Robert Robertsen's Page

Robert, Thank you for the photo i will probably make mine from plywood laminations and about 36 inches from the pivot hole. I have never tried an out board motor on the Klepper, from what i have read 1 HP is the best but not available new any more although there is an outfit in Florida selling a 1.2 HP two stroke although i expect you prefer a 4 stroke. Dennis on the foldingkayak forum suggested i try the Klepper S4 main on it,s own first, which i did, but as the boat is prone to going over outriggers are, in my opinion needed and the Balough ones are considered the best. I considered buying the sail outfit from Alex but as i have so many sails i decided not to, What i did get from Alex for free is his Pacific Action sail mount although i havn,t yet used it, my mounts are plywood bases clamped to the forward end of the coaming which you may have seen. If you havn,t seen it there is a Klepper Kayaks on face book put there by Gerald of Klepper America and this also leads into the Canadian Klepper face book, i look at them and a few photos go on from time to time although i am not a member of face book any more, when i dropped out all my photos went with me so you won,t find many.I do have a number on www.klepper.ca my thumb nail being the kayak on a beach when it,s nearly dark. John    

Robert, thank you for the quick reply, sounds great where you are now, i don,t think you miss the minus 40c. In November here it drops below freezing, (someone leaves a freezer door open in the arctic) and it stays below freezing most of the time untill March, paddling starts again when it gets warm enough for me, late June. I think you have done the best thing picking up the B,S,D, sail equipment. I was thinking of making the lee board 9 inches wide by 36 inches deep so a photo and sizes would be good. So far i have only used the S4 main sail, you have probably seen the photos.John  

Robert, it certainly looks like a nice area with large fish, most people where i live fish summer and winter, thats when they bore a hole in the ice, put a "tent" over it, have a heater, and fish in the warmth. Now Klepper sailing, you may have seen my question on foldingkayaker.org about lee boards. I am thinking of making a lee board and rudder this winter for my Aerius 2 with a NACA 0010 aerofoil section which is recommended on "Duckworks", i am trying to find out if a lee board and rudder made to an aerofoil shape really improves the sailing of the Aerius, all the Klepper sailing videos i have seen use the standard Klepper lee boards, any ideas on it? I could ask on a canoe sailing web site but they probably won,t have any expierience with Kleppers. Have you seen the Jib furler for the Klepper on the German web site, it looks interesting at 99 euros, i have asked the Klepper dealer in Calgary about it.John 

Thankyou, yes i thought it might be BDS sail. They are supposed to be very good but if it,s a "pain" to fit then perhaps just adding outriggers may be the way to go. The Folbot is not a good design but they work. I have used them on both my Aerius 2 and Folbot Yukon, i put a piece of "dowel" which i bought in the hardware store inside the tube where the klepper "J" bolts go through  just to give it more strength also i mounted it a bit higher on the coaming so the pontoons were clear of the water when on an even keel so as to try and reduce drag, also note if you buy the outrigger set up from Folbot their lee board is NOT in the kit, i didn,t know when i bought mine so i made a free swinging lee board that seems to work. If you get the Folbot the LONG half of the pontoon is to the front, it looks wrong but it isn,t. Another design outrigger i have is by "Spring Creek" also in the USA, they are not inflatatable and not as bouyant as the Folbot ones so on my Aerius 2 with a 47 sq ft lateen sail i use 2 on each side. I may have photos of them on this site, i can,t remember. I know of one person in Greece who uses the Folbot outriggers on his Greenland 2 (folbot) with a Klepper S2/4 sail.

Robert, the sail you are looking, Blaloch, can you give some info or web site about it as i can,t find it and i am interested. The Pacific Action is a very good sail,great for going downwind ( possibly the best ) and up to a beam reach, i havn,t been able to make any worthwile progress up wind although some paddlers say they have, to go up wind i pull it down and paddle. The kayak sailor rig is better at going up wind but some paddling helps, it,s fairly small but a jib will be out soon for it. I havn,t yet used the klepper S2/4, today i was going to, unfortunatly the wind increased so much i was unable to try it, in fact paddling into wind was very hard and after about half an hour i gave up i gained very little distance but it was a work out. 

The Pacific action sail works well and I just happen to be a daler. You could moundt a large one on that boat I think. we have had good results mounting them to folders Check out my site www.tundrasails.ca  Cheers, Greg

Nice to see another paddler with foldups. I have Aerius 2s, a folbot yukon, a Triak (fibreglass) and various sails, Pacific Action, Klepper and Kayaksailor. I am near Lake Superior on the Canadian side.

I found the Nauiraid 2 very easy to paddle solo and it is a very nice boat. Gifted to me by a retired paddler.