“I would be horrified if one of my boats cracked in a stand on test” – Lawrence Geoghegan. Nadgee Kayaks

Happy Monday.  Let’s take a break from our rolling series today and have a look at Nadgee Kayaks Australia.  Nadgee is owned by Lawrence Geoghegan. Lawrence has completed many trips and expedition’s in his day including;  Antarctica in 2006 with Andrew McAuley and Stuart Trueman (Featured in Justine Curgenven’s “This is the Sea 3“), the Bass Strait crossing, Mattsuyker Island and more.  Just the guy who should know what it takes to build a decent expedition kayak.

Now before I start telling you about the Nadgee line up, I have to give credit to Lawrence & Nadgee Kayaks Australia right up front for being the only 100% off-the-grid Solar powered sea kayak factory we know of on the planet.  That’s the difference between marketing “green” and living it.  It’s hard to imagine sea kayaking will ever be truly “green” but Nadgee gets props for stepping up where they can.

Nadgee has 3 kayaks in their line up, The Nadgee Solo, The Nadgee Expedition and the new Nadgee Bombora.  They also offer one hard core trolley system. (See Freya’ Hoffmeister’s trolley pics here.) The original designer of the Expedition was David Winkworth who spent about 3 years working on the original design.  I’m told Dave is a purist who prefers to paddle skegless (No, I didn’t say LEGLESS!) which has a lot to do with the interesting tail on the Expedition hull.  He felt he needed to get the hull shape just right so you didn’t need the use of a skeg or rudder most of the time.  Lawrence tells me you’ll need a good 25 knots of wind on the beam before you’ll be wanting to drop the skeg.  Of course given the focus on staying on a line, you’ll need a good edge to get a quick turn.

The Nadgee Solo shares hulls with the Expedition, yet in true Australian style is designed with a rudder for sun, wind, speed and sail.

Nadgee Bombora

Nadgee has also just released a new kayak called the Bombora.  The Bombora was conceived as a more nimble craft for smaller paddlers, but has also turned out to be quite a bit of fun for larger paddlers looking for a something similar to the Expedition but a bit more playful. (I’m all for more playful sea kayaks.)

Lawrence assures me all Nadgee kayaks roll very easily and that the placement of the seat and the height of the back deck will allow for layback rolls as well.

As you would imagine, I grilled Lawrence on the sturdiness of his crafts. He sent me the top picture.  That’s about 190lbs of kid on the deck and 200lbs on the coaming! There is extra deck reinforcements throughout the hull provided by core-matting.  Cloth is used in the deck as well and not just chopped strand mat. Even so, the fiberglass version of the expedition is said to come in around 24/25kgs (52-55lbs) .  Nadgee also offers a Kevlar version if you need something, err, tougher.

Now here’s the trick.  IF you could purchase Nadgee kayaks in the states they would be a pretty fair value.  The Bombera retailing at $2780 and the Expedition at $3000 (without rudder or skeg).  You can also add a nice selection of options that obviously come from the mind of an expedition paddler including cockpit floor tie-downs, netting keel strips and more.   Thing is Nadgee has just reached the point in their growth to be just now talking to US/UK distributors.  If his quality is anything like what I’m being told at these prices I can’t imagine seeing Nadgee in your local shop can be too far off.

For more information visit Nadgee’s website here, or follow along on their blog here.

* images provided by Lawrence Geoghegan & Nadgee Kayak Australia.

Related Posts:

1. 10 Sea Kayaks You Should Paddle Before You Buy
2. 10 (More) Sea Kayaks to Try Before You Buy
3. Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium Gallery
4. The North West Expedition
5. Sea Kayak Georgia Sea Kayak Symposium