Inuit Inua

The longer and sleeker sister of the Inuit Amarok is the Inua. It is certainly has the looks of a good, traditional sea kayak:

Today I had the opportunity to paddle the Inua. I made a trip from IJburg to Pampus Isle. I had planned to go to Marken but the wind was too strong and my seating position wasn't very comfortable: the front bulkhead is too close for my long legs. The first leg was straight against the wind and the Inua sometimes slammed hard on the steep and high waves. Otherwise it seems a dry boat to paddle and it behaves like a real sea kayak: Easy to keep on course in all directions.

The Inua is certainly less stable than the Amarok, especially the initial stability took some time to get used to. The secundary stability was not convincing either, there seems no 'endpoint' where you can trust on. Nevertheless I was able to make the trip without real stability problems. The boat feels very fast and lively and took every wave with pleasure. To my surprise edging did work better than the Amarok. Of course I didn't feel very safe to edge a lot but the Inua is more maneuverable than you would expect. The directional stability was very good and the boat reacts very good on the retractable skeg. 

After a break on Pampus Isle I returned to IJburg. To my surprise the Inua appeared to be a good surfer that could be easily pulled in a surf. And in a surf it is fast... very fast! The last part I took the waves from aside and here the lack of stability needed my attention. Probably you can get used to it and may be smaller persons will not have any problem at all.

Later, a club member tried the Inua. As he is much smaller than me, I had expected the stability would be better for him. But instead, he found the Inua unstable too. Conclusion is that the lack of stability is simply by design and cannot be 'fixed' easily. For me the stability would be sufficient for day trips or expeditions on sheltered water. I wouldn't use it on sea. May be I will keep the Inua but than I have to move the bulkhead forwards to fit my long legs. May be I will try to sell it. I am still thinking about it.

The build quality of the Inua is excellent. The skeg operates direct and smoothly. And no drop of water within the three compartments. Both the Inua and Amarok were built by the now closed Inuit yard in Arnemuiden.

Zegul 550

After owning about one and half year I decided to sell the Skarabee. I no longer needed it. It is a good boat but for the real sea kayaking the Shadow is better and the Shadow can take also a lot of gear for expeditions. With the Amarok as a 'daily' backup I sold the Skarabee. Only a week later I saw a Zegul 550 for sale. I didn't know much about that boat but after some internet searches it looked like a fast sea kayak that may give me the speed I had hoped for with the Skarabee. To make a long story short: here it is:

my Zegul 550

The 550 shows a long, sleek hull with low rear deck and high front deck. With the largest beam after the cockpit it has the "Swede" form. The length is not surprisingly 550 cm and the beam is 54 cm. The hull shows hard chines around the middle that smooth out to the bow and stern. The information I found claim for a fast boat that still is stable and maneuverable. As I am quite satisfied with the hard chines on the Nigel Foster boats I had confidence that this could work out well on the Zegul too.

from the Zegul folder

After some refitting of deck lines and elastics I made a short first trip. The first leg I paddled together with a club member. The Zegul tracked well and seemed fast when you wanted it. Stability was okay, no problem at all. The boat reacted good on edging and was indeed quite maneuverable on edge. Not as good as the Shadow of course but much better than e.g. the Amarok. On the second leg I was alone and I made more speed. The first results show indeed a speed of  around 9 km/h and that is certainly promising! 

my Zegul with skeg and rudder

The rudder did work well but the pedals were quite obstructive for a good foot brace. As the boat is maneuverable enough without rudder I decided to remove it. My plan is to fit a new foot brace with foot pump as this is typically a boat to make some solo trips with.

The Amarok on speed

Curious about the speed I took the Amarok on a short trip. First, I inserted some hard foam against the bulkhead to get a better footbrace. It was better but still a bit too far away. I recorded the trip with Strava. I tried to paddle 'reasonable' fast, not speeding. Here are the results:

I think 7.0 - 7.3 km/h is a reasonable speed and comparable with the Orion and Skarabee. The Explorer would have been faster.

There was some light wind about 2 Bft. The Amarok did show some weathercocking. As I took some gear in the front compartment I think this made the weathercocking worse. So on the return I put the gear in the rear compartment more close to the middle of the boat. My first impression is that the skeg is not very effective. It needs a lot of skeg to correct the slight weathercocking. The skeg is also very loose in the skeg box, may be here is something to win.

As expected the Amarok tracked very well, it is a real keel boat. It does remind me of the Baidarka. Edging is not very effective: no way you can control the Amarok as you can the Shadow. A stern rudder seems the only thing that really works. It is strange to paddle such a short boat that is actually less maneuverable than the long Skarabee. 

There were no real waves but sometimes I got the impression the Amarok wanted to surf on small waves. I am curious about paddling her in more exciting weather soon.