Quality isn’t a marketing term. Quality can be measured, seen, felt, and experienced on the water. Here are the steps taken and outcomes that result from those steps to create the undeniable quality when you see, touch, and paddle this boat. Luckily, my dad taught me most of this by the time I was 10 years old with R/C model airplanes, and model boat building. Implementing it and having it be a reality is another thing to knowing how to.

You can really inspect an Apex for defects. Like any handmade product, you will find things that are not perfect. However, you will find mostly, amazing craftsmanship.

Areas you can control and create a quality product:

Design- This is the most subjective, due to body type, paddling locations, paddling style, goals, etc. however a boat can be the “Fastest of its type” Can be the biggest looping, or easiest to cartwheel, etc.. This post is about the physical quality assuming the design is what you want. (I have plenty of videos and writing about the design).

Part of the success of any design can be traced to who is on your CAD work. Mark Nordstrom had never designed a kayak before the Ringer and Rebounds. However, as a career product designer, and a very good listener, and extremely proficient CAD guy, he was a joy to work with and crazy good at what he does. Mark also is responsible for the Seat and Seat Base of the Tyr fishing kayak. The Seat design and Hip pad design of the Whitewater kayaks, and more. He will be known as one of the VIPs of the kayaking world in short order!

What goes into making a carbon fiber boat that is 17.5 pounds, has seemingly perfect surfaces, seams, and carbon fiber layup?

First thing required is setting the goal of producing a specific quality. Apex is the brand name chosen, and by definition Apex means “The top or highest part.” , so that helps me create my own marching orders and determine when it is “good enough”.

The Tyr logo represents “Apex” to me. I drew this arrow on an iPad and it was immortalized by Peter Gilroy in New Mexico, an artisan jeweler. The arrow is a Norse Rhune for “Victory in competition”, but to me it is the inspiration to go the extra distance. this photo by Dane Jackson.

Let’s start with why the boats are so shiny and smooth- how do pull that off?

A black mirror

The mold is cut by machine with “perfect surfaces” created by CAD, by Mark Nordstrom. The surfaces were faired and created in a way that if duplicated all of the way to the final boat, they would not have any “WOWs” or waffles, weird spots, etc.. how do you know if your boat is like that? The technique is to look at the surfaces in the light- looking down at an angle on them and seeing if the reflection is smooth like a mirror, or if it bends the light, or in severe cases, simply has waves, and poorly managed shapes.

The “Rough Mold” cut as a female from pattern wood, sprayed and used to make a prototype, but also used to make the “Plug” that gets fully polished and ready for a production mold.

How we managed to create near perfect shapes on the Rebound and Ringer-

1. Mold was cut by machine with the CAD surfaces properly faired.

2. Plug was made out of that mold and faired with care and wet sanded and polished until it was a mirror without distortion in the reflection.

There is no substitute for “Elbow Grease”, but hard work without the skills will also fail to produce the results you are looking for. Combine great skills in your specific area of responsibility with hard work and the results are amazing.

3. Mold was pulled off of that “near perfect” (Nothing is perfect that is done by hand) plug, and also faired, polished, framed to hold its shape.

4. Boats are laid up and pulled out of a near-perfect mold. Every time a boat is pulled out, the mold goes to a mold expert, who cleans the mold, checks for scratches or other imperfections and corrects if needed, or applies a release to it and stages it up for the next boat. Mold release is a step that can also turn a beautiful finish into a muddled one. Release build-up, etc. are culprits if not done properly.

By the time Sergio gets his hands on the mold, it has been cleaned, polished, and prepped for him. He can then work his magic on the material, bagging, and resin.

5. Our boats are molded as a “one piece” so the trimming is only the “flashing” on the parting line, which is where the resin flows out of the deck and hull and squeezes between the two molds. It is trimmed off and done by hand. Another opportunity for human error or great craftsmanship. Only the best people with a steady/confident hand are put on that process, as well as trimming out the cockpit area. You have a similar process with plastic boats as well and the difference between somebody really good and just “somebody” is night and day. One “nick” or over grinding, or undergrinding and you have a visible defect on your boat. I have yet to see one mistake on any of my parting lines or cockpit rims. The team I have working on my boats at Nelo are the best in each department. Watching them in action is inspiring to anyone who enjoys seeing amazing artisans at work.

Just one of many steps- grinding down the cockpit rim, then repainting the edges to clean it up and make it look good, as well as be super smooth on the fingers and spray skirt.

6. Assembly- cockpit rim, outside seam, and Grab handles are first and each one also requires a lot of expertise to do and have the work be aesthetically pleasing. cockpit rim is installed inside the cockpit opening (Apex)- Other brands have a different process. By installing in the opening if the rim is properly trimmed and well designed, it can be carbon fiber laminated in smoothly with no rough edges and be bomber strong. If you feel the rim by rubbing your hands around the outside trimmed edge, or inside trimmed and laminated edge it will be smooth to the touch, fair, and look like a machined edge. Craftsmanship- period. Not a machined edge, it was done by a human, on a grinder/ and touched up with gel coat, and inspected to meet my criteria. I don’t set unreasonable goals, knowing how hard manufacturing is, and how duplicating over and over again is difficult. However, the bar is set at the top, and the team can duplicate that level simply due to their own expertise, equipment, training, and enough time allocated for them to succeed.

