Valley Nordkapp

© Mike Buckley - 2008

Background / history

There are so many versions of this British classic that you really need to know which incarnation you are talking about! It was originally designed by Frank Goodman for the British Norway expedition (the Nordkapp Expedition) in 1975 but perhaps most famously used for the first rounding of Cape Horn by kayak in 1977. The kayak Frank used on that trip is on display in the National Maritime Museum in Cornwall until December 2008, and their website provides some interesting history as well. But the Nordkapp traces its lineage back to 1959 - and beyond.


In the summer of 1959, university student Kenneth Taylor went to Igdlorssuit (now know as Illorsuit) to study the kayak and Inuit culture. While there Emanuele Korneiliussen built Ken a skin-on-frame kayak, and Ken brought the kayak back to Scotland.

The actual boat and other artifacts that Ken brought back still exist and are in Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, although not on display as they are held in their reserve collections. The stores are closed to the public until spring 2009 as they are undertaking a major reorganisation and move to new premises. Additionally, they hold black and white photos of the boat on Loch Lomond, and other documentation. This is held in the archive at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre and can be made available by appointment.

They advise that there has been quite a lot of interest in this kayak over the years and when the stores re-open they would be delighted to show enthusiasts the kayak and the hunting equipment brought back by Ken Taylor from Illorsuit in 1959.

Plans for a stitch-and-glue version of the Igdlorssuit kayak are available on Bryan Hansel's excellent site.

In 1964, Duncan Winning surveyed the kayak, and he passed along the information to Geoff Blackford. In 1971 Blackford modified the size to suit his own particular dimensions, retaining the upturned stern, and ending up with a plywood model 17 ft (5.2 m) long with a 21 in. (533 mm) beam.

In all other respects the craft was identical to Ken Taylor's boat. This particular kayak excited special interest because it was a more moderate example of the West Greenland type.

Blackford's craft was used as the plug for a fiberglass mould and eventually found its way to Frank Goodman of Valley Products who went into commercial production under the name Anas Acuta, a boat still made today. This picture of an early Anas Acuta beside a modern Wilderness System's Tempest clearly shows the low profile in comparison to the mass of the newer craft. One wonders which needs a rudder!

It was in 1975 that a noted British mountaineer and exponent of outdoor education, Colin Mortlock, proposed an expedition along the Arctic fiords of Norway to Nordkapp, the northern-most cape of Europe. Mortlock and his team paddled the Anas Acuta kayaks around the Isle of Skye but believed that a new sort of boat would be needed, one that could take huge quantities of supplies without losing too much manoeuvreability and seaworthiness. Frank Goodman created the Nordkapp to fulfill that need.

2003 Nordkapp
Pic: Sea Kayaker Magazine

The design principles adopted in this kayak i.e. moderately V’d keel, softer chines and the distinct Greenland side profile (although with increased freeboard to accommodate the increased loadings) become so widespread in other kayaks that these characteristics became known worldwide as “The British Style” according to Valley. A short article on SeaPaddler.co.uk gives some background and suggests that the kayak brought back from Greenland all those years ago is therefore arguably the inspiration for virtually every modern kayak, including the original Nordkapp. Duncan Winning, writing in 2007 on Garnock Canoe Club's website also gives an interesting history and suggests that probably in excess of fifty different kayak designs have their roots, one way or another, in the Taylor boat.

Writing in UKSKGB in 2005, Jim Wallis provided this succinct summary of Nordkapp history - "The original Nordkapp was developed by Frank Goodman for the Nordkapp Expedition way back in 1975, making the basic design 30 years old this year, although it took inspiration from centuries of Inuit kayak development. The original boat proved seaworthy, fast and able to carry large amounts of kit, but weathercocked more than was comfortable. To solve this only problem a small fixed skeg was added to the after part of the hull. These boats were designated as HM's.

