Fast and Light

A few months ago I took the Nemo on a fast and
light kayak camping trip. Since then I’ve started to think a bit more
about honing down my gear and apply backpacking’s ultralight concepts
to my paddle camping trips.You can read all about that on the CPA
website.

In this entry, I’ll detail the camping gear I used
and how it worked out. But first, why do even do ultralight when kayaks
have a near endless amount of storage space when compared to a
backpack? I can think ofthree good reasons:

1. Less to schlep up and down the beach every morning.


2. A lighter boat is easier to paddle and more responsive


3. Less time spent packing, unpacking and setting up camp means more
   time to enjoy the scenery, take a hike, cook a yummy dinner or whatever
   your favorite camp activity.

So I set out to lighten the load. Following is the list of gear I
used
on the trip with weights and comments.

Sleep system:

• MSR Hubba Tent and ground sheet, 3 lbs 4 oz, Worked like a champ.
  I was snug and warm despite temps in the 20s that night. The tent is
  tight so gear needs to go under the smallish vestibules or back in the
  boat.


• Sawtooth Long and stuff sack, 4 lbs, This is my down winterbag.
  It was heavy but worth the weight. I’d like to get a smaller, lighter
  bag for summer.


• Pro-lite 4 Regular, 1 lbs 8 oz, Worth every ounce.


• Pacific Outdoor Insulmat, 1 lb 6 oz, I know two pads? But when
  its going


• to be 20 degrees I opted for it anyway.


• Thermolite bag, 8.1 oz, This is a liner I use. It adds a bit of
  warmth but


• most importantly it helps take up space in the long sleeping bag
  to keep my


• feet warm

Kitchen:

• Gigapower Stove, 3 oz, Great little stove for boiling water.


• Snow peak 700 mug,4.8 oz, Main pot for boiling water.


• Titanium Mug, 2.8 oz, Coffee!


• Bunch of aluminum foil, 1 oz, Really helps to wrap the
  Mountainhouse meals


• in. Keeps the heat in the food rehydrating.


• Lexan knife, fork, spoon 1.6 oz, Does it all.


• 2 small fuel canisters, 7 oz, Fit inside the snowpeak much along
  with the


• stove.

CampClothes:

• Patagonia Mid-weight bottoms, 6.5 oz, Went with mid-weight which
  is lighter than I would normally take in these conditions but since I
  had the puffy pants risked it.


• Patagonia Long sleeve silk weight T, 4 oz, Good under the wool
  and doubledas a paddle shirt under by drysuit on day 2.


• Patagonia Wool 3 top, 6 oz, Better warmth to weight than my polar
  fleece stuff.


• Integral designs PLQ primaloft pant, 8.6 oz, and Moonstone Cirrus
  primaloft jacket, 14 oz, The pants are new and I highly recommend them.
  They are “puffy” like the jacket and incredibly warm. Great as part of
  a sleep system. Combined with my jacket and over base layers I was
  toasty even when the temperate hovered in the low 30’s.


• Hat, gloves, socks, 8 oz.


• Crocs, 7.5 oz, The perfect camp shoe.


• Full set rain gear, 3 lbs, Patagonia Supercell jacket and Rapid
  Style pants. I never took them out of the bag. For spring trips where I
  wasn’t in a drysuit but had a paddle jacket I would just bring that to
  double as paddle splash wear and rain wear.

Misc gear:

• Tikka XP headlamp, 3 oz, The one light was all I needed
  and a space saver over what I regularly take. I did have a small light
  on my PFD so there was some redundance in case one died.


• Optio W20 Camera,1 lb.


• Crazy Creek, 1 lb 10 oz, Pure luxury but in a kayak worth every
  ounce.


• Toiletries etc, 1 lbs, Toothbrush, Toothpaste, soap, sunscreen,
  notebook


• pen, etc.

Food:

• 3 lbs. This was a quick two day trip so food was minimal. Apples,
  cheese, powerbars, oatmeal, 1 mountainhouse meal, bread, snap
  peas,chocolate, coffee.

Grand Total, 25 lbs 4 oz.

All in all I felt that was pretty good. I could
definitely trim some weight from my sleeping system by ditching the
heavy Sawtooth sleeping bag and sticking with one sleeping pad instead
of two. The other big place to save weight is on therain gear since
this was basically duplicating the protection I could have gotten on
land by wearing my drysuit.

Of course I still had all the usual paddling gear
– PFD and attachments (knife, towbelt, light, compass, vhf, chapstick,
flares) and the boat, paddle, pump, sponge, drysuit,first aid kit, so
enabled me to skimp on the camping gear.

I’d love to try this again sometime during the
warmer months and see if I could get it even lighter!

The Greenland Bug Cont. (Pt. 9)

Only one month has past since my last posting. The boat is finally done. In fact it was done not long after the past posting was completed.

Since the weather has been cold lately, most of the final work was done inside in the back room. By the time I got to the final coat of varnish, I was getting much better as applying it fine and even with a two inch foam brush. It went on easily and needed little sanding. I believe that on a relatively warm day, after taking the boat outside again, I sanded the outside all over with 220 grit paper and then with 600 grit wetted paper. It took a lot of wiping and rinsing to get the wet finish done, but by that time it looked like a smooth matt finish.

Deck surface after a wet sanding.

The day hatch installed.

Now I started to concentrate on fitting the deck additions. I decided that I should put the day hatch in at this point, and I would wax around it. It went in easily with six bolts and locking nuts. The bow deck line, which holds the end of the paddle in place was faily easy to pass through the designed hole and to tie off. I cut it to an estimated length and re-tied it around the cedar bead that I had finished some time ago. I then finished the fore deck block which threads through the three deck lines, and came up with an idea for attaching the line with as little protrusions inside the boat as possible. Instead of tying off the line into a knot inside the hull, I fed the line trough a large plastic washer and melted the end into a slightly spread out disk which would not pass back though the hole in the washer. I did this on one end, threaded the line through the deck holes and the block and then carefully did it again at the other end (sort of which cramped insode the boat). I left the static line a little loose. It is just snug if both the paddle and the norsaq are under the line. If only one or none are under the line, it appears to be a little loose. I have yet to see how this holds up under continuous use.

Deck lines installed.

With all that done, it was time to wax. The last step. I then took a friend's power waxer and applied about three coats of outdoor wax, buffed down between each coat. This did not take long. Maybe a couple of days, allowing some time between coatings to let the wax dry.

Waxing.

As for the fittings inside of the boat; I have completed the carving of a double height layer of four inch thick closed cell foam into a curved back support. I glued two layers together with neoprene cement and then kept carving and refitting for a couple of days, until I was happy with it. It slides in and out with some effort and sticks out into the cockpit area by about three inches. I cannot decide what to do for the foot support. I know that sometimes I will not want to have a support for rolling, and at other times I will. For now, I am just sticking in some foam pieces which came with an old Wavesport boat. Hopefully it will sort itself out later. Also, I am unsure about hip pads. Originally I had thought I would make some small pads to rest against under the lip of the cockpit, but now I am not sure. For now I have two one in thick squares that just squeeze in that area, and again I will figure it out as I use the boat more, I hope.

Roughing out the back support block.

Back support block finished and installed.

So I waxed the boat and waxed the boat. After three coatings of wax, the boat was so slippery that I could barely carry it without fear of it slipping away from me like a banna popping out of its skin. It reminded me of the Tim Taylor "Tool Time" episode where he waxes the new dance floor so much that when the first person steps onto it, they slip and break their leg.

Super waxed.

The waxed surface of the boat is shiny and slightly darker than the bare epoxied wood. It is very smooth, although if you look close enough, you can find some varnish waves that I just did not care to try to sand completely out.

The Greenland Bug Cont. (Pt. 8)

Well, this time it has been two months since the last update on the new kayak, and lots has happened in that time.

I believe I left off last time at the end of October as I had just glassed the cockpit coaming on. As I recall the weather was just starting to swing over to the colder temperatures about that time. I spent quite some time doing my final sanding all over the exterior of the boat. To say this 'took quite some time' is an understatment. I was as thorough as I could tolerate being. The boat has many spots where the previous gel coats were uneven or wavy, and I sanded and sanded these areas to get them as smooth as possible. I did sand so much as to go into the glass in a couple of spots. But I figured that I was not building this boat for strength, nor for sheer beauty. I want a Greenland Rolling boat.