Putting the cockpit rim in is tedius and critical. You want it to be super strong, light, and clean. No rough edges inside or out.

7. Small parts- Seat Hip Pads, Backband, footblock, etc. Here I took a slightly different approach. The seat is 100% mini-cell foam. It is CNC machined, one at a time- each one taking about 2 hours on the machine. same with the hip pads. The benefit is a lightweight seat and pads that offer extreme levels of support. Oversized seat that eliminates the need for a “happy Seat”. An invention of mine from 2005 that is still in use today. The long, elevated seat provides support of your hamstring allowing you to “Push down” on it when you drop an edge and adds comfort/control. The seat is raw foam. Grey, no cool cloth glued onto it with graphics. This was purely function. Adding cloth adds weight. It also prevents you from being able to shave foam off to customize it if you want. At JK I invented the Sweet Cheeks, which is an almost instant form-fitting seat to add to your plastic seat to turn a large women’s butt plastic seat into a custom seat. It is an awesome piece of equipment, but it weighs 1 pound or more when wet. My new foam seat provides more support for less weight. Aesthetically it isn’t a “finished piece” like the hull. however, performance is key here. I can make a beautiful shiny hull that is super lightweight for on water performance. The seat to be high performance, as of today, is done the way I am doing it and it is made out of foam.

This hip pad has a lot of “hook”. You can’t make this the way they are made for plastic boats today by thermoforming. This is machined from a solid piece of foam. It integrates nicely into the seat.
Sitting on this seat is something you will look forward to! So comfy!

7. Weight- 17.5 pounds for Rebound, 23 pounds for Ringer (both mediums)- that is all in ready to paddle, with everything included. (what my boat weighs if right now) The hull of the Rebound is only 13.5 pounds. 4 pounds is outfitting: which include cockpit rim (.7 pounds), grab handles, walls, seat, backband, ropes, footblock, hip pads, etc..

“All In” weight after the hull came in at 13.5 pounds is 17.8 pounds on this one.

Another “secret” to making the boat super lightweight and stiff. Wet Lay-up. Infusion process requires either a soric type material or perforated foam. Both increase the weight quite a bit. Molders prefer infusion as it is clean, less smell, and efficient, but it is not the way to get the lightest boat that is also stiff. The extra weight savings takes more work. The Tyr fishing kayak combines an infusion deck that has a secondary wet layup process afterwards to add the foam that saves 7 pounds over doing a 100% infusion process in that larger boat. The way you can use Infusion, and not have it be heavy is to not use a “core” material, such as Soric, or Foam. There are places that it makes sense to do that on the deck, mostly.

cutting foam core for a “full foam” hull and deck is like creating your own puzzle. Sergio makes it look easy.

I was just going to put up another photo of another color boat we just made but lots of people seemed curious about how they are made. If there was a single ingredient that could be copied, it would be tempting to keep it to myself. But when the ingredients that make the difference are a combo of facilities, materials, taking your time to get the design, plugs, and molds right (cockpit rim changes added 45 days to the time in the end), and the actual boat building process. Even the final step of wet sanding and buffing each boat out. That step isn’t “normal”. Boats come out of a great mold shiny. However, imperfections, dull spots, etc. are possible, and will happen. They are also possible to turn into near perfection with time and expertise (both cost money, of course)

Colors-Finish-clean lines, etc.. You can count on an amazing finish from front to back.

An Apex boat is far from perfect- FYI. Improvements, more innovation, etc. are part of the plan. I am far from perfect and make mistakes, don’t maximize everything that could be maximized. My goal is to put in the extra work and time and money if needed to get as good as I can and as long as that is the “Apex” of what is available, it is a success. From there, I can try to outpace the competition and hopefully create a situation where friendly competition drives progress for everyone.

Fun stuff. Lots of hard work, not much money in it, but fun and rewarding. Especially since I get to use my own wares for my personal enjoyment daily. I am lucky to have a manufacturing partner in Nelo, who is putting their best people on the job. 40 years of composite kayak making, focusing on Sprint Racing kayaks and winning about 75% of the medals in world championships and Olympic events in that sport and the clear first choice among the best athletes. Why? Because of consistent quality. Working with people that are happy to race you after work, because they are athletes as well is also super cool.

Nuno Costa- he got the packaging organized as you see it here. The kayak is suspended inside a thick cardboard box with blue foam. I was thinking of doing the “Egg Drop” test from the top of a really big building. Anyone want to wager on that one? Damage or no damage? The fact that I am actually thinking of doing it tells you which way I am betting. Here in Columbus, GA where I am right now, there are some big cranes working on some big new buildings. They must be 250′ or higher. I want to see if I can convince them to do the test for me.

Meanwhile- I just got off the water. I just did my first “World Championships Training Session”. Up until now I was training for USA Team Trials. Now that I made the team, it is “Worlds Training” time.

I have my right hand back, body is handing the training and competing with no issues, and I am getting better every day. I have some catching up to do to get back to where I was 10 years ago, but it is easier to get the moves back than to learn them the first time. Nick and I did a 35 degrees out, sunrise session this morning at 14,000 cfs! Awesome. The wave was getting flat and the awesome speed of the Rebound was appreciated!

See you on the river!

The Ringer is one of those industry changing boats. So light, so fast, so loose, so fun!
You could have one for yourself! Email me at eric@apexwatercraft.com for more info..
🙂

EJ