Truly versatile craft ideal for rivers, lakes, estuaries and sheltered coastal waters

Welcome to Katakanu

With more than 400 boats sold and tens of thousands of people enjoying a KataKanu experience every year, the KataKanu is proving itself to be a great family boat and a valuable addition to any organisations fleet.

It is not possible to have a boat that will do everything and finding the balance between specialist and compromised is a difficult trick to pull off! The design brief for the KataKanu was safety, a reasuring, professional appearance, versatility and cost effective delivery. The finished product has far exceeded this brief! A main stream boat used by one of the countries leading Holiday Village companies, also used by special educational needs groups and the Army cadets, proves the boats appeal across a wide spectrum of needs and interests.

Proof of the KataKanu' versatility and cost effectiveness can been seen in the increasing number of providers now operating fleets of 6 + boats.  

Intended for use on canals, rivers, lakes, estuaries and sheltered coastal water, the KataKanu was carefully designed to track well, whilst retaining manoeuvrability and to hold sufficient buoyancy to support its intended load even if the seating areas are flooded!

About us

People come in all shapes, sizes, ages, abilities and emotions. Somthing that is mundane to one person might pose a difficult challenge to another. In life it is the first step that is often the most difficult, the KataKanu was designed to make that step a little easier.

Who built it:

Ian White is an all round competition canoeist, he has enjoyed taking part in all types of events, white water, flat rivers and on the open sea, both sprint racing and marathons. He has been paddling around in canoes and kayaks since the age of ten and first competed for Great Britain 6 years later when 1973 he and his partner won the notorious Liffey descent. He competed at the junior World Sprint Championships in 1975 and went on to win a few classic canoe races including the Devizes to Westminster 125 mile marathon & the Arctic Canoe Race, all 350 miles of it!! For the past 40 years it would be unusual for him not to have paddled over a thousand miles a year. As well as building KataKanus, Ian still works 2 days a week coaching youngsters to take part in the Devizes to Westminster Race.