The Perfect Storm . . . of spray skirt problems.

Wikipedia defines a perfect storm as "an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically."  I experienced a mini perfect storm this weekend while paddling.

By way of background, my 2 year old Seals Shocker sprayskirt has been "acting up" lately. I've noticed that after every paddle I've had a lot more water in my boat than my fellow paddlers. I just assumed that it was water coming in around my waist or under the skirt rand while I was rolling and edging. I never really put much though into until about a month ago. I was on a paddle and after 1.75 hours in the boat, I had about 2" of water in the cockpit. I asked others if they ever had any water enter while paddling. The general consensus was "no"  to " just a little".  I bailed the boat out at lunch and we paddled back to the take-out. After 1 hr of steady paddling, again I had about 2-3" water in the boat. I was confused as I consciously paddled with the boat upright so that the cockpit coaming stayed out of the water.

That night I did a good visual inspection of my skirt and I'll be damned if there weren't holes in the deck areas by my waist and back. I could pull the neoprene tight and see light through the holes!!!   I popped on a neoprene patched and on the smaller holes I whacked on the aquaseal.

Subsequent paddles saw a great reduction of water in the boat  - but still a little more than I'd like. I left the skirt alone and just continued to use it as is.

Fast forward to Sat, July 16. A group of us left Mobile en route to Tors Cove. There was a good swell on and the clapotis was very chaotic (See Dean's and Tony's blog entries).  As the trip went on I noticed the boat getting a lot less stable. I was thinking that I was either getting tired or my new boat wasn't a stable craft in rough water. At one point I stopped to switch paddles and almost went over during the transition - not something I was expecting.  Then I noticed that I could feel water sloshing under the backs of me knees. I popped the skirt and there was about 3" water sloshing around in the cockpit.  There was my problem. We all know that you can throw some water in your boat for good balancing practice but I would not suggest that you do it while on a paddle in rough water!!

I rafted up with Neville and pumped all the water out. Badda Boob Badda Bing, the boat was back to it's old tippy, but much more predictable self!!

So where's the Perfect Storm in all this, you ask? What were the combined conditions?  First, and most obvious, is the fact that I had a skirt that leaked like a sieve. The water leaking into the cockpit was throwing off the stability of the boat dramatically. Every lean into an edge, send a significant weight of water to the lower side of the boat, making it hard to maintain that edge safely. The second factor was the chaotic wave action which  was sending the water from side to side quite rapdily making for a very unstable boat. This went on for most of the paddle and was quite taxing.

The third, and final, factor is directly related to the nature of the Greenland paddle (GP). GPs do not have drip rings and their long blades are buried in the water right up to the paddlers hands. Therefore, they tend to pick up a LOT of water, which runs down the shaft and drops right onto your spraydeck. When you paddle with a GP your sprayskirt is ALWAYS - even if the water is dead calm with no splash or wave action. On Saturday I looked at a fellow paddler's skirt. We were paddling in the same conditions but his was drying in the sun, while mine had big water puddles on it. He was using a Euro paddle with drip rings.

The combination of a leaking skirt which was exacerbated by the fact that my paddle was shipping large amounts of water, which subsequently went "below decks" while paddling in chaotic water, was, indeed, my perfect storm of spray skirt problems.

I toyed with the idea of buying a new skirt (104.00 + tax) but opted to seal the worn areas with half a tube of Aquaseal. It's good and tight now but for how long?  From now on I will be inspecting my skirt a little more closely. I'd suggest that others do the same.

Cheers,

Sean

Disko Bay - Taking Shape

It's been quite a while since I've posted any updates on the Disko Bay build. I ordered my "skin" from George Dyson in Washington just prior to the postal strike. For reasons unknown, the package first went to Mexico, then it was bounced off Canada because of the strike. For weeks there was no update on its status until one day it finally said that it was in Canada. A few days later it arrived at my door!!

The arrival of the polyester was the reason to get back at working on the boat. I already had the frames cut and the gunwales and stringers ripped. The intention was to build outside as weather permitted but the summer started off so slow that I got very little done that way.

Checking frames in the very beginning of the build. This was a on the b-ball court in the backyard.

I also needed to find a strongback on which to build the boat.  By chance I was also constructing a new deck and amongst the lumber was a very straight piece of 2x6x12. I poked it in the basement for safe keeping. With the arrival of the fabric I decided I needed to get going on this project and this meant not relying on the elements, i.e., building outdoors.  I already had an 18 ft work table in the attic from when I built my Point Bennett so I decided to move the project indoors to familiar territory.

