Boof and Squirt: Jackson Kayak ‘Clutch’ Is Ready for Action

Jackson Kayak is jumping into the creek/slice market with the “Clutch.” This new whitewater kayak is designed to run steep creeks and big water rivers with confidence while still allowing for all sorts of vertical fun on the stern.

Jackson Kayak Clutch M/L Specs

• Length: 8’10”
• Width: 27.25″
• Volume: 85 gal.
• Weight: 46 lbs.
• Paddler weight range: 120-200 lbs.
• MSRP: $1,649

JK Clutch Kayak

The design of the Clutch is a derivative of the Gnarvana creek-boat. It uses the boat’s high-volume and highly rockered bow to keep the paddler high and dry and inspire confidence with solid primary stability. The high-volume bow also offers a lot of foot and legroom, which translates to a comfortable kayak for a wide range of paddlers.

With that bow, the Clutch then utilizes an extremely tapered, much lower volume, and a less rockered stern. The primary reason for this stern design is for vertical stern squirt fun down any waterway. Secondary benefits are increased downriver and on-wave speed.

Under the Clutch is a full planing hull with raised rails. This is a design you see on many Jackson Kayaks. While not the fastest downriver, it does make the boat very forgiving, loose on a wave, and offers great secondary stability.

I’ll wager a guess that we’ll be seeing many paddlers using the Clutch as their short-boat racing creek boat of choice. It should give the confidence to hit the hard lines while also being considerably faster than a standard creekboat — which usually has a relatively high rocker and high-volume stern.

Creek/Slice Kayaks

I have little doubt that the Clutch is a direct response to the ever-popular Waka Steeze, and the recent influx of boats in the creek/slice category. The Steeze pioneered the category all the way back in 2018, and it’s still available new today. The rest of the industry has followed, but only just recently, with the Liquid Logic Sweet Ride, Dagger Indra and Soul Super-Skipper RR as prime examples.

JK Clutch Kayak Pricing & Availability

The Clutch will retail for $1,649. That is about $50 more than comparable boats in the JK whitewater lineup and competitors in the space. Pricing on whitewater kayaks hasn’t gone up all that much in a few decades, while materials and manufacturing costs have skyrocketed, so a small price bump on all new boats coming out isn’t a surprise.

Jackson Kayak told us that boats will start to ship from its Tennessee factory in about 2 weeks, so they will be in dealers around the world soon after.

While I asked, no one at Jackson Kayak would comment on any other sizes coming, so the M/L is the one size fits most for the time being.

Jackson Kayak Warranty

If you were wondering what the warranty on the Clutch and all Jackson Kayak boats, here it is:

• 1st year of warranty: Replace or repair the kayak for free, with free shipping.
• 2nd year of warranty: Replace it with full build at 70% off retail plus shipping.
• 3rd year of warranty: Replace it with full build at 50% of MSRP plus shipping.

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