As the sanding went on, I also cut the hole for the day hatch. The day hatch will be placed to the left rear of the cockpit. It will be pretty close to flush to the deck. The hatch is an Ocean Kayak sit-upon style after-market hatch. About six inches across, having a screw off black plastic access lid with a sack of about a gallon in size underneath. It will make for access into the rear of the boat when necessary as well as storage for the few things I will take while in the boat.

The day hatch hole (although after a varnish layer).

The deck lines will be a 1/4 in static line from REI which is red with black threads through it. I will make a loop though the bow tube, which is about two feet from the bow point and an inch below the sheer. The loop will hold a wooden cedar marble on top of the deck (already completed from a scrap piece of cedar, formerly a picnic table) and will hold the paddle onto the deck when not in use. I drilled two sets of three holes to accept the same line through the front deck just fore of the cockpit. The holes are one inch from the sheer edges and four inches apart each. They start about four inches in front of the cockpit coaming. I am finishing a 1x1/2x4 inch cedar block drilled through with three holes that will be placed amongst the three parallel lines on the fore deck, with each line passing through a separate hole in the block. This will allow a tightening of the deck lines and will hold the near end of the paddle to the deck when not in use, as well as the norsaq or throwing stick (aka. rolling stick).

The bow deck-line hole.

Three fore deck holes and unfinished spacer block (also after a varnish layer).

Having finished sanding the complete boat inside and out, and having finished all alterations to the deck with the holes, I started to put on the final layer of gel. By this time, it was into November and I was having to wait for decent weather predictions to avoid both rain and nights that got below fifty degrees. The final coat of gel went on in two sections, the deck and the hull. If I remember correctly, while waiting for the weather to provide a good window of opportunity, I got fed up and moved the boat into the back room of the house for a week to do the final coat. I recall being impatient, turning the boat over after the hull had dried sufficiently and instead of simply going straight to painting the deck, I took a piece of sandpaper to the very edges of the sheer. I recall that I was trying to taper and smooth the edges of the final layer as it encroached around the sheer edges. Since the gel was still a little soft, the sanding was a disaster. The gel just balled up on the sand paper and turned white. I did my best to finish what I had started and get rid of the white edges, but if you look closely now, they are still there. But that is what makes a home-made boat interesting. I will smile the first time that someone asks me if I made any mistakes while working on the boat, and I will point out these minor blemishes as my scars of many hours of labor.

Anyway, after the final gel coat dried, I took the boat back outside and started sanding again. This took weeks. I remember people asking me where I was on the boat, and I would keep repeating that I was still sanding. Again I sanded and sanded to get the gel smooth and free of the pits that form from an average coat of gel. Eventually I was satisfied with my sanding. I went out to buy varnish. I ended up buying a quart of West Marine basic varnish. It seemed to have just as much UV protection as the rest and offered drying times down to fifty degrees. I knew that even if I varnished inside, I would be facing below sixty temperatures overnight as the winter came on.

Meanwhile. I ordered some more neoprene. I ordered a sheet of 3mm red double sided (N2S) from Aleeda Wetsuits. This will become my tuilik. I also ordered black N1S which I will use for the edging which makes contct with the coaming as well as the edges of the tuilik hood where it makes contact with skin. Then I went to Sweets Composites in Brookmont and got some Neoprene cement, 5/16 inch bungee cord, steel bungee clips, and Melco seam tape. While I was thinking about how I would do the varnishing of the boat, I cut up the original sheet of neoprene from Nelson and created a Greenland Style skirt. I say it is Greenland Style, since the base of the skirt is essentially like the base of a tuilik . There is no tunnel and deck, it is all one piece. A big floppy skirt. I cut the pattern which I talked about earlier (the one derived from Peterson) and glued a strip of N1S onto the bottom edge of the one large piece of skirt neoprene. Then I started blind stitching the seam of the skirt that would bring the one piece together into a tube-like shape. After blind stitching, I cemented this edge. Next I flipped up the N1S into a tube for the bungee, with the rubber side of the neoprene outward. After threading the bungee, I tried it on the cockpit. It fit like a charm, so I clipped the bungee together permanently, sealed up the final edge of the bungee tube and welded in a red pull loop with neoprene cement. As a final measure, I applied Melco seam tape to the outside of the blind stitched seam and around the top of the tunnel. No extra stitching seems to be necessary to hold the tape in place, only ironing. Now the skirt looks very professional. If it had an iron on logo, you would swear I bought it somewhere.

The Finished Greenland-Style Skirt.

Skirt pull loop.

Blind-Stitching.

Melco Tape on seam and top of tunnel.

Finally I was ready to try my hand at varnishing. This was less than two weeks ago. I brought the boat back inside, made sure that everything was covered, the room was as sealed off as possible from the rest of the house, and really clean. I cleaned the hull of the boat many times over with rubbing alcohol and paper towels, bought disposable foam two inch brushes and got everything else I could imagine ready. Eventually I started the hull. To my surprise, the varnish went on really easy and really fast. I did a very thin layer using only the foam brush. I was satisfied with the way the foam brush worked and never used a bristle brush to finish it. I completed the hull, then the inside of the cockpit, then the deck and the coaming. After it was all done, I could tell that where I was not really careful in my inspection of the progress, there were light spots where the varnish was too thin. I hope that as I work towards my three coats of varnish I will get better at spotting the light spots before completing the coat.

Starting the varnish.

After the varnish had dried for a few days, I started sanding again. This time it was quicker, although the varnish goes through lots of sand paper. I used only 220 grip paper. On the second coat I think I will try using green scotch brite pads before the sand paper to start roughing it up ahead of time. A light sanding smooth and back for another layer of varnish. To keep the varnish in the original can contaminate free, I had poured some into a jar to work from. While waiting out the first coat to dry and to be sanded, the stuff in the jar started coagulating. Before I gave up and threw it away, I had started painting with it and it left a few lumpyspots on the second coat on the hull. Hopefully these will sand out before the last coat, where I will have to be extra-super careful.

This is where I am now. Halfway through coat two of three varnish coats. One skirt completed, one tuilik to go. Some of the internal fit kit started out of closed cell foam, and most of the deck fitting completed too. Pool sessions start in five days. Perhaps the boat will be completed in two or three weeks and then the fun will start!

Happy Holidays

This year Dave and I opted to stay home over the holidays. But that didn't mean we didn't get out on the water! We managed to squeeze four days of paddling into the last week along with two hikes, a trip to the gym and a run. Not bad for the "off" season.

Sunday began my week off with a Christmas Eve Eve paddle and potluck. The forecast wasn't looking good -- warm in the 50s but with a thunderstorm heading our way and winds around 20 MPH with gusts higher. Nevertheless, Tom, Page, Gina, Brian, Nelson, Caroline, Jesse, Dave and I all showed up at Gravelly Point. We looked at the water while listening to the VHF for a time. Jesse, Caroline, and Tom all decided to skip the paddle. They would meet us back our house for dinner. The rest of us suited up. We battled a fierce headwind down past the airport as the clouds grew darker to the west. Once turned back toward the launch we surfed the small waves and made excellent time. Unfortunately the sky broke loose just as we got back which meant loading boats in the rain.

On Christmas Dave and I had better weather for our paddle. We launched from Jacks and enjoyed sunny skies and temps in the low 50s. Even the wildlife seemed to be enjoying the the day and we saw many herons, a kingfisher, and a deer basking in the sunshine.

Thursday we had the last POG paddle of 2007. Since many of us had "flexible" schedules we opted to paddle in daylight meeting at 3 pm instead of our usual six. Again we had a great paddle up to the whitewater of little falls.

Saturday we joined Marshall for his final Eastern Neck trip. 10 miles in 4 hours it was obviously not about speed! This was a paddle purely for pleasure. We enjoyed the company of our friends, ogled the bald eagles and kept a lookout for the illusive tundra swans.

All in all, not a bad way to end the year.

The Greenland Bug Cont. (Pt. 7)

Once again two weeks has gone by and I can't say there has been a lot to report in progress. Although the progress that has been made is exciting! Here is what is happening...

