Storm Dennis arrives

This weekend the storm Dennis passed by. But first we had a swimming pool session on Friday. This time I took the Seajett, making it my first action with it. It soon became clear that I should do some adjustments on the seating position: the foot rest is too close in its far-most position but when removed the front bulkhead is too far away. Also the thigh braces proved to be too small, as my legs slips too easily out of them. These things made rolling more difficult and should be fixed for reliable rolling. With the Orion and Skarabee I had better swimming pool sessions. After the session it appeared that the front hatch was dry but the rear hatch had taken some water. Could be the skeg fitting but the rear bulkhead doesn't look very confident too. So, enough work to do on the Seajett, including the rudder.

The next day storm Dennis had starting to blow with a decent 5 Bft with gusts to 8 Bft. I made a trip to the other side of the lake Gooimeer from Almere to the beech of 'Oud Valkeveen'. With this wind and waves I took the Skarabee as I didn't want to take any risk with the Seajett yet. Seating in the Skarabee felt as comfortable as always and I never felt unsafe during the trip. It was hard working with my Greenland paddle against the gusts of wind. The Skarabee slammed sometimes on the waves, not very disturbing but a Baidarka would have done this much more elegant. After a while I finally came near the shore and out of the wind. I took a rest on the beach. Looking from there the water seems so quiet...

Resting on the luff side, no waves here...

The trip backwards was a lot quicker. I tried to surf as much as possible but the Skarabee was not very eager to take off. With the Explorer this trip would probably have been one exciting long surf but with the Skarabee it was up and down. I experimented with the skeg. Without the skeg the boat was indeed easier to correct. However, I was continuously busy with correcting and the Skarabee zig-zagged from left to right. With the skeg down it was a lot easier to stay on course but the boat still wants to break out sometimes, even when not in a surf. I got sweet memories of my Baidarka that tracked so much better in these conditions. On the end of the trip the waves became bigger and bigger and I had to take care not to ram the landing place. But with the skeg in I could control the surfing Skarabee to point it in the good direction.

After the trip I checked the average speed and that was a little dissapointing: against the wind 4,8 and before the wind only 7,8 km/h. With the NDK Explorer I would certainly have reached much above 8 km/h... The Skarabee is known as a fast boat but may be I am not strong enough to overcome the extra resistance of it's length and width. But with this wind I would have expected there was enough power to get it up to hull speed... I am curious how the Seajett will compare in this. We will see later.

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:

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

Rolling with the VKN Skarabee

Unfortunately I owned the NDK Explorer too short for taking it to one of our scheduled swimming pool sessions. So, the first action with the Skarabee was in the swimming pool for rolling exercises.

It was the first time after my test trip in December that I entered the Skarabee. Of course with high expectations of the seating position and stability. Well, the seat was now a bit wide and the back strap too loose but the thigh support was excellent. Stability was as reassuring as I remembered.

No problem with rolling happily. Also sculling seemed easier because the Skarabee proved to be stable on a side. Probably because of the high deck. Clearly better than the Orion that was more of a 'flip-flop' between up and down and that was more difficult to hold in position while sculling.

Downside of the high deck was however the impossibilty to do a re-entry via the aft deck. The hull is simply too high to climb on easily. And no place to fixate the paddle for making a paddle bridge: the deck lines are not in a position you can put a paddle under it. May be I can make some clamps for that. Well, then I have to rely on a 'wet-re-entry-and-roll', that did work quite well.

I used both the Greenland and the Euro paddle and found the GP easier for sculling and rolling. Another argument to keep using the GP.

Unfortunately the backrest fixation broke off where the strap is fixated to the sides of the seat... grrr, I thought this was such a high quality build boat... I am still thinking about a way to fix it without doing too much epoxy work.

Also, the keel strip must be replaced as it is broken on some places. Well, let's consider this as 'normal' maintanance. The good news is that all compartments appeared to be leak free after all the swimming.

NDK Explorer last trip

Last sunday we made a long trip and I enjoyed it very much. We paddled fast with periods above 8 km/h and the Explorer proved to be a fast boat again, so far so good. However after a few hours I noticed I had trouble placing my feet, the room seems just a bit too small for a comfortable position. And the tight fit under the knee braces seems to create a bit of tension in my legs. May be the HV version would have been a better fit for me? That evening it made me think and slowly it became clear what was bothering me the last weeks:

It was the memory of the Skarabee: it's seating position, it's stability and it's manouverability: all much better than the Explorer. And the Skarabee is at least as fast. The Explorer is certainly a good boat but after the Orion and Skarabee it seems to be a step back in some way. Despite it's stunning looks, it's speed and good reputation I never felt 'connected' to the Explorer. I was clearly infected by the Skarabee...

Then things went quick: the next day I sold the Explorer already to a club member and the next day I bought the Skarabee and I picked it up a day later...

A long car for a long boat