The result is a boat that tracks very well, and is still fast and can carry a lot, the only issue then being that it wasn't very maneuverable. The original Nordkapp then became HS. More recently further development was undertaken to increase the waterline breadth of the standard hull for more initial stability and use the now generally accepted lifting skeg to counter weathercocking when needed - this boat is called the Nordkapp Jubilee"

Valley offered no less than 12 varients of the Nordkapp in those early days, according to the Nordkapp page of their 1985 brochure. (Thanks to Arnold Kuiter for the .pdf). You could have a basic boat with no hatches and the original hull design (an SS - Standard deck / Standard hull) or a pair of hatches and either the standard or modified hulls (HS or HM - Hatches / Standard or Modified hull). If you wanted a "large, racing style cockpit with a sliding seat", that too could be yours with the designation L. There was even an R varient, that having a hull fitted with an inbuilt understern rudder.

If you enjoy such things, there are many hours of happy banter to be had debating the actual designations of the letter H on an original Nordkapp and it had been widely accepted that the H actually referred to "Hull".

The earliest boats usually had screw on Henderson hatchs. Not ideally suited to use on a kayak, these were prone to losing the centre section, fouling with sand or jamming because of pressure decrease or increase. In the '80's Valley developed the VCP rubber hatch, themselves ground breaking in their own way. Valley hatches were a very significant improvement on the standards of the time and although the concept has been followed by others like Kajak Sport, even today some manufacturers still haven't caught up. There is even a suggestion that Valley originally designed the hatch size to take a small Trangia.

There are a few HS's around with retractable skegs, usually rope operated. Quite a few had "Chimp" rear-deck mounted pumps, many of which will have been removed and the resultant hole converted to a day hatch, usually by using a dinghy bouyancy tank inspection hatch and glassing a new bulhead in behind the seat. If the job has been well done, it can be an elegant solution.

In an era when boat design was in its infancy, Valley were producing innovations such as recessed deck fittings. On the early boats these were formed with a bar moulded into the recess. Later boats used the now commonplace bolt-in fitting.

Towards the end of the 90's, Valley produced the Nordkapp Jubilee, and it is debatable whether there is really much in common between it and the original other than a shared name. The Jubilee is much larger than the original version, has a cable operated skeg, a keyhole cockpit and (latterly) oval bow and stern hatches as well as a round day hatch. The moulded recess for a Silva 70 is positioned for'ard of the front hatch on these boats, and a range of options including keel strips, a choice of lay up (diolene, kevlar etc) and Compac 50 deck mounted pumps were offered. You can even get a "two-part" version of the boat to ease storage and transport.

The early ones had a round front hatch, but in 2003, in line with general product development, Valley decided to fit an oval cover to the front hatch on the Jubilee. As US dealers had existing stock with the round front hatch they decided to "re-name" the boat Nordkapp H2O, which denotes Nordkapp 'hatch 2 x oval'.

At the same time they fined down the nose, lowered the front of the cockpit area and reduced the rocker at the stern slightly. The stern shape appears to be slightly different as well. Valley introduced a vacuum infusion moulding process at about the same time.

There seems to be some lack of clarity as to whether the UK market ever used the H2O name, although it appears to have been used in the US. This is probably due to the US dealers holding stock as mentioned earlier, whereas the UK market is generally "built to order". Tim Pickering compared the original "round front hatch" N/kapp Jubilee to the later "oval front hatch" version in a post in 2005 as follows - "I am paddling an H2O and I put it next to a Jubilee and it is fatter, that is to say it has more volume round the a*** and more of a u shape. We suspected this was for the American market to make the boat more forgiving".

I recall looking at a Nordkapp with the new oval front hatch in Knoydart's shop in about 2004 and it certainly carried the familiar Nordkapp decal on the foredeck, with no mention of H2O on the boat.



Current models

At the time of writing (March 2008) there are 4 variants all using the same name. 3 are composite, 1 plastic. The composites are all offered in a variety of layups ranging from diolen to kevlar. The links in this section will take you to the Valley website and I've used Valley's names and model designation for clarity.

Nordkapp is now used to designate the main design offering as the Jubilee name was quietly dropped. So too it seems, was the H20 name.

It comes with a keyhole cockpit, oval front and rear hatches and a round day hatch and is fitted with a retractable skeg.

LENGTH 18' (548cm) WIDTH 21" (53cm) DEPTH 14" (36cm) WEIGHT 50lbs (23kg)

~~~

Nordkapp LV - the low-volumn version of the Nordkapp.

It comes with a keyhole cockpit, oval front and rear hatches and a round day hatch and is fitted with a retractable skeg.

LENGTH 17'6" (533cm) WIDTH 21" (53cm) DEPTH 13" (33cm) WEIGHT 49lbs (22.5kg)

~~~

Nordkapp Enthusiast - the poly (roto-moulded) version.

