Goodby Seajett, welcome to Legend and Shadow

As I was looking for a new real sea kayak, see previous post, I've got an option to trade in the Seajett. The Seajett proved to be a nice boat to paddle but now as I want to start with kayak sailing and want a real sea kayak there is no need for a third boat. Besides, adding a rudder appeared more difficult because the front deck is not high enough to put my feet in a vertical position for operating the rudder pedals. May be I can fix the rudder to the Skarabee.

So I traded in the Seajett in favor of a Nigel Foster Shadow sea kayak. This is not a very common boat and I couldn't find much information on the internet. It has an intriguing hull shape with hard chines. The Shadow is the larger, more stable version of the Legend.

In the same time a Legend caught my eye and to make a long story short: on the end of the day I was a proud owner of two Nigel Foster kayaks: a Legend and a Shadow. I couldn't test both kayaks and to overcome my doubts on which model would be best for me I decided to take both. After some time I can always sell one. Or keep both, the Legend for more sporty trips and the Shadow for expeditions. Well, at least that is how I expect how these kayaks will perform on this moment.

yellow Legend, blue Shadow

Both kayaks have the same length but the Shadow has a larger beam. The aft decks have similar height but the Shadow has a higher front deck. My Shadow has a larger cockpit, unfortunately not long enough to pull up my legs when seated. The Legend has a smaller cockpit, about the same size as the Orion. Both need some padding for knee and/or thigh support.

the Shadow has a larger cockpit

The underwater hull shape is quite similar: a rounded shape between hard chines. A typical Nigel Foster design feature. The Shadow has some flat spot in the bottom where the Legend keeps the rounded shape to the full length. Together with the larger beam this would make the Shadow much more stable than the Legend. Both primary and secundary stability.

Legend left, Shadow right

Both kayaks needs some work to be ready for paddling. The Shadow is in good condition but the skeg operating knop needs to be fixated. The Legend seems older and needs more work. It has no vario skeg and there is a fixed skeg glued on. I want to test first but I expect that this skeg should be removed and probably replaced by a retractable skeg. Happily the rear hatch is big enough for making repairs within the aft compartment. The Legend does not have a backrest and also no points to fix a backstrap to. I can probably make a backstrap in the same way as I did with the Skarabee: around the sides of the seat. I am very curious how these Nigel Foster kayaks perform...

A sunny trip with the Seajett

Another sunny day this weekend and I made the same trip as last week. But now I took the Seajett and the Epic Active Touring paddle. I didn't have speed measurements with the Seajett yet so I was curious about the results. The weather was about the same as last week: wind 4 (to 5) Bft but from an other direction. Despite all the plans to add a rudder to the Seajett, nothing has been done so far. I did however reduce the size of the skeg so that it fits in the housing. And I altered the mechanism by shortening the operation knob so that the skeg has a larger swing.

The changed skeg configuration became obvious on the water: with the skeg up the boat went from left to right and I couldn't control it enough to go straight forward. So I always let the skeg partly down, even against the wind. Furthermore the skeg proved to be sufficient to prevent weathercocking in all directions. So with this new skeg configuration the handling performance was not decreased and the gain is that the skeg can be withdrawn completely in the hull.

The dynamic behaviour in waves is very good. The Seajett never slams on the wave, it smoothly goes through it. Stability in all kind of waves, also from aside, is excellent. However, it tracks not very good in waves, you need to do a lot of corrections to hold the Seajett on the desired course. Happily it is easy to correct but this can become tiresome on long trips. Of course when you have a rudder the corrections may be easier. However, you will be continuous busy with the rudder. May be this can become an automatism... else it would become tiresome also. If you zoom in the track you see the winding, not very straight line:

The wind was South East, so on the first part I had the wind from aside and a bit behind, the second part the wind was pushing me in the back. So, a good recipe for high speeds. However, the recorded average of 7,7 km/h is a little disappointing then.

The way back with the wind fully and partly against me the average speed was 5,6 km/h which is not surprising.

Rest time on isle t Hooft

After returning there was a unpleasant surprise. When carrying the kayak out the water I heard the water sloshing within both compartments. A few drops may be acceptable but there were liters of water in both. At the boat house I filled both compartments with water and watch where the leaks are.
With the boat in normal position there were no leaks. However when the kayak was turned upside down the cause of the leaking was quickly discovered: both hatches leak. Apparantly the rubber lids do not close well enough. Strange, as these should have the correct size for this type. They are KajakSport lids expecially for the VCP small hatch size. And they do have a thight fit. The rims under the hatch rings seem allright too. The next trip I will try to temporary fit some original VCP lids...

