Its 7:30pm,,, dark as pitch outside. Sun went down over an hour ago, and its DARK,,,,
As Dark as my Ex-wifes soul IMO,,,,
Fuck too damned early to go to bed, to dark to do anything outside, and I don’t wanna run my porch lighting
but I will if I havta,,,,
rant off
Stoopid designs,,,, Yah, kayaky stuff here,,,
Day hatches. looks cool, accessible from the cockpit (sorta,,, if you are a contortionist,,,) and a third compartment as insurance against losing ALL of your gear to the wets,,, lose one hatch, ya still have two others that stay dry. Pop a hole in your hull on a rock, still have three compartments that are sound.
sounds good right? Then you try to stuff winter gear in and,,,, Uh,,, how does this work again,,,, there is ZERO room for anything if its a bag bigger than 10L. a bunch of small bags, no prob. but that one that holds your zero degree sleeping bag,,, Nopes, not gonna fit,, not there, not here, not up there either,,,, guess ya just gotta stuff it between your legs and pray you don’t need to bail out,,,,
I ‘get’ why that became popular,,, And kayak makers WANT to sell more kayaks, and certain features will sell more,,, right? well, for guys like me, it sucks,,, I joked to B, that I was ready to cut the bulkhead out between the day and rear compartments just so I could get those bags in ALL THE WAY,, not just smooshed into the hatch opening. I won’t,, its structural as well as being a barrier to water incursion. But By God, I was hard tempted,,,,
as you can tell, I spent part of my afternoon/evening (since the clock face is all out of whack,,,,) playing with trying to load Lyssa with gear. Not that I am planning on taking her in two week: I just wanna know what combinations are possible with her. (I do not like the idea of strapping a bunch of gear to the deck,,, numerous issues with that set-up, especially in winter with winds and waves,,,)
NOT MUCH,,,, Summer gear goes just fine, and I had quite a bit in her Saturday while out. And I can see the scum line she picked up on one bay. Her gunwales were buried. 30# of gear and me and she was MAXED. She is a summer child for certain. No expedition kayak here,,, Day tripper or weekender, but you won’t be hauling camp gear AND food for more than acouple of days.(and to be honest, I am a might too big for her. A 5′ tall 135# woman could load more gear (in small bags) and be fine, and maybe gain some in handlng in the process. I push her to her limits of wieght and she handles like a dream. Too little weight and she is probably twitchy.)
Still love the boat,,, Believe me, her ability to conquer waves has won her a place in my quiver forever. Even loaded she handled those waves from the bassboat like BJ does; “wave? what wave?” So she is relegated to summer fun and just getting miles in (which she is excellent at too)
Talking to B about it, he told me I needed another Kodiak, or the new Grizzly from Prijon (both aircraft carriers of the kayak world) True, not True,,,, I just need to build MY KAYAK to my designs and my needs. I know enough about hull features to be able to design in speed and handling while also making things large enough, long enough, slim enough rollable,,,
And honestly, by the time I bought a Prijon, or built my boat, I’d have spent about the same amount of money, but MINE would be unique,,,, I guess I know what direction I will be working for awhile,,,,
now the question is ‘plug or frame’,,,, Make a plug (industry standard) or build glass up over a frame? (thinking frame at this point,,,,for the ability to SEE and ADJUST the design before I commit to it.)(and I have more experiance making frames than plugs,,,)