It comes with a keyhole cockpit, oval front and rear hatches and a round day hatch and is fitted with a retractable skeg. It's dimensions suggest that it is closer to the LV in size, albeit 3" longer. It's sometimes referred to as a Nordkapp RM, so no doubt future generations will have the same opportunity to be confused as we have.

LENGTH 17'9" (541cm) WIDTH 21" (53cm) DEPTH 13" (33cm) WEIGHT 56lbs (25.5kg)

~~~

Nordkapp Classic - just to add to the confusion, Valley started producing a slightly updated version of the original design again in 2007 (or slightly earlier?) Like it's now elderly parent, it is available either as HS or HM - it's smaller even than the Nordkapp LV.

It comes with an ocean cockpit, a modern oval rear hatch, a round day hatch and a round front hatch and the Valley website says it has a retractable skeg although that is presumably not the case in the HM version.

LENGTH 17'2" (523cm) WIDTH 21" (53cm) DEPTH 12" (30cm) WEIGHT 49lbs (22.53kg)


Paddlers' comments

All Nordkapps are renowned for being good boats for those with the ability to master them. They tend to have low primary stability and reasonably good secondary stability and that in turn makes them a little "tippy" in the opinion of those unused to them. It's a bit like riding a bike - fine when moving, but a bit wobbly when stationary! That said, a sea kayak that feels totally secure on flat water is almost certainly going to have you in the water when it's used in bumpy conditions so the apparent initial instability engendered by these designs is actually a good thing.

Nordkapps are recognized as being fast craft and capable of handling big seas with ease, as long as the paddler is himself able to cope with big seas!

Ian Miller, by his own admission one of the "bearded paddler" brigade and a long term Nordkapp paddler active on the Scottish scene provides some interesting insights into Nordkapps - it seems there were some significant design changes during the life of the original Nordkapps (pre the Jubilee version). He comments as follows: " I bought my first Nordkapp, an old HM with Henderson hatches - probably a 1976 model. At that time in our club no one paddled them because strangely the east coast was largely P&H territory and the west coast had the Valleys. According to most people you needed to be a bare chested seagull eater to handle one and I was delighted when I discovered I actually had a fast stable boat that even improved when the weather worsened.

I (now) have two Nordkapps, the old HM is very stable and more to the point predictable and also very comfortable with a legs straight out position and good knee grips. The 'newer' HS (mid to late '90's) is an unstable pig and is unpredictable. A factor which may be attributed to the fact that somewhere along the way Valley altered the mould significantly adding a couple of inches height to the deck and also added a bigger cockpit coaming with no obvious way to control the boat.

It is also significantly less comfortable with knees forced out to the side to give any form of control. I did recently consider a newer (early '90's) ocean cockpit HM but it had the raised rear deck which made entry to the cockpit a bit of a time consuming wriggle to say the least and certainly not something I would want in a launch into a big sea".

Another contributor, Phil, writing about his original N/kapp, comments that "I also still consider it the best rough water boat I have ever paddled".

Paddler size is a factor with these boats, as with all kayaks. The first sea kayak I ever tried was an original N/kapp - it was way too small for me and was clearly not designed for a 6'2" "larger" paddler as I could barely even get into it, and even seated felt I was sitting "on" rather than "in". Being used to modern keyhole cockpits on river boats I found the ocean cockpit a tad claustrophobic, but some people love them. The original ocean cockpit Nordkapps provided paddlers with a "straight legs" paddling position long before Rockpool re-invented the concept.

Stories of imploding spraydecks on large cockpits are probably best heard in the context of 1970's materials, not early 21st century technology. The same is true of hatch covers.

I found it incredibly twitchy but it was empty and it needs to be remembered that most sea kayaks are designed to carry a load, so paddling one empty is bound to feel a bit lively. Adding some ballast is worth considering.

Some years later I bought a N/kapp Jubilee which was enormous fun to paddle, but eventually had to admit I was too big for it too and sold it on, and the chap who bought it absolutely loved it. Two friends of mine who are somewhat slimmer in stature and about 6'0" both love their Jubilees.

