The last Baidarka

This is about my last P&H Baidarka Explorer. The yellow one has been sold a year ago but I had already collected a nice orange one. With the orange deck this boat looks absolutely beautiful:

This one doesn't have a variable skeg. My latest experience with the yellow one showed that the variable skeg wasn't really necessary: weatherhelm is easily controlled by effective correction strokes especially with a Greenland paddle. 

My original plan was to rebuilt this one with an extra hatch and foot pump. However, due to lack of time and urgency I decided to sell it: I don't need an extra sea kayak with the specific characteristics of the Baidarka. Selling it would also free some space for other vintage boat projects. So, about a year after the yellow one had been sold, the orange one has been sold also. The new owner being very happy with the almost prestine condition of this vintage kayak. 

P&H Baidarka Explorer

The P&H Badairka Explorer was my first sea kayak (and will probably my last). This classic design of Derek Hutchinson had become legendary now. I acquired a nice, almost new Baidarka. It is almost identical to the P&H Dawn Treader Odin I started my second sea kayak life with. However this is the 'real' one: with the curvy ends and with the smaller ocean going cockpit.

Collecting the Baidarka, beautiful lines!

Of course I know the drawbacks of the design as I described in the Dawn Treader Odin posts: Low initial stability and not very maneuverable. For that reason I will continue to take the Shadow for the real sea kayaking in difficult circumstances. But for many other trips the Baidarka is a nice boat. It feels so familiar to me as it was my only sea kayak for over 10 years in my first sea kayaking era.

At the first trip

Old fashioned deck pump

This Baidarka is build in the old fashioned way with an open space behind the seat. Not good to common safety standards but the deck pump is very useful. The build quality is simply good as you would expect from P&H. Both yellow and white gelcoat look like new. The two hatches with the traditional small round VCP lids are leak free as they should (while the Zegul is still not watertight...).

Nice Swede form hull

A variable skeg has been built in later. It is leak free but the control handle is behind the seat. Not very beautiful but it works for now. May be I will make changes to the boat later. I did fit a hard foam plate to the front bulkhead to get a nice foot brace. The seating is comfortable with ample space for legs and feet. The small cockpit gives good support to the knees for easy rolling. It rolls indeed quite easy.

On a trip from Medemblik to Stavoren v.v.

Skeg or rudder?

I made a few trips with the Skarabee. I have already praised it's maneuverability which makes the long boat feel a lot shorter. However, this is without using the skeg. When you lower the skeg a bit, the boat feels completely different: it does not want to turn anymore, even on edge. Of course this is explainable as the skeg prevents the tail to slip sidewards and the skeg remains under water on edge. This is actually the purpose of a skeg, so it is not a failure but a design feature. But it is a pity to sacrify so much maneuverabililty when using it. With the Baidarka I never experienced such a difference. But with the Skarabee there is a huge difference in maneuverablility. I am now trying to remember how this was with the Orion, it should be about the same as this is also an easy to turn boat. But somehow it didn't bother me at the time.

That makes me wonder how to use the skeg in a surf: normally you put down the skeg when going downwind. It prevents the boat to break out and that is a good thing if you want to make long surfs. However, when it starts to break out it will be hard to correct because of the same skeg. On the other hand, when you don't use the skeg in a surf the boat definitely want to break out earlier but it would be easier to correct. May be because of the good maneuverability of the Skarabee this could work. Definitely more fun also. Something to test the coming months when there are enough waves to surf.

Now I realize the real benefit of a rudder: with a rudder you always keep maximum maneuverability. Especially in a surf this would be perfect. And it makes me think there are two types of sea kayaks: 'skeg boats' and 'rudder boats'. The Baidarka is a good example of a typical 'skeg boat': the vario skeg just varies the built in 'skeg' in the already well tracking hull. You use the skeg to fine tune the balance of the boat. There is not much difference in maneuverability with or without skeg (both are bad).

On the other hand a typical 'rudder boat' would be much more maneuverable. A skeg would spoil this, so a rudder is the better option. Because of the rudder it is not needed anymore to make the hull track well and it can be optimized for speed and/or maneuverability. Such a boat is the Tiderace Pace 17 Tour. One of the kayaks on my wish list...

May be the Skarabee would be also a good candidate for a rudder. At least, it is an option if you order a new one at MSC. Another thing to think about because a rudder has also some drawbacks.

First trip with the Skarabee

After the swimming pool session the broken backrest support had to be repaired. The strap should be also placed a bit more to the front as it was too far aft to actually support my back. Finally I decided to go for a simple solution: With a disc cutter I made a new slit in the seat side walls, a few centimeters before the old one. The backstrap goes through it, then to the front of the seat side and then backwards on the inside of the seat where it is hold with velcro. In this way the forces on the strap are well distributed on the seat sides. When the temperature rises I can make a repair of the broken seat side part, just for optical reasons. This solution has proved to be sturdy enough.