In a matter of minutes I had the strongback set up on the table and was off to the races. Below are a few shots of the work I completed the first evening. This is just a testing phase to see how the things fit together and what I'm up against. For those who followed my blog during the construction of the Point Bennett, you will immediately recognize the surroundings!!

Looking Fwd. Frames, keel and gunwales in place temporarily.

 

Looking aft @ amidships. Gunwales and chines in place temporarily.



Looking FWD @ amidships. A very flat after deck.



Looking aft from the bow.



I know it's not much to report but the intent of this blog entry is to show that, indeed, I am still actively pursiung this build. Now that I have the strongback setup in a "stable and predictable" environment, work should progress nicely.

Stay tuned!!

p.s For some reason I cannot respond to my blog or make comments on any others. So if it seems like I'm ignoring you, I'm not.  I just can't figure out what is wrong with my account!!

Just Bein' Thankful . . .

As I write this entry, it's pretty much 14 years to the hour of a significant event in my life.

It was a beautiful sunny July morning. We were in the midst of building our new house yet we were taking the day off to join family in Northern Bay Sands. Prior to leaving, I wanted to do some work on the roof. I was alone and in, a very stupid move, placed a ladder where it should never be - from the porch roof to the eve (two stories up).  I overreached at one point and the ladder became unbalanced and started to slide off the roof - with me on it!!  I can still see and feel that moment in slow motion. That feeling of falling. The feeling that you can do nothing to stop it. The awareness to tuck my head into my chest before hitting the ground below. And finally that dull thud on the back of my neck as it hit the compacted rock and gravel!!  (I have the willies now as I think of it!!)

I lay on the ground for just a moment. Then though that if I don't get up now, I may never get up. I pulled myself up, feeling the dull pain in the back of my neck , and proceeded to walk the severl hundred meters down the road to where we were living. I was dazed but, trying to look alright, I said hello to my wife's aunt who was out on her front step.  When I got home, the door was locked and Cheryl was in the shower. Finally she heard me and opened the door. I said that I wasn't feeling well and that I wanted to lie down. When I did, I noticed that my right elbow wasn't quite right - it felt kind of loose.

I said I was fine and that I just needed to rest before we went to Northern Bay. It was then decided that we should go to the hospital. We got in the car and I placed a piece of wood under my arm to support it. Cheryl (who was nine months pregnant) drove. On the way out I noticed that my neck hurt when I tried to turn it to the right and it wouldn't go all the way. As per usual, I kept testing it to see how far I could turn before it really hurt!!  On the way out, the gear stick on the car popped out and we had to drive the whole way in third gear - even at red lights!!

At the emergency ward, the nurse who checked us in, for some reason, took me in right away. I was packed off for x-rays right away. While lying on the gurney, I still kept trying to turn my head all the way to the right. The Tech said "You really shouldn't be doing that". I stopped!!

X-rays confirmed that I cracked two bones in my neck and that I had subluxation (shifting) of a few vertebrae in my lower neck. I had also broken off a chip of bone in my elbow and it was loose in the joint.  I was told that I was very lucky not to be paralyzed and even luckier, still, to be alive. The cracks in the vertebrae were very close to the nerves - damage to those nerves would've meant paralysis.

To make a longer story short - I was on my back in hospital for 4 days. I was fitted with a neck brace that prevented neck movement for 4 months. My elbow was casted for a few days but they removed it and sent me to physio right away. Physio on a broken elbow ain't fun. The first time, I took pain killers. The therapist was not happy - she needed to know how much pain I was in during the exercises!!

Three weeks later my son was born. I was still in a lot of discomfort but at least I was there for him!!

So why this post, then?  Because, eventhough I still have residual effects from the accident - like a right arm that cannot straigthen out nor rotate all the way and sometimes my neck makes funny noises like it has sand in it - I'm still here and still able to do most of the things that I want to. Kayaking is certainly one of them. 

In a nutshell, I guess I'm just thankful.

It's a Start

After a week of reading/researching and dredging up materials, I'm actually getting around to starting the Disko Bay. I easily managed to find some cedar at Home Depot that I can rip for the gunwales, chine and keel. Finding the plywood for the frames was another matter. Marine plywood cannot be gotten easily in this neck of the woods. I could order a sheet but the cost would be over 200.00 a sheet - eventhough I only need 1/4 of a sheet. Regular exterior grade plywood can be used but this wood tends to be very splintery when you cut it and often full of voids. I just find it nasty stuff to work with!!  I toyed with the idea of making the frames from solid cedar pieces lap joined together - but that was proving to be too complex a job and I'd be better off going with the exterior grade plywood for the amount of extra work involved.