Nick Crowhurst wrote about the first time he used his newly renovated HM as follows "Last Sunday morning in the Tamar estuary the Nordkapp was in her element. There was a good strong ebb knocking up against a SSE wind gusting to 25 knots. The short steep chop was up to 4 feet high, and ploughing into this was excellent. The Nordkapp just seems to get better as the seas get rougher. I was with a friend who was paddling a long fat poly sea kayak, and I needed to keep station with him, to keep an eye on him and give him moral support. However, he was traveling very slowly in the conditions.

The wind was from the port side at about 40 degrees off the bow. As I tried to travel at that slow speed, the bow of the HM blew downwind. I corrected this by edging, lengthening the paddle on the downwind side, and doing long sweep strokes to keep the bow up. There was a lee shore about 40 metres away, so I couldn't afford to drift. The Nordkapp responded by going far too fast. I ended up by doing a series of looping runs into and away from the wind, and it was difficult to keep close to my friend. If I'd had a lifting skeg I could have got rid of the lee helm, but the HM has the large fixed fin".

Lee cocking (or lee helm) isn't an especially desirable trait - what Nick is describing required him to edge away from the oncoming waves and wind, which is inherently unstable, and a lee cocking boat in an on-shore wind can be a bit of a handful. The big Aleut II does it as well unless it has steerage way to get the rudder to bite, and I can say it's not especially nice having experienced it.

Colin, another experienced Scottish paddler, also comments on the tendency for the HM to lee-cock and wrote "The people I paddle with all have old Nordkapps. My wifes old boat had a rudder, built early 1980's, as were the two other HM boats. This was a boat you loved or hated, a gent called Bill Reoch who was paddling expeds till he was 69 owned one, I remember having to push the stern round because it just was not for turning, in a big sea, off Toe Head. I think the boat I disliked the least was the one with the rudder, so I suppose that I am in the hate camp.

They are still fast boats, and if you are the only one in the group without one, you are always at the back. The others I paddle with swear by them, me, just at them".

Of the later versions, Charles Scott writes about his new poly Nordkapp and says "seems just as fast as the "proper" Nordkapp and handles the same. I think it's very slightly more stable than the Jubilee, but this might be because I've been paddling it every Wednesday night and I'm comfortable with it. The level of finish is good, the bulkheads are neatly sealed and the seat is comfortable and well fitting. The footrests use a decent aluminium rail system, although the thigh grips aren't in a great place, but I get a comfortable knee grip on the inside of the coaming.

Decklines are good, if slightly mimimalistic, especially on the back deck where I have a couple more elastics on my Jubilee.

Do I have a gripe about it? Yes - but it's a small one. The cockpit is too long. Now I'm only 5' 7'' but there is fully 18" in front of the footrests from my feet to the front bulkhead. So if you are a 7' 1" paddler with the same body length as me then this is good, but one of my paddling partners is 6' 2" and he has 14" between the bulkhead and his feet. Maybe this is a fabrication necessity, but this is bad as it's not usable space, unless you fit some kind of false bulkhead or cargo net and you're still going to take on more water than you'd like in the event of a wet exit".

Interestingly, finding comments about Jubilees from paddlers on the Forum is actually quite difficult and one is left to wonder how many are actually out there, certainly in comparison to the old HS and HMs. The "Enthusiast" or RM boat is clearly well thought of.

They are undoubtedly probably the nicest looking kayaks on the market today and the original versions just look "right" as well. There must be hundreds of original Nordkapps afloat (or not - one has lain undisturbed on Easdale for years) - is that because they are superb craft? Or because they were one of the few decent sea kayaks available in the 1970's? Or just because they were the nicest looking?

The original versions will still command premium prices on the second hand market. A friend of mine bought an HS as her first ever sea boat - she never really enjoyed paddling it though. She paid less than £100 and sold it for well over £500 a year or so later, which is astonishing. She replaced it with a poly Mk2 Capella and reports that she is far happier in it than she ever was in the HS. She is a relatively tall person, so that could have a bearing of course.

