depends, marketing

Posted by LeeG on Jul 9, 2006

In my experience owning a dozen production kayaks, building almost a dozen s&g kayaks and working in a kayaking store I'd say that 90% of manufacturers underestimate weights. The degree of underestimation can vary a LOT. A couple pounds is perfectly reasonable,,10%-20%underestimation for a production boats is getting ridiculous.

People like to shop by catalogs and the most easily compared data is represented by numbers. A manufacturer who provides data with variables "The Super Duper Severn 18 weighs 39lbs-50lbs!" will not have quite the zing as the manufacturer who says "The Golden Eagle weighs 39lbs!!" It would make as much marketing sense to say "Your SuperDuperSevern 18 is now renamed the SuperDuperSevern 17'9 3/4"!" So manufacturers pick a number that's close to what's weighed with an eye to what the competitors print whether it's a similar boat or not.

Perception has made some wildly underestimated weight stickers on their larger Aerolite boats where the sticker would say "54-59lbs" and the one weighed on the flour weighs 65lbs.

It's also possible for numbers in print for a given model are based on ONE boat made years ago with subsequent models based on a more realistic comparision of multiple boats or completely finished boat as would be used by a builder.

caveat emptor,,or your mileage may vary.

In Response to: Weights: Fact or Fiction? by MikeY on Jul 9, 2006

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