Project Delphin
Published September 30, 2009 | 
Advance glance at the new P&H Delphin to come out sometime around christmas.
Right now the P&H Custom Sea Kayaks new Delphin is a bit of an X-Boat. You have to sneak onto a secret base somewhere in the UK to see one. Well, not really. It feels like it though. Thankfully we have a couple advance shots to share. Now what I want to show you here is the upturned hull. (No skegs in this shot!). The Delphin has a bit of a white water edge for carving in surf and some planing areas as well which should make it a really fun boat. Yet even with the racy hull, the kayak is intended to be a good all around, even “beginners” kayak. We’ll see. Reports are that there will still be modifications. Possibly a change in the rocker and there is that whole skeg thing to think about…
Now here’s what I’m hearing about the double skeg. It sounds like the double skeg we saw was simply an easy way to test multiple skeg placements on a prototype. This made it easier to test skeg locations during development. In the end the kayak would only have a single skeg…
ON THE OTHER HAND that could be industrial mis-information (I can see those black helicopters hovering over my house as I type this.). Another thought was that a double skeg is about to change everything.. (Think Nintendo Wii here!) Multiple skegs would would allow paddlers the range to better modify how their kayak behaves in almost any situation. Paddlers would not be limited to more or less skeg, but also able to change position from forward or back as well for even better control. One of my spies even talked up the idea of dual skegs riding side-by-side. Now where’s Steve Scherer and his cadre of mini-cell kayaks when we need him??
Lest you think all this skeg talk is just foolishness, I’ll soon have some amazing spy shots of other experiments with skegs around the industry… so stay tuned..
- Thanks to Jim & P&H for use of the photos.. (Saves me hiring an industrial spy with a helmet cam!)
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3 Responses to Project Delphin
… white water edge… planning areas… racy hull… good all around… even “beginners” (i.e. forgiving)… for a sea kayak… (Length?)…A tall order! Maybe it’s just marketing.
We always hear that hull design is a series of interacting compromises where changing any one characteristic will change two or three others. The risk is that by trying to do too many things on the same boat none is done really well, and what you end up with is average (or less) across all parameters. As you say, we’ll see.
Right. That’s my thought too. Until you actually get your butt in the boat it’s hard to tell what you’ll get. For me each time I look at P&H kayaks I’m always wondering where the center of balance will be. Other than the Cetus, I sit really high in all P&H kayaks. I think the Delphin sounds like something I’d really like but I’m going to contain myself until I can sit in one and surf it a bit. Still though, it’s fun to get a bit of an advance peek! (Next comes a new one from Necky!)
berry interesting! now to carve up a FOAM model!