Two weeks ago, I was still dealing with days hot enough to make the epoxy harden faster than expected. We were still in our record stretch of 34 days without rain in Washington D.C. Then just like the weather around here, we go from dry to 5 days straight of rain. Everything was wet, and I chose not to even try to work in the humidity. After the rain stopped, we started to get days in the 50's and 60's. Now my epoxy takes longer to harden than expected.

Before the deluge, I had just managed to practice laying out the twelve pieces that would make up the cockpit rim and then finally epoxied them in place when I was finally satisfied that they were trimmed enough and fit together well.

A gell sandwich with 3 layers of wood for the coaming riser.

Lots of clamps are needed to get all 12 pieces to stay in place.

Coaming rim temporarily clamped in place.

It was certainly exciting to see the coaming come together. I was so excited, that I started asking people where to buy neoprene and started working on a spray skirt and a tuilik design. I read every article that I could find about making a spray skirt or tuilik. I read about the Cunningham design to make them out of nylon/gortex. I found the Qajaq USA article by Shawn Baker, as well as the Qajak USA tuilik pattern. And I found a design created by Sweet Composites (Davey H. perhaps?).

I read these and regurgitated an idea for starting on a spray skirt. After talking to Nelson L. about my design, he very coily said that he had already gone through all these same ideas and made the skirt too. Wow! He has loaned me the skirt and his pattern. So I took what he had accomplished and progressed from there.

Nelson's spray skirt taking a test fitting.

Meanwhile the weather cleared up enough a couple of days ago to finally epoxy the cockpit coaming in place. Now I will need to start sanding again to prepare for the last of the fiberglass which will go onto the bottom and sides of the hull.

Final sheer height...to-be.

It was also a good time to look again at the dimensions of the boat. Notice that the dimensions are pretty close to what I started out saying I would do. And then compare them to my next smallest Greenland-like boat, the Outer Island. The new boat is at least two inches less all around. I do not know if this is absolutely as small as I would ideally like, but it should be fun!

Final deck height...to-be.

Outer Island sheer height.

Outer Island deck height.

Finishing up work on the coaming rim.

Patterns for a tuilik and a spray skirt.

One half of my modified greeland spray skirt.

From the one sheet of neoprene that Nelson was so kind to have sold me, it is plain to see that I will not be able to cut both a skirt and a tuilik. So I will make the tuilik from the black N2S 3mm neoprene, and add some N1S for the coaming rim edge as well as some Neoprene tape for the seams. Then I will buy a colored sheet of Neoprene to do the tuilik. Somehow I am resisting the black color for the tuilik. So many people are doing black as their style; Dubside, Freya, ... I think I will go for something more absurd. Maybe I can get some red N2S. I can tip my paddle in red epoxy and be matching.

The work comtinues.

The Greenland Bug Cont. (Pt. 6)

Just over a week has passed. I am on the home stretch on the boat, so to speak. At least I would like to think I am. Last week I glassed the bottom of the hull with one long piece of 4 oz. fiberglass and epoxy. And then as soon as I was satisfied with it, we had a freak rain shower on Fairfax for less than 30 minutes. I scrambled frantically to get a tarp hung over the boat so that no random drip of water would get onto the fresh gel coat. None did. Whew! The next day I trimmed and sanded the fiberglass just to the edge of the chine.

Fiberglass on the bottom hull.

Fiberglass edge trimmed and sanded.

Nothing was done again for a week, since I went to New York with Cyndi to watch her race. Read her blog just before this one to learn about that trip. I did not race. Although I won fastest kayaker at Delmarva the weekend before. I rolled more times in 30 seconds than anyone else. Whoo Hoo! My style of going fast

Yesterday I got back on track and laid 2 oz. fiberglass in two pieces onto the deck. The stern half went on easily, but the bow half was tricky. The bow of the deck made the glass buckle in a couple of places, leaving an uneven ripple which I will need to sand down smooth before I do the final epoxy coating. I decide to skip a couple of steps, specifically adding more epoxy between already dry coats of fiberglass and epoxy. I will not need the strength, and perhaps it will save on weight a little. I even tried to cut out enough 2 oz. fiberglass from that provided to do both the deck and the last layer on the hull bottom and sides, but there was just not enough. I will end up putting one more layer of 4 oz. glass on the hull bottom and sides sometime next week I hope.

Fiberglass on the deck being sanded.

A couple of days ago, I pulled down the old slalom boat and gutted it of all its fittings. I gave it a good cleaning and then decided to take it out for a test. I put only the seat back in. I tried all kinds of rolls; lay backs, forward finishing, had rolls, norsaq rolls, paddle rolls, etc. I found that the round shape of the hull made for excellent initiating of the rolls. I would bet that the light weight and short length helped too. The paddle rolls such as the shotgun, reverse sweep, spine roll and even the behind the back roll worked like a charm. The small back deck allowed me to complete a behind the back where my Outer Island back deck always gets in the way and prevents me from completing the roll.

Having said those good things for the boat, I need to add that it was simply too wide. It was twenty three inched wide and about eight inches deep behind the cockpit. The width was not so bad alone, but the seat width was at least three to four inches away from the true side sheer on each side. This made the effect that when trying to do a balance brace, it was impossible to keep the boat upright, and hand and norsaq rolls finishing on the front deck were hard to get past the counter buoyancy of that submerged for inches below my hip. Conclusion; good hull shape, but lousy width and body position. Maybe I should try it again without the seat in it.

So back to the new boat. The next step is to build the cockpit rim. Here is a photo of the final top layer in place ready to make measurements. The final cockpit will measure on the interior fifteen inches wide by eighteen and seven eights long. The final exterior will be nineteen inches wide by twenty two and seven eights long. This is not the exact dimensions in the original designs. The plans call for cutting out about three quarter of an inch on all sides after all the wood is installed. I am aiming for the smallest I can get. This will leave about a one inch overhang on the exterior of the rim for a skirt. Will a one inch overhang be too much and too fragile? I have yet to decide.

Cockpit rim laid out for measurement.

2007 Mayor's Cup New York City Kayak Championship

The Mayor's Cup New York City Kayak Championship and the culmination of my racing season. The Mayor’s Cup is an elite kayaking race around Manhattan Island. At between 28 and 30 miles (depending on your line), the marathon race is striving to become one of North America’s premier races and New York City's largest water event. The race is organized by Ray Fusco. I met Ray randomly back when I went to pick up my Tbolt in New York last year. When I heard his race presentation at Jersey Paddler in the spring I knew it was a race I wanted to do.

The course, a circumnavigation of Manhattan Island, appealed to me on several levels. First, it was long and I’d been looking for longer distance race to do. Up to now my longest race has been the 12 mile Wye Island and I always felt like I could do more after that. Second, the course has potential for some serious rough water – one of my strengths given years of sea kayaking and whitewater paddling.

The race sounded perfect, I just had to find the boat. I knew I couldn’t sit in my surfski for four hours nor did the non-bulkheaded Tbolt seem like a good idea. That issue was solved when I bought the Nemo back in May. As any of you who paddle with me know, I love this boat. It is fast, really fast, stable in the big water, comfortable and just pretty to look at. It would be the prefect boat to give me the confidence to take on the race.

Next I needed to drum up moral support in the form of fellow paddlers to train with. Ray was coming down to DC to give a presentation on the race at REI so I organized a special presentation for members of CPA and the WCC in hopes of luring a few people in. Ray did a such great job of describing how challenging the race would be that in the end it looked like I might end up having to do the race alone!

Training for Mayor’s Cup didn’t really begin until late summer. I had lots of shorter races in May, June, and July and used those to work on speed and technique. Distance I started to layer in toward the end of the summer first with a double WIPP in August and then with 20 + mile paddles with Bill and Brian each week. Those training runs were vital for figuring out hydration, nutrition and boat comfort. They taught me, for instance, that 2 Advil prior to paddling make my butt much happier in the boat over the long term. In addition the training paddles were useful for getting Brian B. on board. After quite a bit of encouragement and being coerced into 4 hour paddles, Brian decided that he might as well enter the race. (I think his very impressive finishes at Wye and the Seaford race this year also helped.)

With the prep-work done there was nothing left to do but race. Dave, Brian and I drove up to New Jersey on Saturday and stayed near Newark airport. We asked our friendly hotel clerk where to find some decent vegetarian food for dinner that night and he suggested a place called Iberia. So we set off for Portugal. Well that is what it felt like anyway. It was the most meat intensive restaurant I had ever seen in the US. There was nothing on the menu we could eat. Having already paid for parking, however, we thought we’d ask if they could make special plates. In the end, the kitchen produced a great pasta with veggie in a butter Garlic (and I mean GARLIC) sauce for me and a huge plate of rice, potatoes, and veggies for Dave. I think our dinner was actually better than Brian’s! Sufficiently carbo saturated we headed back to the hotel.

The alarm went off at 5:15 am but both Brian and I were already awake with the adrenaline flowing. We found some coffee and took off to navigate the streets of New York – a daunting task when you have $8,000 worth of kayaks on the roof. After Jill, Brian’s GPS navigator, suggested a few wrong turns and turns onto one-way streets Dave took over and got us down to North Cove Marina. There Ray’s team of volunteers were waiting to help carry the boats to the park where we would launch.

Ray has done an amazing job of promoting Mayor's Cup and this year’s field attracted some of the world’s best paddlers. 90 paddlers showed up – just about double from last year. Team Epic was out in force with Greg Barton and Herman Chalupsky as well as Brian Houston and their new guy John. I might not paddle an Epic boat but the Epic people are top notch and it was treat to be in their midst. Coming to give Greg and Herman a run for the money (the elite prize was $5,000 for first place) was Zsolt Szadovszki and Ian Grey both phenomenal surfski paddlers.

I scouted out my competition. Since I was in the Nemo I would be in fast touring and not unlimited. Turned out to be a good thing too, Kathy Manizza came down for this race with her S1-R. She is a surfski specialist and routinely puts up times that shame most men. There were a total of six women in singles this year. We had two in unlimited, three in fast touring and one in standard touring. Next year we’re aiming to get even more.

Ray’s organization continued to be evident as we prepared for launch. We would leave in five waves with touring going first and the elites going last. Timing with this race is everything to take advantage of the currents. We started in 10 minute increments right on schedule. To help protect the paddlers on the course, Ray had something like 14 coastguard boats on the water with several NYPD boats.

Things got off to a rocky start. I lined up with the other paddlers in the cove at the start line. When the start sounded we all paddled out only to have our boats picked up by the current and spun north. The Nemo took several very hard hits a people tried to regain control of their boats. I completely backed off and waited for them to pass before digging in and starting to paddle. It was after all a 28+ mile race. What was the rush all about? Once out of the mess I settled into a comfortable pace.

Ray had said we would have current with us for the majority of the race. This was great but also made pacing difficult. In my training runs I’d be able to do 5.5-5.7 MPH over a sustained 20+ mile paddle. However the current meant I couldn’t use speed as my indicator so I switched to heart rate with the aim of keeping it somewhere in the 150 range which is pretty sustainable long-term for me.

I hit that 150 BPM range and glanced at the GPS. I was cruising at a healthy 8 MPH. This was great! As usual, I was all alone. The water was slightly bouncy and there was a mild head/beam wind but nothing horrible. I started to enjoy the ride. I sped past the Norwegian Cruise line ships at dock, watched a couple of ferries pass and saw a giant tanker being towed into the harbor. I also saw cliffs and trees and beautiful blue sky. It was an interesting mix of urban and wild.

Just as I was ready to enter turn into Spuyten Duyvil I saw THEM coming. I’d been waiting for the fast touring men and/or the elites to pass me for some time. I guessed they’d catch me about 40 minutes in but it took until the 1 hour mark. In perfect diamond formation they sped past. Greg Barton leading the pack with Herman, Zsolt and Ian right there, riding his wash. I was doing 7 MPH at that point and they zoomed by me like I wasn’t moving. It was beautiful. Check out the pictures at www.surfski.info and you will see what I mean.

I chatted with a few other men as the passed me and together we turned south down into the Harlem River. And there my current assist up became an opposition current. I would have to fight the current until we hit either slack or the East River. My speed dropped from 7 MPH to 5 MPH. I paddled past the Peter J. Sharp boathouse which was mandatory halfway check in. For the first time all day I was hot.

Brian B. snuck up behind me at this point and drafted me for a chance to eat some apple. Once refueled, he left me behind. Christian, the other Nemo paddler in the race, and another pack followed shortly there after. We admired each others boats but again, they were too fast for me to latch onto. Right behind them was a guy in an EFT. He shouted over to me to hop on his wash so, never one to pass up a free ride, I did.

This guy’s name was Andy and Andy would keep me company for the next 12 + miles. I drafted him when I could and we discussed the course. I asked him if Hell’s Gate was as bad as everyone said. Hell’s Gate has the reputation of being the trickiest part of the course with water from Long Island Sound, the Harlem River and the East River combining to create standing waves, whirlpools and very confused water. He said it was worse and to hang on. Just before we got there we took a short fuel break and I ate some Cliff Bar and my pack of Sport Beans to get ready for the mess.

Only there was no mess to get ready for. The Gate was flat calm. The current was still whipping but there were no standing waves, no big scary whirlpools. I almost felt cheated. Andy and I paddled on. Staying mid-channel we were flying. At one point my GPS registered 11 MPH.

Next up was the south eastern side of Manhattan where we could expect significant boat traffic. All the ferries come through here with the Staten Island Ferry being the largest. I had lost Andy somewhere but just kept going. Around the South Street Seaport the water got significantly rougher and the waves bigger. I was having more and more fun. Have I mentioned I love my boat? Nemo would ride up and over the 3-4 foot confused waves only crash down and get ready for the next one. Combine that with a still rather speedy current and I was again riding at 7 MPH.

But then it was over. I was at mile 28 on my GPS and expected to be done. I turned west to round the bottom of the island and got smacked down by the wind my speed dropped to 4 mph. The waves continued but now were less fun. Andy caught back up to me just as we were approaching the Staten Island Ferry. It was pulling out and we would have to wait. I relished the break. Soon we were able to sneak behind the ferry. Wind still blasting, we turned north up the Hudson and I came to a near standstill. The wind funneled down the river and I crawled for every inch – 2 MPH barely moving. I cursed the wind. The entire time I kept thinking how horrible it would be to paddle nearly 30 miles and get stopped just short of the finish line because of a wind that was stronger than me. I dug in and pulled with everything I had. Technique was non-existent. It was a 100% pulling effort. Bit by bit I made progress. Andy continued to encourage me from ahead but a light person in a light boat is more at the whim of the wind than other paddlers and the wind was having its way with me. I just kept digging.

I slowly passed the Circle Line boats that were docked. If one of them pulled out and I had to stop it would be all over. I would lose any remaining forward momentum I had and not be able to regain it. Mercifully they all stayed put. South Cove came into view and I knew it wasn’t much farther. That last slug up the wall seemed to go on forever. Finally I saw North Cove and the finish line. Strangely I saw Dave sitting up on the wall with the timer. Turns out Ray put him to work … maybe I could have him subtract a few minutes for the headwind!

Two more strokes and I pulled into the protection of the marina. Andy was there cheering me on and a crew of volunteers lined the docks to help with carrying the boats. Other volunteers were handing out completion medals to every paddler as we exited the docks. I quickly vacated my spot so someone else could take out and made my way to the piping hot lunch spread, hot coffee, dessert mountain and live music that awaited. After 4 hours and 31 minutes I was ready.

I placed 1st in the Women’s fast touring class, was the second woman over all and 49th out of the 80 boats that finished the race. Without a doubt the Mayor’s Cup was the most difficult race I have ever done. It was also the best run, most professional and most fun. Ray deserves a huge amount of thanks for pulling together such a class act event. If you are looking for a challenge and have the rough water skills to go with it, this is race not to be missed.

Cyndi and Brian getting ready for the race.

The Greenland Bug Cont. (Pt. 5)

Well it has been a loooong time since I posted anything about my boat's progress. I have been working on it in bursts. I will go a week or two working each day, and then get to a tough spot where I will simply stare at it for a week or two. That mixed with working or travelling on weekends has made for some irregular progress.

Let me tell you where the project stands. But first, I should mention that I have just come back from Qajaq USA's Delmarva 2007 event.

(Check out Qajaq USA...)

It was a blast! Three days hanging out with other people who want to practice Greenland Ropes exercises, rolling kayaks and building boats. I tried lots of other skin-on-frame boats and a couple wooden kayaks. Of the two favorite boats (one skin and one wood) that I tried rolls out in, I enjoyed the McNeil's boats the best. Joy owns a small skin boat and Dennis a self-designed wood with a stripper deck. I believe that they both built the boats for rolling, but seemed to add enough room into the boats to make them comfortable for paddling as well. The skin boat was a little too small for me, and the wood was a little more volume than I wanted in my boat. So to test their rolling capacity I did layback rolls, forward finishing hand rolls and balance braces in all the boats, including my Outer Island. Obviously the small skin boat did the best balance braces and laybacks. The wood was a little better at the two as well. But surprisingly, my ole Outer Island was still the best for forward finishing hand and Norsaq rolls. Perhaps it is simply the round hull that is providing that quality. Anyway, I still think I am on the right track with my boat, I am just excited to see if my new hard chine super-low-volume boat reacts the same for forward finishing rolls versus laybacks as I have just discovered with other boats.

I believe when I left of the last blog, I had just completed the interior of the hull. So shortly after that I spent a good day working on taking measurements of the bulkheads and deciding what to do for their size. During all the time that I was working on the open hull, I noticed that it was not always the same width at all times. During the day as the air heated up, the width of the hull would expand up to a quarter of an inch, and sometimes more. I am convinced that it was a combination of the heat and the humidity, although I am sure the the heat had more effect. As the hull sat, it would be a minimum of 19 inches wide in the morning, and somewhere about 19 and a quarter in the afternoon. Well, I like the idea of the narrower beam, so I was planning on trying to capture that. I also noticed how the hull had a natural 'pinched' shape as you ran your eye from bow to mid ships and then back to the stern. It was the natural shape of the side hull panels pulling inwards as much as they could against the outwards flare of the boat shape. Mark Roger's instructional book directed me to place spacers into the hull at this time to ensure that the hull flared out into an even arc along the beam of the hull. Silly me-I decided to ignore this. It seems to me that the hull was trying naturally to recreate the Greenland rolling boat form where more volume is removed from the boat by 'pinching' in the beam fore and aft of the cockpit. As I said before, I believe that this characteristic makes a Greenland rolling boat do two things better: first your body at the cockpit will lay lower in the water during a balance brace or completion of a roll, secondly, the greater flat surface created by the sides of the bow and stern flare will create more stability during the times just mentioned. Hopefully this is a correct assumption on my part for the characteristics of a Greenland rolling boat. But who knows!?

So I left the pinching effect stay, measured the hull in the morning and cut my fore and aft bulkheads out of cardboard, trimming as I went until they fit just right. Then glued final wood cutouts in place with epoxy, along with a strengthening strip along their upper edge. Perhaps I may not have mentioned a step before this, where I painstakingly glued on two layers of plywood as sheer strips along the gunwales from bow to stern, then planed then down so that their angles would match the deck yet to come as it will be flat behind the cockpit and curved in front of the cockpit. That step alone took me a week. After the two bulkheads were in, I sanded the interior of the hull one more time and then did a final smooth coat of epoxy inside. I slightly roughed it up with fine sandpaper and a scotchbrite pad afterwards for a satin sheen.

Next the deck!

Once again after staring at the boat for a week or more deciding what to do for putting the deck on, I finally got up enough nerve to continue. Since I had taken in the hull beam dimension significantly from the original plan, I knew there would be a huge amont of overhang once the deck had been installed. I figured out how to mark and remove this excess before continuing. I made a marking tool to mark the deck a quarter inch outside the exterior hull sheer edge and then ripped off all the excess with a jig saw. I now have lots of high grade firewood for the winter.

The next step was to make sure again that I could get into the boat alright. So I gingerly placed the hull on foam blocks and practiced getting in and measuring the height of the foredeck at what I believed to be the minimum clearance. Nelson even came over one weekend to share the fun of squeezing into the boat and seeing what minimal deck height he could tolerate. After much experimentation, I decided upon taking the deck height to eight inches instead of my previous design of seven and five eights inches. Next I took the provided deck riser piece which would hold the deck up at the desired height and curvature and started slowly cutting it down (actually I made a copy and cut this just in case I screwed up), until I got the eight inch height I wanted.

Now comes the hard part. I placed the deck riser in place, painted the underside of the large fore deck panel, evenly spread epoxy on the sheer strips already on the hull, and carefully placed the deck on top of the hull. Then I used every cam-strap and prepared string to tighten the deck piece down to the hull so that an even contact was made all around. Just for good measure that day, I placed the small bow end on as well and tied it down too. Whew! I felt like I had finished doing a project about which I had no clue of what I was doing. I only hoped it would hold.

Gluing down the first of the four deck panels.

Lots of straps, string and weights are needed to get the deck panels to lay down clean.

The fore deck support which is holding the shape of the deck while glued and fiber glassed.

A good shot of the fore bulkhead/foot brace.

Well it held, and the next day I epoxied down the two stern panels. They were actually harder to keep flat against the hull edges than were the two front panels. The following day I started planing down the overhang still sticking off the deck. For all the planing I have spoke about I found it immensely easier to use a spoke shave rather than a block plane. There was just too much curvature in the pieces to be planed to use a block. Once the planing was complete, it was amazing how good it looked, except for all the epoxy fingerprints and old duct tape marks on the hull. It was now officially a boat! Well almost...

Planing and sanding down the deck overhang.

The next job was to sand and sand and sand some more. First I sanded off all the fingerprints, globs of epoxy and old duct tape scars and tape sticky backing. At this point, may I make a suggestion. If you or anyone else you know believes it is a great idea to use duct tape on a plywood boat to hold it in shape while the epoxy is drying, tell them they are nuts!! I will always have scars in the wood where the duct tape pulled fibers out of the wood when it was removed. It was NOT worth the effort. Stick to copper wire stitches or use rope and straps.

After I completely sanded the hull, then I added more epoxy along the chines and the keel to fill any gaps. The pretty sanded hull looked nasty again after this. Well, more sanding then. Next I added epoxy onto the keel edges of the bow and stern sheer as well as about three feet back along the keel line from both bow and stern. This is supposed to make for a hard keel strip on the delicate edges. And it looks cool. Of course then there was lots more sanding. I sanded and sanded and sanded for at least a week. Finally I was down to 220 grit paper, the wood was getting smooth and shiny and I had even over sanded in a couple of places right through the first layer of the wood. Nothing vital. It will be a memory of all the sanding to see on the completed boat.

Epoxy stern (and bow) sheer strips.

Epoxy keel strip built into the stern (and bow.).

You can see the 'pinching' from this angle.

The profile of the boat while upside down on the horses.

Now it sits, ready to have the fiberglass and epoxy laid on the exterior of the boat. First the hull, then the deck, then the hull and sides once again. And I am back to staring at the boat waiting to get up enough nerve to continue.

Finished deck awaiting glass and a coaming.

What I plan to do yet before I finish the glassing of the deck is to play with my fit. I noticed that after I attached the fore deck to the hull and took out the fore deck riser, the deck sagged back down from a height of eight inches to about seven and five eights again just fore of where the cockpit rim should be. So now that the deck is on, I need to revisit that option of lowering the deck just that little bit more. Should I do it? Probably.

Lastly, I have already been giving thought to what the next boat should be like. How could I make an even better rolling boat, has been going through my mind all week. The next boat would lower the stern deck still more, keeping it flat in the traditional East Greenland style. The fore deck will be rounded as the C.L.C. design evolved using a single tortured panel of wood. The hull shape will be as rounded as possible in a shallow smooth arc from beam edge to edge, and with a smooth transition from hull to deck. Over all length would be from 16 to 17 feet and beam about 18 inches. Beam enough to prevent too much lateral slop while capsizing and returning upright, and cockpit opening as small as possible to obtain as much contact as possible since so much other contact has been lost in the overall deck height. And the overall weight would have to be less. Of course this is all just wishful thinking yet. I still have not even had the one in progress on the water.

