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Welcome to Darkside Canoes

Darkside Canoes has been setup to develop, design, market and sell sit&switch racing canoes. The Darkness racing C1, The Darkness Duet racing C2 and the new Darkness Demon C2 are currently available. The Darkness boats are a new type of canoe which are light, stable, fast, and affordable. The designs conform to the International Canoe Federation (ICF) regulations. They fill the gap between the large, heavy and cumbersome family and touring canoes, and the extremely unstable, high kneeling, narrow racing boats. They are developed, designed and manufactured in Great Britain.

Hybrid canoe/kayak design

Although The Darkness C1 is ostensibly a canoe, it can easily be paddled as a kayak due to its slim design and even high kneeling. This protects investment as the owner has three types of boat for the price of one. All are ICF compliant but the “kayak version” does not have the overhead or complication of a rudder.

The Darkness - Canoe

The Darkness C1 has been designed from scratch to perform as a sit&switch canoe. It is very light which makes it easy to carry on portages. The boat is fully ICF compliant and ready to race. The seat is adjustable to suit the size, shape and needs of the paddler, as are the footrests.

The Darkness - Kayak

Paddled as a kayak, The Darkness maintains a straight line due to the lack of rocker along the keel line. It is easy to get in and out due to the large cockpit area and there is a low risk of getting stuck in the event of a capsize. It is more stable than a racing kayak at about 4 - 5 on the stability scale.

 

 

 

Construction

The Darkness boats are made from a two layer sandwich of carbon/carbon-twaran with Lantor sric ribs. Vacuum bagged with epoxy resin.

The boat has infatable bouyancy bagsor foam blocks fore and aft. A full size spray deck can be fitted to cover the full open cockpit area. The Darkness C1 copes with paddlers up to 90 kgs.

Background

The Darkness C1 was developed and designed over three years by Nick Adnitt . The Darkness Duet and DEmon C2s followed in 2016. Both boats are were tested during the Waterside Series canoes races and the Devizes to Westminister race.

Nick only ever wanted boat designs for himself, but as the amount of production effort and creation of the mold is the same for one boat as it is for 1,000 canoes, they are now available for all athletes looking to paddle on the dark side.

Availability

The Darkness boats are available depending on factory scheduling. Delivery/Collection by arrangement.

 

The Darkness boats are:

 

  • ICF compliant
  • Weigh 10 kgs - C1, 18 kgs C2
  • Faster than a touring boat
  • More stable than a high kneeler
  • Carbon fibre and kevlar construction
  • Fully adjustable

 

To setup a test paddle, please email: nickadnitt@aol.com.