A trip from IJburg to Pampus Island

Last weekend I visited another kayak club at IJburg: www.kanoopijburg.nl. I am considering to become a member there because it is situated directly at the lake IJmeer. And the travel time from home is about the same as to my kayak club at Almere Haven: www.aquavite.nl.

Originally I would do a trip to Terschelling Island but that had been canceled because the risk of too much wind (6 Bft). So I hoped for a strong wind on the IJmeer. We made a trip to Pampus Island. Starting from IJburg this is not that far, about 5 km. As I had hoped for a strong wind the 3 Bft was a bit disappointing. It was an easy and short trip with a long break. On the way back I could surf a bit, but the waves weren't very impressive.  

Landed on the tiny beach

Nice weather and view

First trip with the Legend with skeg

Last evening we made a trip to the lake IJmeer with our kayak club. I took the Legend, the first time after adding the rectractable skeg. Of course I was anxious to test the new skeg. Well it works, with a smooth operation I could easily trim the kayak on all courses in the wind (3-4Bft). So far so good!

Resting on the beach

It was nice paddling the Legend again. It has less room for my feet compared to the Shadow but the seating position is quite comfortable. It feels more sporty than the Shadow and I could make a lot of speed. I used the Lendal Seamaster paddle, a simple but useful paddle. After the trip I checked all compartments and no drop of water has entered. So happily no leaks at the new skegbox.

Evening sight on the lake IJmeer

Lendal Seamaster paddle

Last week I acquired a Lendal Seamaster spare paddle. My idea was to replace the Schlegel Ozean paddle as this is very heavy. The Lendal has a carbon shaft and is indeed much lighter. Just as the Schlegel the Lendal blades have a slim symmetrical shape that is not that different from a Greenland paddle. I changed the lock on the shaft so that I can paddle it with zero degrees blade twist to get the same feel as with a Greenland paddle.

Seamaster blade

Last evening we made a trip on lake Gooimeer to sail a bit and to try the Lendal Seamaster paddle. The first impression was that it is not as refined as my Greenland paddles. The entry did cause a lot of noice and spray. It was also more difficult to add a sidewards slide during the stroke. However after a while I get used to the paddle and the action improved quite a lot. The forward stroke is powerful enough, even with a simple straight stroke with body rotation. The light weight makes it comfortable to use. Strange was that the oval shape on the right side of the paddle did irritate my hand now. As the paddle is symmetrical I could happily use the paddle backwards where the shaft has the normal round shape. My first conclusion is that the Lendal Seamaster will be a useful spare paddle. It can be fitted on any boat. Especially on the Skarabee where the front deck is cluttered with sailing lines that makes it difficult to take a spare Greenland paddle on it.

Good fit on the Skarabee's rear deck

About the sailing: again we miscalculated the wind. The first part with the wind in our back the wind was almost gone and sailing did not help much. During our break however the wind increased but on the way back we had to go against it. I did sail to windward but the Skarabee has not that much lateral resistance causing some draft. I did make progress (sog) but not as much as the non-sailing members of the group. So I lowered the sail and paddled the last leg home in the dark.

Evening on the Gooimeer

Fitting a retractable skeg to the Legend, part 2

It took some time as there were a lot of other things to do but the Legend was still waiting to be completed. First the fixation of the skeg box was further completed and reinforced with glass tape. The final result is smooth and hopefully strong enough.

final internal result

The skeg cable was inserted and the slider box fixated next to the cockpit.

Then the most difficult part started: closing the rear deck again. I laminated some glass strips and glued them under the rim to support the deck on.

adding glas/polyester support strips

It took a long time to shave and sand the strips and the bottom of the deck to got the deck level on the strips. Then I glued the deck on the strips with polyester resin. 

after first fixation

I reamed the split to receive the yellow gelcoat. I used topcoat: gelcoat with paraffine that dries in the air. I mixed the gelcoat with some pigments to get the right yellow color. After applying it proved to be a shade too light. Well, I can live with that.

applying last layer of gelcoat

Then a lot of sanding and polishing resulted in a smooth surface. The original gelcoat had darkened quite a bit during the years. So on spots where I did a lot of sanding the color became less dark resulting in some shades of yellow. Well, I don't think it will be very notable.

final result

For now I want to finish the Legend as soon as possible. I will have to add deck lines yet, fix the backrest and add some thigh braces...

final result

A trip with the Skarabee and Falcon sail

Last sunday me and Leen went for a kayak sailing trip. Leen has a Flat Earth sail and both of us are the only members with sails at our kayak club. The wind was a promising 5 to 6 Bft. 

