world, so if you want a super-fast boat, then look elsewhere. But for me, for what I do (coastal paddling and some lakes and rivers) it’s more than capable, and I like it.
As a real-life example of performance, I went up the River Liffey in Dublin one day into a 25-30kph headwind. I was easily able to overtake 2 teenagers in a double-scull boat. The F1 doesn’t have a high top-speed but it is efficient at a medium pace, whereas they were running out of energy pushing their boat into the wind. On the downward leg (with the wind at our backs), they were able to get the top speed out of their boat, and so they were much faster than me in the F1. So that was an interesting comparison.
It does feel tippy when you first try it, but you get used to that quickly. I haven’t tried it in larger waves yet. I’ve only been out in smaller chop, in shallow water, in winds of approx. 30kph. Wavelets do affect the tracking in such choppy conditions but paying attention to the conditions (always good to do) helps.
See links to some videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS6bVOU_s68
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GElvhzlvxw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCTPWazMJfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AS8we-AoiI
Pat Ó Ruadháin –
I just got mine from John a few days ago and I love it so much that I’ve been out three days in a row. It’s light enough to lift single-handed onto the roof of the car which helps a lot!
It is a bundle of joy on the water – light and quick to accelerate, slices through the water and looks drop dead gorgeous. I’ve had friends try it out and the response is unanimous: ‘I want one!’
Enrica McIntosh –
Nanooq is a lovely, sleek, sexy F1 boat John has custom built for me to perfection. I am not the youngest of paddlers. Nor the thinnest. So the generous cockpit is just ideal. I love the simplicity of this boat. She is shiny red ,extremely attractive and utterly unique. She really comes alive in the water, cutting through it like slicing butter and feeling very stable. . I still need to practice my getting in and out of it without aid, but will get there.
The lightness of it is also a great perk.
John has been excellent at listening to my needs, assessing my suitability and at the time of delivery he was of great assistance in teaching me the ropes [including falling in…]
A boat like this can actually enhance a person’s life, massive fun.
I do love my Nanooq.