One more trip to Home Depot yielded an interesting find - Russian Birch plywood. I had no idea if it was exterior/interior or what and the sales dude was not much help either. Interior/exterior plywood is classed by the waterproofness of the glue. Incidently, the standards for testing the glue involves boiling. There was no indication what type of glue was used. My frames call for 1/2". There was 11.5mm and 17.5mm (13 ply) available in 2x4 sheets. Always erring on the side of caution, I grabbed the 17.5mm 2x4 sheet and decided to give it a whir. Without going ahead willynilly and building a boat with plywood that could possibly melt once water hit it, I decided to give this stuff a test. And the test was as follows:

I cut off one corner (there goes any chance for a 33.00 refund from Home Depot), sanded one edge smooth (this stuff has incredibly hard edge grain)  and popped it into a pot of boiling water where it sat for a full hour at a rolling boil. At one point, about five minutes in, I thought the plys were delaminating but on closer inspection, it was refraction or the water distorting how it looked, After an hour I took the piece out and the plies were intact. I took a knife and tried to separate the plies but no go. They were stuck as fast as when they went in. Even the sanded surafce was still as smooth - with no rasied grain!  In a similar test, I dropped in a piece of "supposed" exterior fir plyood but it did not fare so well - I could split the laminations with the knife.

After the boiling I put the test piece in the freezer for a few hours. The dishwasher was due for a run, so, just for poops and giggles,  I took the wood and popped it in with the cutlery. After three water cycles with the water temp at 160, the wood was still intact.  I threw it in the freezer overnight just to be mean!!  The next day, I dropped it diectly from the freezer back into a pot of boiling water. After 20 minutes, I took the boilding water and wood and threw it in a thermos and took it off to work with me. At lunch time, I replaced the water with freshly boiled. After 8 hours in boiling/very hot water, there was still no delamination, nor could I separate the plies with a knife.  That's good enough for me!!   The only consequences of the exposure to boiling water were the facts that the wood swelled about 1mm in width and it went a dull gray-ish colour. Again, fine by me!!   As a footnote - I will be encapsulating the frames in epoxy for further waterproofness!!!

Let the games begin!!



Test piece after the boiling/freezing. Glue  intact and edge still smooth!!



Having determined that the plywood was suitable, I could move onto making the frames. The "plans" that Dave Gentry provides are simply a set of offsets (measurements) to make the frames. In the image below you will see these offsets. (I purposely blurred the numbers. If you want them you will have to contact Dave yourself).  This was just a test run of frame #3 marked (with an an extra 1" added to the masik - an idea later abandoned) and cut from plywood underlay - not suitable for boat construction.

Below is marking out on the "real McCoy" Notice the fine surface on the wood. It is like this on both sides - which means no splintery and  knotty side on the other!!

The first frame I cut is #3 or the masik. This frame is located right under the front of the cockpit rim. You will see that the height of the frame is 10". Add on another 1/2" for the deck stringer and that is the total height of this boat.  Obviously your feet have to fit through this opening which is a mere 7" high. I'll have to rejig the deck height at the footbrace - frame #2 (thanks to size 12 shoes) but it should work out fine!! It's going to be snug, though!! The boat should be 21" wide.

Partially completed frame #3.

I'm telling myself that I will not pull a blitzkrieg on this build - like I did with my last boat. There's a lot less work and because there's no urgency to complete the boat nor the contraints of working with epoxy, I'm looking forward to a more leisurely building pace. For the record, the first frame took about 2 hrs to complete (loft and cut) but the next one's will probably take half that time!!

Of course, the time frames may be all moot. My polyester fabric left San Francisco enroute to Canada on June 12th. With the current strike, gawd knows where it is and when it'll get to me!!!!

Thanks for dropping by!!!

A SOF Distinct Possibility

Just like building paddles can be addictive, so too can be boat building!!  I really like my new boat and it will remain my "main ride" for some time but there's always been a certain allure of a skin on frame (SOF)!! Back in the late 1970's, as a teenager, I built two SOFs but they weren't up to snuff and they are both rotting now under my uncle's cabin!!

I think it's time to revisit the idea of making a SOF - and doing it right!

The Disko (not to be confused with Disco!!) Bay boat is a well documented and oft-reproduced kayak design from the West of Greenland. Dave Gentry of Gentry Custom Boats has devised a way to recreate the Disko Bay in non-traditional building method. It's a wooden framed skin boat but minus all the steam bent ribs. Instead there is a small number of frames made from marine ply. Once the frame is completed, it is skinned as per any other traditional SOF. The boat looks and feels just like a Disko Bay of traditional construction but with a lot less frame work.

