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.

Inuit Amarok

In the Netherlands there used to be some high-quality kayak builders e.g.VKN that built my Skarabee. Another one is Kanowerf Inuit Arnemuiden. Both yards are out of business for a long time now. From Rene I received an old prospect of the Inuit yard. I selected some sections about the most interesting boats: Inua and Amarok:

I was just curious and made an appointment to see an Amarok that was for sale. Actually I thought the Amarok may be a stable and maneuverable boat that could be ideal for short day trips and for giving instructions. When I arrived and had a look at the hull it appeared different as I had expected: the hull was round bottomed with a clear V-shape in the middle. The keel was straight from stem to stern. I tested it shortly on the water and indeed it wasn't so manoeverable at all. Primary stability was also not as firm as you would expect from a kayak with a large 60 cm beam. But because of these qualtities the boat feels like a real sea kayak. The end of story is that I took her home:

Upswept stem and stern

strong V and round shaped chines

straight keel

skeg slider and compass recess

Today I made a short trip of 12 km with her with some club members. I was especially interested to check the speed: would she be slower because of the shorter length? I didn't notice a difference compared with my other boats. Certainly no problem to keep up with the group and still some spare for an intermediate sprint. Stability was nice, I guess it must be very good in waves and troubled water due to her seaworthy hull shape. The only thing was that the skeg didn't operate very smoothly. And the front bulkhead was just a few centimeters too far away for good feet support.

Starting again

After a long hibernation I made a small trip this weekend. From IJburg to Pampus Island and back:

The first part was almost full against a firm Bft 4 wind. It took some effort and time to arrive at Pampus Island.

The isle is not open due to the Covid lockdown. Fortunately kayaks are allowed on the little beach.

After a rest enjoying the sun I went back. This was a lot easier and I took a surf so now and then.

The Legend sold

After a few trips with the Legend it became apparent that the inner space was quite limited. Especially my feet didn't have much space. Also entering and leaving the small cockpit wasn't very easy. Must have something to do with age... 

It took some months to get used to the idea that selling it would be the smarter choice. At least I still have the Shadow that does fit me better. After putting it for sale it was sold within a few hours to another club member.

Happily he uses a Greenland paddle too. So we will meet each other in our Nigel Foster boats with our Greenland sticks in future.

IJmeer wanderings

Last weekend I made some wanderings around IJburg and the lake IJmeer. I used the app from the KNRM www.knrmhelpt.nl (rescue organization) to be able to make a quick call in case of emergency. The app also tracks the route following my location with a time interval:

route tracked by the KNRM app

There was a lot of wind (5 Bft) blowing from the NW. The first part we paddled against the wind to campsite Zeeburg going through the protected waters of IJburg. I was never been there and nice to see some spots I've only had seen by car before. We took some coffee on the camping beach in a fresh sun.

at Zeeburg camping

After the break I splitted from the group because I wanted to feel the waves on the open water of the IJmeer in this wind. First I headed to Lighthouse Island and followed the coastline to the north. Then I crossed the IJmeer to Pampus Island, the wind has changed to the West and seemed to have decreased a bit.

large coffee

On Pampus Island I took a break for a large coffee. Stormy clouds were gathering and soon it started to rain. The last leg back to IJburg was almost fully against the increasing Western wind.

stormy clouds

The leakage of the cockpit rim of the Shadow is starting to become annoying. Especially now the water is getting colder I want that to be fixed soon. Apparently the filling with gelcoat didn't last a long time. A quick and safe solution may be made with a marine kit that stays flexible. Removing and re-glueing the entire cockpit rim seems quite riskful to me.

A trip from Enkhuizen

I had registred for a trip on the lake IJsselmeer last Sunday. The starting point was Enkhuizen. The planned destination was Laaxum, a small place near Stavoren on the opposite site of the IJsselmeer. Due to the strong wind in the morning the destination was changed to Wijdenes. So we didn't have to work against the strong wind. The wind would diminish during the day so this was a better route. 

Start at Enkhuizen

The first leg of the trip was the most spectacular with some nice waves. Soon we rounded Enkhuizen and went through the locks from the IJsselmeer to the Markermeer. To Wijdenes we could surf a little but the wind was already diminishing. We took a rest at a little beach at Wijdenes.

beach at Wijdenes

view to the South

view to the East

The way back was against the wind but as it was diminished it was no problem anymore. We went through the locks again and entered short the historic harbour of Enkhuizen. After rounding the coast we returned at our starting beach.
The other group members were all very seasoned paddlers that uses a variety of good sea kayaks. So there was someone with a Dawn Treader Odin, some Explorers, a Nordkapp etc. My Shadow did get some attention too. Also nice to see two other paddlers using a Greenland paddle.