been a lot of thinkin’ goin on in this wee cranium today. and ya, its about kayak-y sorta stuffs
y’all knew that though didn’t ya? LOL
Obsessive compulsive much Dio?
Who? Me?
nahhhh!!!
I’m gonna throw this out there though. I have some ‘doubts’ about the Nordkapp. Granted the spirits decided that THAT was the boat I was gonna get, come hell or high water, but the more I have been learning it/about it/and outfitting it,,,, The more I think we are not the greatest fit for each other. Cockpit? good to go even if its that dinky ass Ocean Cockpit. It fits me, as does the spray skirt for it, and I don’t have an issue coming out of it, if things go inverted. But, those tiny ass hatches,,, THERE, we have serious issue. I don’t pack heavy, very much a minimalist and that goes back to my hiking days. I carried those 80# rucks while humping around in the Corps, and when I chose to go camping as a civvy, there was NO FRIKKIN WAY I was gonna hump that level of gear since I had a choice in my gear. I cut that shit down to a 30# ruck and that included everything in the way of comforts minus alcohols.(sorta, My campstove runs on alky, and I have an MSR alky bottle for the ethanol/methanol mix I use. Personal use alky is what I am excluding here). Now, I can fit a lot of my stuff in, individually, no drysacks, or I can put the empty drysack in first and hope to be able to get it closed once loaded (VERY tight fit at that hatches, 8″ diameter holes,,,) and the ONE exception is one that is “Nope, thats not gonna work”: my sleeping pad. I like my Thermarest sleep pad. I can forgo a tent and use a hammock (my preferred method of camping anyways) but that pad is integral to ALL of my camping sites. I keep that pad rolled up with a reflective wrap (it has a hoodie built in, and is the bees knees for when things drop into Hypothermic danger zones,) and my old “woobie” also known as a Poncho liner. If you have never used one, you don’t know how effective they are at keeping your ass warm in less than ideal conditions, EVEN WET. Nope, can’t leave any of that behind and where to stuff it in this boat without screwing things up (like under my legs in the cockpit, that has potential hazards alone.) has developed a hate/love relationship. I love the boat, but I am really starting to dislike its details.
Other aspects that are driving me batshit: The bilge area. If you placed Blue Jean and Lizzy side by side, upside down (I did, so I know what I am talking about) they look nearly identical in hull shape. Key differences. Lizzy is symmetrical with a centered cockpit. Blue jean is ‘swede form with the widest part of the beam directly at the hip area and the cockpit is further aft, not dead center. Bilge area is ‘close’ but the ‘soft chines’ on BJ are a tighter radius than those on Lizzy: IE they are more pronounced. That’s why BJ shows stability where Lizzy feels ‘loose’. Both are ‘soft V-hulled’, but the effect they have is completely different because of where the center of that ‘flat’ is located. On BJ, its behind your butt. On Lizzy its at your feet. You have more control of the boat at your hips than at your feet. In fact, about the only thing your feet have control of is applying power during paddling; control is via the hips and knees. Even in WW boats, the widest point is near the hips or in that area generally, because that is where the whole ‘primary stability/secondary stability’ thing comes in play. Its where you connect to the boat and where you ‘communicate’ with the water.
Now, that’s not to say I want to get rid of this windfall boat. As a race boat, I don’t think I could get better without going for one of the racing hulls. I have no desire for that style of boat. I like my boats like I like my knives, versatile and USEFUL. I don’t like ‘one trick ponies’. So I don’t get that ‘ultimate hull speed’ of an Epic V12 surfski: so what. The difference in hull speed is negligible when you figure the Epic can’t carry much past your lunch and a camelbak. And the ‘tippiness’ fades some when in motion, so keeping her around as a race boat seems ‘okay’ to me. (I wrote about the stability of BJ in a previous post, how I can sit in waves and not feel goosey. That feeling gains strength in motion. The tippiness of Lizzy fades, but never really goes away, because that flat area is forward of your butt. Your control area is more rounded with very soft chines so there is no bite to speak of. Its why she doesn’t ‘define’ where her secondary stability is.)