Before the trip I fastened the stays as these proved to be too loose on my last sailing trip, already some months ago. We started with a beam wind. Unfortunately when the wind began to push hard my mast collapsed again to leeside. Well, the circumstances were quite nice to paddle so I stored the sail on deck and enjoyed the waves that were surprisingly high due to the Northern wind. 

Leen however was still sailing. His sail was pushed almost flat but it didn't collapse. However, I could keep up with him so the sail didn't add much for speed. 

After a while I decided to do a new attempt: I hoisted the sail again and pulled the forestay with all my force... too much as the mast collapsed to the front. This became an awkward situation as I wasn't able to retrieve the sail on deck. The only way to do this was to remove the backstays or to push the mast back again with some force. The mast with sail, partly submerged, acted as a skeg causing the Skarabee to put the bow in the wind. Well, that's safe of course but not the direction I wanted to go. I asked Leen for help and he was able to get the sail out of the water. He had to store his own sail to be able to come near me and after that he didn't want to take the risk to hoist his sail again. So we paddled to isle Schelp. There I fastened the backstays even stronger to prevent this would happen again.

We don't often have strong Northern winds and I was anxious to check the waves near isle Hooft. So I headed in that direction and Leen returned home, trying to sail some more. As I was alone now I didn't want to take the risk to sail anymore with the strong wind. So the rest of the trip was only by paddle.

I was now heading partly and fully into the wind and it took some time to arrive at the shelter of Marina Muiderzand which kept me out of the wind for a short break. I checked the weather for lightning but it was okay. So I started the crossing to isle Hooft. This resulted in a sort of 'traving' course: the Skarabee was pushed sideways a lot and it wouldn't weathercock further than 45 degrees into the wind. When the wind diminshed I could point it a little higher but with some strong gusts the bow was swept back again. The waves were high, higher than I have seen here before. Well, here we see the limitations of the Skarabee when paddled empty, too much windage and with a low speed the boat is not weathercocking enough anymore. For now it wasn't a problem as the course brought me directly to the isle Hooft so I didn't fight the Skarabee to get more into the wind. But this could be a possible hazardous situation.

I wanted to paddle around the isle Hooft in a clockwise direction. After leaving the shelter I was almost hitting the rocks on the north side because of the windage when turning the Skarabee to the right. I should have taken a wider turn. But soon I was riding the big waves. Some nice surfs but still the Skarabee wasn't eager to surf. Here I missed the Shadow...

I let myself blown homewards. Unfortunately I had to paddle the last leg partly against the wind but the wind seemed to be decreased a bit. I felt never unsafe in the Skarabee and had no problems in dealing with the sail in this kind of waves.

the route

Vlieland training week

Last week I was on Vlieland isle for a sea kayak training camp with www.zeekajak.nl. As planned I took the Shadow with both Greenland paddles.

Shadow with both Greenland paddles on deck

The Shadow convinced me this week that it is a good sea kayak. It was comfortable in all kind of waves, and very controllable, also in a surf. The day hatch kept dry but the cockpit rim did leak a drop or so. Another member owned a Silhouette (the smallest version in the Silhouette - Legend - Shadow range). She told me she had completely removed the cockpit rim because it was only fixed on three spots with polyester, the remaining rim was filled with kit... Could be the same as with my Shadow. May be I should do such a drastic repair too.

Rest at high water on the Wadden Sea

I received many comments on my pair of Greenland paddles, mostly positive. For me they did a good job during the week, never missed a Euro paddle. They proved to be large enough for making strong low and high braces in the surf, a situation I couldn't test on my home waters. The only remark is that it is more difficult to paddle in very shallow water as you have to paddle at a very low angle to prevent the blades touching the bottom.

In front of the coast of Terschelling isle

It was a nice week with varying activities. We made a few longer trips, played in tidal races and surfs and did a lot of exercises like rescueing, reentry and roll and all kind of techniques.

Wide views

With the Shadow to Pampus isle

Today we made a trip to Pampus isle of about 24 km with a wind 3 to 4 Bft. Very nice weather.

rest at Pampus isle

We also did some rolling and rescue excercises. The day compartment stayed completely dry now as I had fixed the leakage with some epoxy and fibers last week. Happily as I want to take the Shadow to Vlieland isle next saturday.