Then I wondered if I would make that next boat, still only going on what I know, how would I do it? Wood, stripper, skin on frame? It would be all up to how to make that hull a smooth curve. Plywood would be crazy. It would have to be a dozen or more thin strips that all join effectively into a curved hull. A stripper would be possible, but hard to imagine, and heavy. A skin on frame would be the easiest method and even the lightest. It would have to be a super-low-volume Greenland style back deck, curved fore deck, and Badarka-like hull with many chine strips.

So I started thinking about this fictional boat, and then it occurred to me that I already have one just like it on the boat rack. Almost like it. It has the low flat back deck. It has the low curved fore deck. It has the low curved hull. Although it is probably still twenty or more inches wide and only four meters long. Know what it is? My old-school slalom boat. Hmm......

Sprint Racing 101

Yesterday was the Washington Canoe Club's 2007 Masters Invitational Regatta and my first official sprint race. Typically when I go racing, I get in the boat and paddle for an hour, two, or three and then am done. There is some adrenaline at the start and maybe again some at the finish but overall the races are pretty tame (mostly because I'm always alone ...).

That is not at all the way sprint racing goes. There it is all adrenaline all the time. On Sunday there were a total of 34 races each 10 minutes apart spanning from about 9:30 am until 3:30 pm. Each race was 500 meters and every paddler could enter a maximum of eight races. Individual awards and points given were for each club. Six (+-) clubs joined us from as far north as Ontario, Canada and as far south as Georgia. At the end of the race the club with the most points wins.

Our goal was to race as much as we could and stack each event with as many WCC boats as possible. Since eight races was the max, eight is what I and the rest of the WCC folks signed up for.

Since this was my first sprint race, I wasn't sure how the process of checking in, finding your lane and lining up went, so I was relieved my first race was a K4 mixed boat. I could just follow the rest of the team and figure it out as I went along. Next, it was my K1 race. I took the Orion but opted for the low seat version to make sure I didn't inadvertantly swim on the start or do something equally embarrassing. As I approached the start line I saw Melissa there and in my class! Give me a break. I didn't have a prayer. Oh well, I finished third so a medal for me and points for the team.

Next it was on to K2 with Filippe, that was fun but we didn't do so hot. We were in the tippier VanDuehsen (sp?) and I had to drive since Filippe weighed the front down too much. Derek really has to give me driving lessons as I can't seem to steer, paddle, breathe, and balance/brace all at the same time yet.

Another K4 mixed and K2 with Rich followed in short order. Then it was time for the K1 novice class. This was, as Melissa shouted from the docks, "my race". Too bad by then I was running out of steam! Nonetheless off I went. There were only four of us in the class and three of us were WCC members. It would be a good team points race at the very least. The gun went off and I dug in hard before settling into nice long strokes. I didn't see the others but didn't turn to look either. I just kept paddling. I crossed the line in first place with a time of 2 minutes 37 seconds or something close to that. I was pleased.

I closed the day out with a K4 women's boat where again I got stuck steering and then the last race of the day the K2 mixed final with Rich. For that race Rich and I choose the slightly more stable boat and had a much better race than the first one.

As we powered over the line, I was exhausted and so glad to be done. What made the sprint so much more tiring than a distance race for me was the need to always be moving and fast -- from race to race and boat to boat. It always seemed that no sooner had I gotten back from one race and put my boat up than I was being called for another race. Staying on top of things was stressful.

Since one of the clubs which always comes down for the race is from Canada and today (Monday) is Canadian Thanksgiving there is a tradition to serve Thanksgiving dinner. While the final touches were put on dinner, awards were passed out. I got three bronzes and a gold. Not to bad for my first sprint race and WCC came out the club winner with a margin of only 8 points! I think I contributed my part!

Dinner was excellent complete with veggie stuffing, huge salads, wine galore, turkey (if you're into that ...), corn on the cob, chili, breads of all types and pumpkin pie and brownies. I dare say that WCC might put CPA to shame when it comes to paddling to eat!

Apostle Island Kayaking Trip Report

We got back from a spectactular trip to the Apostle Islands a little over a week ago now. It has taken until today to get the photos collected and the log entered into digital format. It is a long collection of stream-of-though writings from all of us on the trip. Go to our Trip Reports section and you can read it. It is at the top of the page.

See you on the water soon,
Dave

USCA National Championships

This past weekend I raced at the USCA National Championships. It was my first USCA sectioned event and, while I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect in terms of competition or courses, I figured it would be a good opportunity to see how I stacked up to other paddlers. Sprint events took place earlier in the week and since I was low on vacation, I opted to only go up for the marathon events which were Friday – Sunday.

Warren, PA is about a 7 hour drive from DC, so Dave and I left at the crack of dawn on Friday to allow time to find our campsite before heading to registration which opened at 4 pm. I had made reservations at Dew Drop campground which is located right on the Allegheny Reservoir in Allegheny National Forest. It was a beautiful spot with big sites. Ours was steps from the lake which has 91 miles of shoreline. It also has 5 established paddle-in/hike-in backcountry sites and that, along with a dispersed camping policy, would make it a great place for a fall kayak camping trip.

After setting up camp we headed down to Betts Park. All the marathon events end there and that was where awards and registration were as well. We knew we had found the right park by the parking lot jammed with pro-boat canoes. The Nationals include events for canoes, sprint boats, outriggers, unlimited boats and sea kayaks but the emphasis definitely seems to be on canoes. The random kayak or surf ski perched atop a roof looked out of place.

They were announcing the results of the Friday races as we arrived and I took note that for the almost 14 mile course times ranged from 1.5 hours to over 3. The race follows a portion of the Allegheny river running from just below Kinzu dam to Betts Park. There are three sections where you have to turn and paddle up-river against the current. In addition, it has very shallow areas and a minor rapid that produces a rather fun wave train. In short, while a fun course, it really isn’t what I think of when I think of a sea kayak race – there is no open water and the water never got over waist deep! There was some talk about this not being the most appropriate venue for a "sea kayak national championship" so we'll see what comes of that.

Not wanting to crunch my Nemo, I needed to paddle the course at least once before the race to see if I even wanted to attempt it the new boat. Fortunately Rich Libby suggested we paddle a sprint K2 together in Saturday’s race. He raced unlimited on Friday and knew the line down the river. I could scout it as we raced. We got ourselves registered; since there was no mixed K2 class we entered the “men’s” category. Then Dave and I headed back to camp to take a quick paddle on the lake before dinner.

Our original plan for Satruday was to just cruise, but Rich and I don’t seem to capable of that when you put us in the boat together – especially once we saw there were four other mixed boats who were racing in the men’s class also. Now we had competition and we hoped to hang with Holm and Melissa! Yeah right! Anyway, we all lined up and, when the start gun sounded, took off. The lead K2 must have been paddled by two Olympic team members. They shot off the line and disappeared so quickly. Holm and Melissa also proceeded to paddle away in perfect sync. So Rich put us in a pack with three other K2s and off we went.

The river definitely had current and there were times that I would see the GPS hit 10+ MPH. Unfortunately I knew that all too soon we’d be paddling UP that river. Rich picked a good line but even with that I occasionally smacked my paddle into the surrounding rocks and we dragged the rudder a couple of times.

Rich was a little worried about the wave train since this was only our third time paddling a K2 together. I had been hearing all kinds of stories about this “rapid” so I had visions of class 3-4 whitewater! But it turned out to be much tamer – just a jumble of bouncy waves. I laughed at the “rescuers” who were standing in the waist deep water to help put you back in the boat in case you came out. Rich picked a great line and we shot through, avoided the eddy and kept in the fastest part of the river.

Two more slow upriver sections later and nearing the finish line, we made our way to river left for the last of the shallows – and boy were they shallow! We dragged the rudder hard and ended up edging the boat first far left and then far right to avoid any more direct hits. At the bottom, Dave was out on the river in his Outer Island shouting encouragement and snapping pictures – he was definitely the only one around using a Greenland paddle that day! We headed for the finish line and crossed it in a time of 1:43:46 good enough for fifth place in men’s K2 and we would have been second if there was a mixed K2 class.