First trip with the Seajett

Last Sunday we went with six Aquavite members on to the lake 'Gooimeer'. The wind was a strong 5Bft decreasing to 4Bft. That afternoon there was a hypothermed paddler rescued from the lake 'IJmeer' about 10 miles from our location: https://www.knrm.nl/nieuws/onderkoelde-kajakker-gered-uit-ijmeer. But when we started our trip we didn't know that yet. We planned our trip to the isle 'Schelp' straight against the wind. However, when we left the protected bay and entered the full wind and waves two members indicated they were not fit or save enough to make the crossing under these circumstances. So we returned to the protected bay and played around there. We made some short trips outside the shelter heading into the wind and surfed back again. When the wind decreases we made some short trips on the lake. Good conditions to get an impression of the Seajett on open water after my first experience in the swimming pool.

The maneuverability is excellent without skeg. That the skeg is not lifting complete into the hull is apparently not an issue. There is no need to edge the boat to make a turn. I even had to pay attention to paddle in a straight line. With skeg down it's maneuverability diminishes dramatically to the level of a traditional sea kayak. That's a pity but of course expected behaviour of the skeg. As expected the Seajett was very prone to weathercocking but this was easily resolved by using the skeg. Stability was good, may be not as assuring as the Skarabee but never a problem to me.

In the waves one thing surprised me: The bow hardly rises on the waves, it just penetrates the wave burrying itself into a lot of water. But it happened very smooth and the boat seemed not to slow down. It made me think the Seajett is certainly not a real traditional sea kayak but may resemble more the fast racing sea kayaks of today which behave in the same way. Or is the Seajett just a flat water boat and not a sea kayak at all? Happily when surfing, the bow did not burry itself too much.

The Seajett is certainly a better surfer than the Skarabee and may be on the same level as the NDK Explorer, but that is hard to compare. Surfing without skeg is possible as the boat is good to control when it broaches. Better controllable than the Skarabee anyway. With skeg down it doesn't break out too soon but it will do sometimes. With the skeg down it is not easy to control anymore of course. With a rudder the Seajett would probably be an excellent downwind surfer. I have to make time then for adding the rudder...

After the trip I checked both compartments and unfortunately both had taken in some water. There was no water in the cockpit so I can exclude de bulkheads from being leaky.

Gumotex rudder kit

A trip to the kayak shop was needed for two new rubber lids and a new back strap. In the shop I explored some options to fit a rudder to the seajett. I found a complete kit from Gumotex: www.kajak.nl/roerkit-seawave, originally made to fit a Gumotex Seawave kayak. 

Gumotex rudder kit

The quality of the parts seems good and with some adjustments the endplate that holds the rudder pin could be fixed to the rounded tail of the Seajett. The steering pads could be fitted on top of the footrest plate in the Seajett:

Foot rest steering pads

I took the kit home (it was almost more expensive than the Seajett...) and I took the parts to the boat to check my ideas. Everything looks allright. To get the steering lines through the hull seems to be the most challenging part.

Rudder kit parts

Eagle Seajett

There is a kayak design that I have always admired: the Seajett. Firstly made by Stip Yaks and later by Eagle. The design is special because it has a rounded stern, not pointed:

Eagle Seajett

The theory is that this shape will help prevent squatting, and so reducing wavemaking resistance. This shape is actually quite common on sailing yachts and other bigger boats. The experience of some Seajett paddlers seem to confirm it's speed. But also that it needs a lot of skeg to prevent weathercocking which is explainable as the stern is rounded below the waterline and does not have much lateral resistance. For this reason I think the Seajett could be a good candidate for a rudder.

Stip Yaks Seajett

So when I encountered a cheap Seajett on the internet I decided to buy it. It is an Eagle, almost new, or better: not used very much. Eagle kayaks are considered to be good value for the money but the build quality is not outstanding. I hope it will be sufficient for my intended use: making day trips on the lake at the kayak club. I will not use it on sea or with lots of luggage. At home it appeared that both original VCP rubber lids had been teared during the car trip. They looked nice before but were probably dried out too much. The second setback was that the skeg appeared to be not fully retractable. Even after modifying the operating mechanism the undeep skegbox prevents the skeg to disappear fully into the hull. On the water this will probably not be a real problem as the boat needs a lot of skeg but it makes it more vulnerable during landing and onshore. I know that the Stip Yaks version does not have this 'problem' so I am a bit disappointed in the Eagle then. May be I had better searched for a Stip Yaks Seajett. The sprayskirt is also not very good and the backrest needs to be changed also... But I am curious to paddle it and to test it's behaviour and speed.

This is my Eagle Seajett: