NDK Appaloosa

Published June 10, 2009 |

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Here’s a one of a kind kayak. It’s an NDK Appaloosa. Well, no. It’s a Romany. A very old Romany that still says, “Designed by Nigel Dennis & Aled Williams. (Aled as you may know moved on to form Rockpool with Mike Webb and then moved on to form Tide Race Kayaks… Confused?) This poor Romany has been around the block a few times.. and under a tree at least once. You see, a tree fell on it. Crushed it. The story goes that one of the guys down at Rutabaga saw it sitting in a yard all busted up and offered to take it away. He put it back together. Much like the The Talosians from the Star Trek orignal series pilot he did the best he could but…

The Appaloosa had red and yellow deck lines. It was repaired with big garish, slathered on, off-white gel coat on the outside, and big thick strips of golden yellow fiberglass & resin on the inside. Thus the name. It’s marred, spotted, surface cracked, mis-matched, and heavy. It’s also an NDK. Seaworthy (again) and smooth on the water. Today I replaced all the deck lines and gave the poor thing a good scrub. It deserves it. I have a feeling it’s going to be sold soon. Pretty cheap too. For the moment though it’s going on vacation to ride the Lake Michigan waves. It deserves that too.

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