We hung around until awards were over and then returned to camp to cook dinner and relax. I had another day of racing ahead and needed carbs! Bill W. joined us as we cooked up tortellini and polenta with veggies and sauce. Complemented by wine it was a great dinner. I hit the sleeping bag early but Sunday morning still came around all too quickly. I emerged from the tent stretching my slightly sore back and shoulders. Perhaps racing the two days back to back wasn't the smartest idea.

Coffee and breakfast in hand, we made our way to the start area. I saw more kayaks in the parking lot this morning. Dan M. and his friend Alex were both there already with their prototype Nemos. I put my boat over by theirs – three Nemos in a sea of Epics! Collecting my race number, I saw that there were probably 11 boats in my class. A great treat since this season I’ve mostly been racing alone. From what I had heard this wasn’t going to be a gimme as there were several very fast women in the race.

Once the course review was over I hopped in the boat to warm up. Our start time was 9:10 am and I was feeling a little rushed. As I was fiddling with the GPS the announcer called us to the start line, I paddled up and the next thing I knew the gun sounded. I hadn’t reset the GPS or the heart rate monitor but people were off the line. So I dug in. There would be no electronic feedback for me on this race.

It looked a lot like a typical race. The super speedy guys took off and then a middle pack formed of me, two other women, Bill W and one other guy. I stayed with them until we hit the first shallows and I felt the Nemo bog down. I wasn’t going to sacrifice the boat for the race so I let up some and considered the best line. Once through I hammered again but couldn’t catch the pack. It was me, paddling, alone in the race. Boy isn’t that the story of my racing life!

And so it continued for a couple of miles. When I got to really shallow spots, I’d ease off and then pick it up again once in deeper water. At the first buoy turn I experienced problem number two for the day – my rudder wasn’t tight enough and wasn’t turning me efficiently. I had been fiddling with the foot rest the week before and evidently didn't tighten the rudder cables enough. Fortunately I wore my sprayskirt so I jacked the Nemo up on edge and swept for all I was worth. Not fast, but at least I turned. On the upstream turn I did the same thing but still wound up in the trees!

Next, came the waves, I picked my line and headed through. With the stability of the Nemo that proved no problem. Just below the waves there is a large eddy on river left, I cranked the rudder to try to stay in the deeper, faster water but ended up in that eddy anyway. A little hard edging and sweeps got be back to where I wanted to be but cost me valuable time.

At the second upstream portion I noticed that two guys were gaining on me and drafting entered my mind. I didn’t slow down but just waited. I passed another park and saw Dave there with the camera for some pictures. His first words were “what is wrong” so I guess I didn’t look like a happy camper. I paddled past him toward the next turn buoys when the guys caught up. I jumped on their wakes and stayed there. It made that last upstream so much more doable! Unfortunately they dropped me on the last turn. No matter though, we are almost home.

As I passed under the last bridge I saw Dave again, he had been leap-frogging me the whole race. I asked if there was anyway I could catch the woman in front and he said probably not. I already knew that the next woman was at least five minutes back so I got ready to walk. This last section is the shallowest and was where Rich and I had to really lean the boat to not break the rudder. I took it easy going into the shallows but was happy to find that instead of four inches of water we had on Saturday, we must have had six – and those two inches made all the difference. The Nemo floated through without hitting bottom. With one final sprint I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:06:08 – a bronze medal finish at the US Nationals and an intact boat! In the end I was less than two minutes behind the second woman and four minutes out of first. Something to shoot for next year ...

A Broadkill Weekend

The annual Broadkill Race out in Lewes/Milton Delaware has got to be one of my favorite races of the year. What makes it so great is the combination of great people, a great venue, and great paddling.

This year got off to a perfect start when when my friend Chris invited Dave and I to stay at his place for the weekend -- he lives 10 minutes from the start line. I guess Chris figured if his daughter Chrissy could have sleepovers then he could invite a bunch of his friends to camp in the yard for a sleep over also!

We arrived Friday night to find Chris and Stephen P. already into the beverages. Chris's garage looks like a boat building workshop so Dave, Stephen and Chris were promptly discussing the finer points of wood boat building with Dave grabbing the nearest tape measure to figure out deck and combing heights of the CLC boats that Chris has in various states of completion. Recognizing that Saturday would be an early morning, we cut the conversation short and headed off to bed.

Saturday morning dawned HOT and HUMID as forecast. It must have been 90 degrees at 7:30 am -- it wasn't going to be a comfortable race. Dave, Stephen, Chris and I were among the first to arrive at the launch. Only Charlie was there already. Soon the others began to arrive. Cliff with his Tbolt, Joe with his sprint K1, Bill with his Epic 18X (affectionately referred to as his "rec" boat), John P. in the Capella, Neil in his OC-1 and Vince with the Old Town he makes go surprisingly fast. The usual women though were missing no Susan, Susan or Kathy. I surveyed the field to figure out who I might be up against but didn't see anyone I recognized. I fleetingly thought that I would just "take it easy" in this race, after all it was HOT!

The racing boats only make up a small portion of the field as this is one big race that attracts over 100 boats ranging from plastic OceanKayak tandems to K1 sprint boats. Soon we were all at the starting line. They start all the singles together so that totaled more than 70 boats. Just as we jockeyed for position and the start sounded someone capsized at the front. It was chaos as everyone peeled off from the line and tried to avoid the swimmer at the same time.

I took off at usual speed with the lead pack and watched as, predictably, Joe, Cliff, Bill, Stephen and Charlie gained ground on me. I settled into my pace and, after dropping one last guy, was alone behind the lead men as usual. It looked like if I wanted a race I was going to have to race my time from the previous year -- if only I had remembered to look that up before I left!

A few miles passed. It was HOT but I felt pretty strong. With every turn in the river I could see Stephen, Charlie and one other guy ahead of me. The distance between us stayed constant and I decided it was time for a new goal -- to pick off one of those three guys. I've beat Stephen once in a race but that was last year's Capital Waterways Challenge (see my blog entry from last October or Stephen's report for details). My win was due to his taking a scenic walking tour of DC while I stayed on the river so it probably doesn't really count and Charlie, well, I've never been close to him before.

I started to push, I reached the bridge which was roughly the halfway mark. Roy Todd was there to cheer us on and said I looked good. I felt good, so on I pushed. Charlie had passed Stephen by that point so now it was Stephen in my sights. I put my head down and focused on form. Bit by bit I made ground. I knew that if I pushed hard enough and caught up I could draft to recover. The question was could I push that hard and not bonk? I kept going. With one final sprint I jumped on Stephen's stern and started to draft. He seemed a bit surprised to find me there!

Drafting in kayaks works just like drafting on bikes. I probably took 2 strokes for Stephen's every 3 and they were easy strokes. My heart rate dropped from over 170 back to a comfortable 160. Stephen and I chatted for awhile and after a few minutes I was ready to take the lead. I jumped out in front and let him catch my stern just like Holm taught us during our Lake Anna Clinic. Stephen stayed there until I inadvertently ran us through some weeds which got stuck in his rudder. I didn't mean to Stephen I promise!

I could now see Charlie ahead and began to wonder. I felt good after drafting Stephen so I dug in again. It took awhile but eventually I caught Charlie's stern. I sat there drafting comfortably again. A couple of times I tried to take the lead but Charlie throws a mean wake and I couldn't get up and over his side wave. I knew we were getting close to the end and thought about what Melissa had said during our clinic -- don't start your final sprint from behind, get out beside so that you don't have to climb the wake. I started to move left. All at once I saw the water treatment plant which was my cue to sprint. When I started sprinting so did Charlie. We both gave it all we had. It was down to the wire.

The official race results have Charlie finishing one second ahead of me but I have pictures that say otherwise. Now I must fess up here and say thank you to Stephen for going to Scotland and drinking Scotch for three weeks rather than training and to Charlie for bringing his slower boat and taking it easy. They kept this race interesting for me and I have no doubt they'll both trounce me in next month's Wye Island Race!

With the race over it was time to play. I looked toward shore and saw Dave standing there with a giant Nemo balloon. I was just too perfect given that I paddled the Nemo that day! I also saw Cliff trying to get his very long legs into Joe's K1. Now Joe and I are exactly the same size leg wise so I knew that wasn't going to happen but I really wanted to try the Sino.