Dave Gentry has also slightly modified the design to include a larger cockpit coaming as opposed to the traditional small round one - this is great for tall people with stiff knees. The design also has a raised masik and foredeck to accommodate larger feet - another bonus for me!!

Even with these modifications, this is one nice looking craft.

Image courtesy of Gentry Custom Boats

Image courtesy of Gentry Custom Boats

Image courtesy of Gentry Custom Boats

Image courtesy of Gentry Custom Boats

If I decide on this design, then the next big question is "When?" I keep saying it'll be winter project but I'm not sure I can wait that long!! Decisions!! Decisions!! Decisions!!

Paddle Canada Atlantic Paddling Symposium 2011

After waiting for it for months, the 2011 Paddling Symposium has now come and gone. Unfortunately, I did not take nearly as many pictures or videos as I had originally intended so now I have to rely on my own memory. So, in the words of Bender, the crass robot in Futurama, "We're boned!!"

Getting there is NOT half the fun!!

My first session was Greenland paddling with Maligiaq Padilla. When it comes to Greenland paddling, Maligiaq is one of the best in the world. By way of background, Canoe and Kayak published a great article on him back in Feb of this year.

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Saturday AM at Sandy Pond. Cold, windy and wet!

Maligiaq demonstrating his preferred loom length.

Maligiaq and students on Sandy Pond

On Sunday AM, I headed off to Sandy Cove to take part in a wind management session. The day was almost perfect for this session as there was a pretty stiff breeze blowing once out around the headland.

Sunday AM. Parking lot at Sandy Cove.

There was a number of sessions going on at the same time so there were a lot of boats and people on the beach.

That's a lot of boats. Sandy Cove beach.

Instructor Blair Doyle (NS) at the beginning of the session on Wind Management.

Sunday afternoon, I was back at Sandy Pond for Greenland rolling. By now the weather was breaking a little and the sun was actually trying to shine. When it did, it made all the difference in the world. But for some reason, the water in the pond felt even colder than the day before!!

On Saturday, Maligiaq asked me about my boat. I started to explain how it was designed by an individual (Duane Strosaker) in Califiornia but as soon as I said that, he knew right away who's design it was and that was why it looked familiar to him. He said that he'd never paddled one before but understood it to be fast because he was at another paddling event where Duane won the race.  On Sunday Maligiaq asked to paddle my boat.. When he came back, the first thing he said is "This boat is very fast"!!  Having not paddled a lot of different boat designs, myself, I do not have a good way of gauging a boat's speediness but that was my initial impression when I first paddled this new boat.  I'm taking Maligiaq at his word - he'd know better than me

The funny thing is that Maligiaq is so small, when he sat in my boat, he makes it look huge!!

Sunday PM. Back at Sandy Pond. Maligiaq asked if he could try my boat.

As for the event, as a whole, sure, it's great to take in some instruction, but that's only one component of the Symposium (or Retreat). It's just fun to get out there among so many avid paddlers. There's lots to talk about, new boats to see and old friends to hook up with. We stayed in a house with 11 people. There's was lots of time spent sitting around just yakkin' while enjoying a few drinks, beers and/or wine. The two suppers were excellent. I always leave with great memories of the event and looking forward to coming back next year!

Kudos to the organizers and to all who attended. It was a great time!

Testing. Testing. 1-2-3. Testing.

Finally a chance to give the new boat a good test. On Sunday a group of 8 paddlers left from Bauline en route to Pouch Cove. The total distance was 21.8 kms  by my GPS. Total time in the boat was around 3.5 hrs. There was a variety of conditions ranging from flat water, to swells, to clapotis and even some surf. It was good chance to see how the boat reacted and to see how the new setup would feel after being in the boat for a few hours on end. Everything worked out great.

Thanks to Tony, Dennis, Dean, Stan, Tobias, Gerard and Clyde for a great paddle and here's a few shots from the day. Sorry, not much commentary. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Putting in @ Bauline.

Dennis (l) and Dean (r) inside the breakwater.

Gerard cruising along  . . .

. . . and checking out one of the neat caves we encountered.

Stan in a steady downpour!!

It rained pretty hard - 'nuff said!

Fog rolling down the hills.

Playing in one of the numerous waterfalls along the way.

Dean (l) and Clyde (r) sittin' in the surf.

Regrouping

Dennis 

Tobias (l) and Gerard (r) getting ready to have lunch.

High and dry.

Between a rock and hard place. A little white paint was left behind!

Heading towards Pouch Cove.

Taking out in Pouch Cove #1.

Taking out in Pouch Cove #2