David Knight and Eric Jackson have been designing boats together since 1993. Knight is known for bringing CAD technique to the forefront of kayak design. He offers his insider’s perspective on what goes into creating Jackson Kayak’s freestyle designs.


to translate equivalent ergonomic and performance characteristics between various sizes of paddlers, eliminating the need for additional design time.


Blueprints for Freestyle


RAPID: What’s unique to Jackson Kayak’s computer design process compared to what others in the industry are doing?


David Knight (D.K.): Because of the limited capabilities of commercially available CAD programs in the early ‘90s, I wrote a design program for whitewater kayaks called ParaMax. I ultimately used it to design K-1s and many freestyle kayaks with EJ.


Now, even with much improved commercially available CAD programs for surface molding and boat design, the freestyle kayak-specific assessment methods in ParaMax still play a significant role in refining our kayaks.


We have always tried to refine our designs in the virtual environment as much as possible and limit the number of physical prototypes to just one. For freestyle kayaks, where we have focused much of our CAD tool development, we have now eliminated physical prototypes entirely. We’ve only ever made one physical prototype, a pre-2003 experimental All Star.


We also pioneered the use of direct scaling to make multiple sizes of the same boat. It’s a very effective way


RAPID: How has CAD changed whitewater kayak design?


D.K.: In the big picture, I think it’s providing the industry with a new set of tools for use in a virtual environment. With CAD, you gain the ability to design and perform more quantitative performance assessments on screen before building anything physical.


We spend countless hours refining and testing designs with virtual prototypes. The athletes are not bothered with testing unrefined prototypes, and instead of months of on-the-water testing, they get a refined, high-performance production kayak that hopefully exceeds their expectations.


Perhaps the main difference is that with CAD, the creative aspects are handled in a virtual environment and completed by the time building takes place.


RAPID: Do you think that it’s a necessary tool for designers and manufacturers to keep up in the industry?


D.K.: No one should underestimate the abilities of a skilled craftsman with a solid kayak design background. I would not say that CAD is a requirement to keep up with freestyle design but it may be a requirement to stay in the lead of freestyle kayak design.


RAPID: Has CAD made your job easier?


New Zealand-based Bliss-Stick Kayaks pride themselves in keeping their design process free of computers. For the Bliss-Stick design team, taking on the task entirely by hand and eye is a critical part of a boat’s evolution. The build team’s creativity thrives on having the live and full-sized model in front of them, letting them view it up close from every angle. “It’s the only way we know how. But to be sure, it’s not exactly the glamorous side of kayaking—it’s blood, sweat and tears.”


FREESTYLE FREEHAND


With characteristic Kiwi ingenuity, Bliss-Stick designs and manufactures everything in-house including all the parts, molds and even the ovens used to build their kayaks. “As soon as a model hits production, as far as we’re concerned, it’s a prototype,” states designer Phil McIntyre and his crew. “Then we’re looking ahead for the next step in the kayaking evolution.”


D.K.: At this point I would feel seriously handicapped if someone told me I could no longer use CAD for kayak design. EJ and I have teamed together in a way that would not have been possible without its use.


I think freestyle boats have evolved more quickly than they would have without the use of CAD, but even without it we would have eventually arrived at very similar designs. The difference is, now we can complete a freestyle design without ever even getting dirty or making a physical prototype.


RAPID: What’s the future looking like for computer aided design and whitewater kayaking?


D.K.: Both CAD and freestyle kayaks are continuing to evolve. Although I think CAD has enabled accelerated evolution of freestyle kayak design, there remains room for many additional refinements as our understanding of performance improves and our design goals become loftier.


DIGITAL EXTRA: To view a gallery of CAD images from Wave Sport and Jackson Kayak go to Rapidmag.com/0023 or download Rapid from the iTunes Store.


40 RAPID EARLY SUMMER 2011


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