Race Cars to Kayaks: Race car engineers design custom kayak for Japanese Olympian

Tokyo, Japan — Olympic kayaker Kazuya Adachi took on the games with a custom boat built by race car engineers who had never even made one before, reported Reuters. 

Mooncraft, a company that builds race cars, also took on the project without even looking to see how other kayaks in the competition were built. 

“We don’t really know how Adachi’s boat compares with other kayaks because we haven’t examined any others,” Takuya Yura, the founder of Mooncraft told Reuters. 

Over the past two years, Mooncraft has built the Japanese Olypian a series of bespoke carbon fibre boats. At the games Adachi used two of Mooncraft’s models. 

Adachi placed sixth in the canoe slalom heats, however, he did not qualify for the final.

After Adachi’s performance, the race car-maker may have a few more orders. 

“I have been approached by someone in France,” Yura told reporters at Reuters. “But going into full production is not the same as making bespoke kayaks for Adachi.”