Brandon Cutter and friends, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts play with Brandon’s 2008 W fishing kayak in the surf in Nantucket. They paddle in parallel to the beach – hopping on breaking waves. They launch, surf and beach. (1 minute)
One of them easily recovers his overturned boat, and then keeps paddling.
The 2008 W Kayak models come equipped with one or two pairs of detachable, side flotation modules. A flotation module is a 5 ft long plastic foam ‘noodle’ with a bungee cord going through its core. The bungee hooks at its ends enable attaching the module to Nylon eyelets on top of the W hulls’ tips.
The side flotation modules are essentially recovery accessories: In case you capsized your W kayak they can help preventing it from overturning, and if your kayak is overturned they help keeping it afloat, and by that make it easier for you to turn it back.
In some cases, when your W kayak is laying on its side, the presence of a single flotation module or better – a pair of such modules under the top side of the lower hull can lead to the boat righting itself, and this is how it works:
The top part of the lower hull is prevented from sinking by the presence of the side flotation module ‘A’.
The flotation module helps keeping water from from getting in by pushing the cockpit rim above the surface.
If water gets into the lower hull through the cockpit opening it will flow to area ‘B’ and make this part of the boat heavier. By making it increasingly heavy it would make it tilt and regain its normal position – that is with the cockpit opening facing upward.
If your W Kayak doesn’t right itself in such a situation it’s easy to right it by unbalancing it.
It’s clear to see why in any case outfitting your W kayak with two pairs of such flotation modules is more effective than outfitting it with one pair.
In sum, if you’re taking your W kayak on a paddling, camping or fishing trip, it makes sense to take preventive measures that can minimize the severeness of a capsize accident by outfitting it with side flotation modules.
Whether you’re taking with you on board fishing tackle, camping gear or other stuff – it’s always a good idea to secure this equipment by attaching it to the boat. You will find there are plenty of spots inside the cockpit that you can use to attach bungees, carabiners, hooks and rope to secure your gear.