Ian Miller provided an interesting thought when he told me that he remembered Jim Weir (another well kent Scottish paddler) pointing out that Valley had been continually changing the (original) Nordkapp plug over the years and that some dimensions such as the rear deck height had risen considerably. He thinks this is why there are so many differing views on what is apparently the same boat and certainly my experience (and his) seems to confirm this.

As I said at the start - you need to know which version you are talking about - a Nordkapp Jubilee isn't the same as an "original" Nordkapp in any way, and even those vary enormously. Since its inception the Jubilee has been modified as well.


Pictures

Nick Crowhurst's nicely renovated HM (age unknown) - the pic clearly shows the extended keel added to the original design, so differentiating it from the HS.
Spec: round front and rear Henderson hatches, ocean c/pit.
The day hatch on this one replaced the oft-fitted and relatively useless "Chimp type" rear-deck mounted pumps. There is a knee tube just visible in the c/pit.
Pic: Nick Crowhurst
Mair in an "original" Nordkapp HM - this one thought to be built about 1986 or 1988. Picture taken in the Dorus Mor, with the Corryvreckan in the background.
Spec: Two small round hatches, ocean c/pit, extended (HM) keel.
Pic: Douglas Wilcox
 
"Spinning Plates" posted this pic of his HM - it clearly shows the round VCP hatches, ocean c/pit and a Chimp pump mounted on the port side. Just visible above the grey stirrup pump sitting on the front deck is the recess for a deck compass (probably the Silva58) although this boat also seems to have the mounting bracket for a removable Silva 70UN or possibly a Silva73R. The early type integral recessed deck fittings are clearly visible.
This boat has the "Cape Horn" layout which echos the deck layout used on the Cape Horn expedition.
Click for the full size picture  - 3,513,419

A brace of Nordkapps - The one on the left is Kevin Mansell's HM; on the right is a later HS owned by Chris Jones, with a retractable skeg (this being just visible) and the later screw-in recessed deck fittings. It also has a moulded recess to take a Compac 50 pump and the compass recess is also different, being filled with a Silva 70P. This picture also nicely illustrates the lines of these boats - very pretty. Click the image for the (much larger) original image.
Pic: "Captain Sensible" / Matt Pope

Tim Dawson's late 1990's kevlar Nordkapp Jubilee on Loch Teacuis in 2006. (It was very wet!)
Spec: Round front hatch, oval rear hatch, round day hatch, keyhole c/pit, skeg.
Note the subtle difference in the shape of the upsweep in the stern compared to the photo of the yellow 2004 version below.
Mair in her 2004 Nordkapp.
Spec: Two oval hatches, round day hatch, keyhole c/pit, skeg.
Pic: Douglas Wilcox
2006 Nordkapp LV.
Spec: Two oval hatches, round day hatch, keyhole c/pit, skeg. Pic: Douglas Wilcox

Discussions

Various versions of the Nordkapp are mentioned in this discussion and also here. See this discussion for comparison between the Jubilee and a NDK Romany Explorer.

This discussion has a detailed write up by Jim Wallis of his impressions of paddling an HM, and some history of the boats, as well as some interesting comments by experienced N/kapp paddlers.

This discussion also has some Nordkapp history.

This discussion has pics and first impressions by Douglas Wilcox and others of the Nordkapp LV.

This discussion references the poly "Enthusiast" version, as does this one.

This discussion started by Nick Crowhurst is about renovating an original Nordkapp, but also has a wide range of discussion ranging from paddling technique to HM / Jubilee comparisons.

Other references & Bibliography

Technical comparison data can be found in the DKV Buyers Directory

From Sea Kayaker magazine - tech specs for the Nordkapp LV and H2O

From Paddling.net - reviews of Valley boats

Greenland Kayaks - a .pdf with some history of Greenland Kayaks.

Sue Ellcome's Greenland Kayak is worth looking at to get an idea of how these craft were originally constructed.

The Nordkapp page of the 1985 Valley brochure.

 

BCU (1991) - Canoeing Handbook - The Tickle Group

Brown, G (2007) - Sea Kayak - Pesda Press

Hutchinson, D (1997) - The Complete Book of Sea Kayaking - A&C Black Ltd

© Mike Buckley - March, 2008

Can you add to this article? Contact me.

(Updated 29-Jun-2008 )