Titan Yantra

www.titankayaks.com

By Steffan Meyric Hughe

The incredible heatwave summer of 2018 produced some strange anomalies. My next-door neighbour had been out watering his garden – in October. And for those of us not paddling abroad last year, the feeling of a standing wave under the hull was a distant memory as Hurley and the other Thames weirs had fallen flat for so long in the hot weather, it’s like they never existed.

Titan Yantra

It was a summer for swimming, barbecues – and artificial whitewater centres. For those of us in the south east of England, thank God Lee Valley exists. It was a lifesaver last summer, with both courses – Olympic and the easier Legacy – back on top form, with a just about surfable wave on the Olympic, and top hole back in top form on the Legacy. In fact, tweaks have even made the bottom hole on Legacy a worthy feature when the Olympic is also on.

Add in the new, improved Above and Below shop on site, with its brilliant range of demo boats, and you have a boat-test heaven. Last August and September, I took out two ‘new’ models from Titan – the Yantra and the Rival. Titan, by the way, is a relatively new manufacturer, formed in 2011 by top freestyle paddler Anthony Yapp, and their first model was the Genesis playboat, minute even by the standards of the genre. It never took off in this country, and it was followed more recently by these two – the Yantra and Rival.

First of all, the Yantra: it’s a basic river-running, whitewater kayak for ‘all abilities’ according to the blurb, but with no particular niche (it’s not a stern-squirty vert boat or a high-volume creeker or anything else, particularly), it will be best suited to beginners. It compares most directly to boats like the Pyranha Z One, although with more volume in the stern. I did not have scales to hand, but I can tell you this boat is heavy – the website quotes between 18kg and 20kg depending on size. That weight will no doubt translate to stiffness and strength, but it’s not a compromise everyone will be thankful of, particularly on long carries to the put-it or take-out.

On flat water, it felt slightly slow, but again, I didn’t measure this. Once onto moving water, it came to life. The hull is a nice compromise between carvability and forgiveness. You will not capsize every time you break out in this boat, and there is enough volume in the stern that you will not be endered by every hole you paddle through. It’s sensitive enough, however, to encourage good habits like keeping your body weight over the hull and putting the boat at the right angle.

It’s a neutral boat, vice-free, and easy to roll. It should surf well, with its flat bottom, but I was not able to check this theory. In a hole, it behaved as it should, dropping into the slot and side-surfing in a controlled way. Man-made courses (including both the Legacy and Olympic at Lee Valley) have fast, horrible eddies, and these were never a problem on the Grade 3 Legacy course. It was a good boat to reconnect with the older, simpler joys of breaking in and out sharply, turning hard, and engaging the rails.

Next up was the Olympic course. This is a fairly heavy run, graded at 4, which is technically incorrect (the route is easy to find after all) but a true reflection of the water, which is relentless, with big drops, no let-up and least sticky one hole that will hold a creekboat upside down with the paddler inside (this much I know from experience). The Olympic course strikes fear into the hearts of club paddlers, although in its present configuration, it’s a good bet for those looking to step up to that grade, as it’s not as bad as it used to be. One of my tests on the Olympic is to run straight through the holes and to my surprise, the Yantra did this quite easily. Again, it rewarded proper technique, with a slight boof action keeping the bows above the madness.

It’s just the right boat for the course in fact. The Olympic course and, worse, the Legacy course are regularly run by paddlers in serious creek boats, which is the paddling equivalent of taking a tank to a track day. Creek boats will not teach you the finer techniques of old-fashioned river running in the way that a boat like the Yantra will. Breaking in and out of the flow is not particularly graceful or fun, and the big creekers will forgive mistakes far too easily, teaching bad technique.

Seeing a Machno or Nomad taking up an entire hole on the Legacy course is a pet hate of mine. Creekboats have, in other words, become the novice’s norm but they are, in fact, specialized kayaks for a specific use: hard whitewater, basically, particularly steep creeking. The Yantra is the sort of boat beginners should be using instead.

Outfitting wise, the Yantra is basic. The footrest is full-plate and the seat doesn’t move – which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned, always meaning it will be in the right position. You won’t be taking this on expeditions anyway, so you’re unlikely to load the back up with stuff, meaning the longitudinal load will always be optimal.

The five grab handles (one at each end, two behind the cockpit and one in front of it) is par for the course these days – it’s worth noting that they are plastic rather than the usual metal but also that the plastic seems very robust.

I started off disliking this boat, for its weight – then not understanding its purpose – then finally, quite liking its simplicity, good manners and robustness. Whether it’s best in class or not, I couldn’t say. The point is that it’s out there and it’s worth a try.

Yantra tech specs:

Yantra 7’9″