With the Olympics taking place nearby at Hackney, most people probably haven’t noticed an exhibition at St Katherine’s Dock – but Intheboatshed.net regular Chris Brady dropped by and found this hand-made Struer kayak, which a proud Danish exhibitor explained had been used by a Gold Medal winner in the 1948 Olympics.
The exhibitor added that it is still the fastest in the world.
Despite the unreliable-sounding claim about its speed, I think this ‘kajak‘ is an impressively modern-looking item. Does anyone know the story of this type of canoe, or how it was made?
Chris comments that the Danish have largely taken over a large part of the St Katherine’s Dock area, which as well as the exhibition itself also features stalls for promoting tourism, food, design and Lego – and includes a 12ft high Lego working wind generator and a gigantic Lego model of the entire Olympic Park.
This is a Struer Power X kayak, approx 10 kg in weight and 5.2 m long. It is the latest shape, ie post ICF relaxing the minimum width rule of 60 cm, hence the end of the star shape kayaks. It could well be the fastest, but that is far more dependant on the abilities of the paddler. Most kayakers do use products made of carbon fibre from the likes of Nelo of Portugal. Struer still make the most pretty kayaks.
Yah this is a very modern boat. Undeniable beauty but too expensive and costly to maintain for most Olympic racers today. I have a struer clever x millennium older design but crazy fast over 1km if you can hold it up for the 1000m’s.
I once had to repair a double Struer that had two forklift prongs pushed through it.
Three weeks earlier I had made and fitted a vacuum bagged seat for the same boat and did a revarnish job.
That must have been heartbreaking!
Still going strong
https://www.struerkajak.com/collections/mahogni-kajakker-1