Paddling the reseated Shadow

As promished yesterday I made a trip today with the renewed Shadow. It was a nice sunny day with a 3 Bft wind. Ideal circumstances for a longer trip and to pick some waves on the lake Markermeer. This resulted in a paddled distance of about 34 km with tracks against the wind, with the wind and in between.

Trip of today to Pampushaven and Isle Drost

The main question is how the initial stability has changed by the new seat. Well, the difference is not that big actually but the boat seems indeed a bit less nervous. I think the primary stability is now about the same as the Legend but certainly not more. It is still easy to edge the boat from left to right before the secundary stability comes in. Probably the primary stability will increase by adding load but today I didn't feel the need for that. As the secundary stability is very assuring edging feels more secure than with the Legend.

Rest on isle Drost

The Shadow has a rectractable skeg but I didn't use it all the time. Compared with the Legend the Shadow seems a bit less sensitive to weathercocking or at least easier to correct with edging and corrective strokes. When correcting with the skeg it still seems a bit too small to cover the whole range of wind directions. When fully down the course corresponds with a quartering following sea and there is no reserve to leecock anymore. Despite this I surfed a long way downwind without a single broach. So, it may be not a real problem. Also nice is that correcting by edging still works with the skeg down.

A leak under the cockpit rim

During the trip I felt sometimes water dropping on my knee. It could be coming from the sprayskirt but I feared it would be more structural. When back I tested the cockpit rim and indeed there is a leak in the connection of the rim to the deck. There is some silicon kit under the rim and that is always suspicous. The leak is probably on the transition of the deck into the thigh brace.

Today the Shadow proved to be a nice boat to paddle. It is more responsive than the Legend and feels a bit safer by it's higher secundary stability. It may be a bit slower but a better candidate to go to sea with.