A new slit in front of the broken one

New backstrap fixation around the sides

The first real trip was on a cold but sunny afternoon. I paddled a few kilometers along the shore of the lake Gooimeer. At that time it was on the news that three sea kayakers had died in France and for some reason it witheld me to make a crossing over the open (and very cold) water alone. Happily it was the leeside shore so there were the most waves.

View on the lake Gooimeer

The seating position was perfect and the new backrest fixation worked well. The Skarabee didn't give me that sporty feeling as the NDK Explorer, it's more a comfortable ride. It needed a lot of skeg with the 3 Bft cross wind: almost all. Not a real problem but I am still spoiled with the excellent skeg working on the Baidarka that you can trim so easily with the vario skeg. The boat seemed a bit slower than the Explorer and that proved to be true after examining the GPS tracks: around 7 km/h.

Skarabee on the shore

P&H Dawn Treader Odin

First a disclaimer: I am not a professional reviewer, nor do I have much experience in testing other boats. I only want to share my personal experiences with the P&H Baidarka Explorer / Dawn Treader Odin that I have paddled for about 10 years.

As I mentioned in my previous post the Dawn Treader Odin is in fact identical to the much more known Baidarka Explorer.

The Baidarka was one of the first designs of Derek Hutchinson. As I believe he crossed the North Sea with it. It was designed for great sea keeping capabilities and with expeditions in mind. If you compare it to more modern designs there are a few things that jump out:

  it is quite narrow at 51cm

  it has a straight keel line with no rocker

  it has a relative deep V-shaped bottom

These characteristics result in particular behaviour: the narrow beam and V-shaped bottom make the boat feel tippy. The initial stability is not great. Not everyone can get used to this and it is one of the reasons the Baidarka has got his notorious reputation.

Another reason for this reputation is that it is quite difficult to turn. The long straight keel with the deep V-bottom asks a lot of power and leaning to change direction. Edging helps but you have to edge much more than other boats for the same effect. Certainly more than you can expect from a novice paddler that already feels nervous because of the lack of stability...

But it is of course an excellent tracking boat. Directional stability is very good. Some people think that this is an argument for not having a vario skeg. This is a mistake. You certainly need a skeg to correct the weathercocking. As any well designed kayak it will luff in the wind and due to the hull design it is not easy to correct direction. Without a skeg you will have a hard time to fight the weather cocking. With a skeg however you can point the boat easily in any direction you want and it will stay on course like an oil tanker. I don't think there a other designs that can equal this.

If you are used to the stability, the hull shape makes indeed for a comfortable ride in all kinds of waves. It surfs well but you have to make enough speed to catch the wave. So it is a safe boat if you don't want to surf. If you are in a surf it is like sitting on a torpedo, very exciting. The buyant bow will not dig deep while surfing. Due to the excellent tracking it is possible to make long surfs but when it starts to break-out you better let it go and prepare for a brace. Correcting this long keeler is simply not an option. Best is to turn on a wave top. The Baidarka is not a play boat for in the surf or rock hopping. There are other boats for that. But it is a very good expedition boat.

To be able to control the boat it is very important to have a good seating position. The narrow, high deck is not ideal for good boat contact. You have to adjust it with some foam to find enough support for your legs to be able to edge and roll. My Dawn Treader Odin has a larger cockpit than the Baidarka. At first I thought that was a good idea for my long legs. It proved to be not such a good idea: I couldn't find enough support for my legs under both sides of the cockpit rim. In the Baidarka with ocean going cockpit I could at least put my knees under the deck.

The Baidarka has a clear "Swede" form: the widest point after the cockpit. Together with the narrow beam it could be a fast boat but there a lot of factors that determine the speed potential of a kayak. The deep V cross section and the extra "deadwood" (integral skeg for and aft) gives extra wetted surface that slows the boat down. Actually I don't know whether it is particulary fast or slow. 

Purchase of a sea kayak

The choice of which kayak to buy was easy. Earlier I owned a P&H Baidarka Explorer. It is not an easy kayak but after a short but steep learning curve I really have enjoyed this boat. So I searched the internet to find a used Baidarka for sale. There was a Dawn Treader Odin for sale very close to me. The P&H Dawn Treader Odin (quite a long name) is almost identically to the Baidarka Explorer. They share the same hull, however P&H removed the "tips" on the bow and tail, probably to make it look more modern. Actually I like the original design of the Baidarka more. There was another difference: the cockpit size is larger. On that moment I thought that was great and better than the ocean size cockpit of the Baidarka. The boat was in good original state, never repaired and cheap. So I bought it. Together with a used Lendal Nordkapp paddle that I also found on the internet I was ready to start for a new sea kayaking adventure...

Below an old photo of my previous owned Baidarka, note the non-standard day hatch, compass and foot pump which I had added myself.

And here a photo of the new Dawn Treader, original, with only a hand pump on the rear deck.