Maybe this is the ‘Why’ of the spirits directing Lizzy into my life. Not that I would get ‘the best boat EVAH!’, but that I would learn even more about boat design and how to make them better. Lord knows I between Lizzy and the Kitcha-gami blog, my knowledge has grown substantially. ( and I can see that I completely NAILED the design when I made Serena, and didn’t even know it!!! And why she did so amazingly when I went on the open waters of Cumberland Lake in 2020.)(Note B, Serena is now Selkie, and she was modified for you, so the same things I found, you will find as well. She is going to WANT water that is a little more vertical to show you what she can do though.)
SOoooosssss,,,,,
I keep looking for that kayak,,, the 90% boat that will rock my kayak-y world. The closest I have found (within reach of a sort) is the P&H Cetus
. 
There are a couple of others out there that might fit the bill better, but they are much smaller companies and two of them are in Europe and don’t ship across the Atlantic (and would likely double the already OMG price if they did .). The one here in the states is in the Pacific North Wet and they only build to custom order, not mass produce and have a price tag accordingly.
SO, do I pursue building that ‘perfect for me boat’ or do I pursue buying the next best thing? Price wise, I come out about the same, but the learning curve is higher for the first side. And would it be in my interest to dedicate that much of my life to just building ‘one boat’?
Let me clarify one point. I can re-make Serena in skin on frame. I did it once, and now I know more about what I did right and can replicate that. BUT, I don’t want another SOF, I want the durability and longevity of Composites. The main reason I rebuilt Serena into Selkie was due to broken stuff; two broken chines that led to broken ribs. Even in Serena there are already things getting broken (nothing detrimental to use, but the center stringer in the deck broke on me, and again on B when he strapped her down one time.) I just don’t think the SOF are beefy enough for the transportation methods we use. (side note, all the parts that broke in Serena were WRC, and the same wood is what broke in Selkie,,,, The Coffeewood that I used in Duh!kee is still holding its own and I crank on the straps when tying her down and all she does is creak. So there may be an alternative there if I so chose to go that route. ).
I made mention to B that I thought of using a SOF frame, not to make the boat outright, but as an inverted plug for going glass. Using Kevlar in place of the Ballistic nylon and glassing that up would achieve the shapes I want, but not necessarily the smoother lines of an actual plug.
Apologies to y’all. I am just tossing ideas out here and not really expecting you to enjoy this post. I know its an escape function from the down post I placed on Wednesday. One I needed today since my thoughts continually veered away from any ‘current events’.
Change lanes, no signal, SURPRISE
At the gas pumps tonight, fill up, didn’t bite ‘too bad’ but still took a chunk,,,, Lady inside, talking about how ‘this sucks’ and she made comment that ‘no one is smiling anymore,,, ‘ People are feeling the pinch way more than I thought,,, She’s right, haven’t seen many smiles, even with the costumes fo the season coming out, and it seems more like a show more than the spirit of things. As if ‘if we fake it long enough, maybe things will get better.”
Kinda like my escaping to Kayak thoughts, trying to ‘just get through’.
gotta do the ‘dmv’ thing tomorrow, get approval for another 4 years of driving privileges. We used to just go to the courthouse and deal with the locals, now, its a state thing and they are trying to fake like they know what they are doing and totally fugging things up. I already did the paperwork online, even paid for it, BUT, the computer will NOT accept a POB as a mailing address. And we don’t have curb service in this neck of the woods, it has to be to the POB. So, I get to try and convince a meatspace person that I DO live at that street address, but the PO does NOT deliver to it and I STILL need that damned card to prove to the PoHLice that I paid my dues for the dubious privilege of travel on THEIR sanctimonious Revenue generators. (sarc off)
I’ll try to post something relevant to the world tomorrow, after I get through jumping through flaming hoops of redtape.