So Joe hopped in the Nemo (with balloon attached) and I wiggled into the Sino -- our legs are the same but not our hips! After a few tenuous strokes I got into the feel of the boat. This was by far the most advanced K1 I had paddled. The boat would jump whenever I took a stroke. It felt awesome and incredibly cool to know that I could learn to paddle an elite level K1! Joe and I paddled a ways back up the river and on coming back they even tried to call me the second place women's finisher. That would have been a feat -- number one and number two!

As we waited around for awards in the heat, we discussed whether this year the course was slower or faster than last. The consensus seemed to be that it was a little slower. Finally everyone was in and the awards were announced. There were plenty of battles for placing. Joe beat out Cliff for first by a matter of inches. The third and fourth place was like that as well. I got first in women's with a time of 1:29:56 -- that seemed similar to what I did in the Tbolt last year but I couldn't remember. I would check at Chris's house later.

Our original plan had been to go to Irish Eyes following the race but it was so HOT that we all opted to head back to the pool at Chris's. We spent the next six hours floating, swimming and feasting. After taking a pre-dinner drip to cool off the BBQ commenced. Pam made her fabulous Ziti and a huge salad. We grilled veggie burgers and corn to go with it. Vince brought baked beans and cucumber salad. And there were lots of beverages. We stuffed ourselves until we sufficiently replenished all the carbs we lost and then headed back to the pool.

Lounging in one of Pam's awesome pool floats I thought what a perfect weekend it was turning out to be. Of course there was still the ocean tomorrow ... Only one thing remained and that was to check out last year's times. So off to the computer we went. Chris pulled them up. My time last year 1:29:56 ... Guess you can't say I'm not consistent!

Sunday morning our plan was to head to the ocean to find some rough water. I'm going to paddle the Nemo in the Mayor's Cup in October and have heard that Hell's Gate can get quite sporty so I wanted waves. Waves I got. After stopping by surf bagel to continue the carboloading, Chris, Stephen, Dave, Cliff, Patty and I headed for Cape Henlopen. The forecast was for calm winds but anyone who knows the track record Chris and I have should have expected otherwise. We arrived to 15-20 knot winds kicking out of the east and that combined with an ebbing tide created nice two-three foot rollers.

We headed out around the first breakwater and toward the point. Small choppy waves hit our beams and made for irritating, but good practice, paddling. However once past the breakwater and nearing the second the swell steepened and became more regular first one, then two, then three foot rollers. At one point Cliff came off his ski but he did a fabulous reentry and was back in it. Rather than going out to search for dolphin which would be fruitless in the weaves we opted for some downwind run practice. We'd paddle out in the three footers, spin around and surf them back in.

The Nemo felt great through it all -- head on, beam waves, and tail waves were all no problem. I was stable, in control of the boat, and could turn whenever I wanted to. I stayed "knees center" the whole time and never felt the need to brace. At one point a pilot boat came whipping up the channel and we had four to five footers bouncing from all directions. I'd be sitting in the trough of the waves and be surrounded by towering walls of water only to promptly ride the elevator back up to the top. Bring on Hell's Gate!

Too soon the tide began to turn and the waves flattened. We decided to paddle out to the outer break before calling it a morning. Our progress out was excruciatingly slow against a now incoming tide. At one point Stephen said we were only going 2 MPH. Finally, we got to the break, crossed a freaky whirlpool surrounded by two foot breaking chop and got in the lee of the wall. While snapping photos I thought I saw a body! Turns out there were two guys swimming and spear fishing off the wall. Chris says they are local boys who do it all the time and even had a fish on their spear get pulled off by a shark earlier this summer. I'll stay in the boat thank you!

After the break we turned to head in. Drifting we hit something like five MPH and the lighthouse quickly receded. Rounding the inner wall I check the time it was nearly noon. We'd been on the water for three hours. I turned to Chris to comment that I was having so much fun it felt like we'd only been out for an hour. His reply "I'll agree with half of that statement!"

Everyone had had their fill but we didn't want to head home quite yet. We lingered in the parking lot chatting before deciding to take in one more beach treat -- Dairy Queen!

Many thanks to Chris and Pam for all the hospitality and to the others for making this such a fabulous weekend. I can't wait for next year!

The Greenland Bug Cont. (Pt. 4)

Alright. So it has been over two weeks since I updated my progress report. People have asked for the progress, and I believe even given up looking for more progress over that time. What have I been doing, since I have not been on the computer? Working on my boat, of course. Here is what has happened since the last report.

First, I spent an entire week staring at the boat. This all started when I progressed as usual along the directions provided by Mark Rogers. His directions describe using only a small amount of copper wire to stitch only the bow and stern sheer edges. All the rest of the hull would be duck taped together with a strip of tape about every six inches along each of the three seams. So I did just the bottom two panels and stepped back. Now remember that I am working in the Mid-Atlantic in July....not Wisconsin! In the Mid-Atlantic in July, duck tape will peel off of a vertical surface within hours of being placed there. I also followed the instruction to hot glue hull forms onto the panels to help them retain their shape. Overnight the glue even released itself from the fiberglass. Too much heat, and too much humidity, I suppose.

I must have re-taped those two hull sections three times over the course of a week and stared at them for a long time, wondering how Mark Rogers actually gets this to work. I thought for a long time of just starting to add copper stitches all along the hull, but could not come to a decision. Someone recommended "Gorilla Tape", being the stickiest thing in existence. Finally with Cyndi's help, I Gorilla Taped all the four hull sections together, added the hot glued hull shapes, and got the whole thing turned over. Again I watched the hull sections slowly pull apart as the tape weakened and stretched. At least the Gorilla Tape did not peel off.

So I gave up.

Next I Went and bought twenty five feet of 18 gauge copper wire and started putting a copper stitch every eight inches along each seam. And even a few more in the places where the hull simply would not stay the way I wanted it. This took two days. When I was done, I was amazed. The hull looked great. It finally looked like a boat!

Next, I spent one day running a thin seam of gel into the lines where the hull pieces came together. Let me tell you that if you ever work with gel, you will learn by your mistakes. I kept trying to mix in the provided mediums of wood dust and silica dust to make the gel a peanut butter-like consistency so that it would not 'drool' out of the seams where I placed it. It took me three days and many many combinations of slow hardener, fast hardener, more silica, and more wood dust before I finally got this seam spreading down. By that time I had accomplished spreading in gel into the seams, letting it dry, sanding it all back to a smooth finish, and spreading in more gel to do it all over again. I got pretty good on the last day as using a drill and sanding disk to buff down the lumpy dried gel. And by the last layer of gel, I had created a great spreader tool out of a Nestle Quick lid and was making the seams almost perfect. Now I understand why had made boats can cost so much to have built for you.

Finally I had enough gel into the seams to do the finally glass inside the hull. I placed three sheets of glass inside, covering the entire bottom of the cockpit area. This I let dry last night. Then I was up again this morning sanding the hull smooth. Today I started to gel in the gunwale/sheer clamp strips. This will take three days to complete. After that, the bulkheads will be installed, the interior gelled again, and then the deck can start going on.

Now after all this work on the hull, I had been taking measurements of the dimensions that I was achieving. I succeeded in some of the expectations, and did not so much succeed in others. The rear cockpit height from 'skin-to-skin' is not the expected 5.5 inches. In fact it is barely 5.25 inches. No problem there. The width is about 20 inched naturally, as it sits now. The width is actually dictated by using hull spreaders as you work on the gel and glass inside the hull. I decided to leave the spreaders out, and noticed that the hull relaxed inwards about a half an inch. That seemed satisfactory for me. I tried to do mock-ups of the 'pinching' idea that I talked about last time. But when I did this, it made the hull look unnaturally distorted on the sheer edges. I decided to give up on the 'pinching' idea totally. After laying in some of the gel seams, I noticed that the beam measurements started to expand. I guess the wet gel allowed the hull to relax outwards a little. In response I have started 'strapping' the hull back together. I can put enough tension on the hull to gently pull the beam back to about 19.25 inches. Bringing it in about 3/4 inches uniformly along the entire hull length. I plan to keep this 'strapped' tension all the way up until the deck is in place. A 19 inch wide by 5.25 inch high boat will be just about what I am looking for. Of course the coaming will add about 3/4 inch too. And I will need to make the coaming fore measurement at least 7 5/8 inches, if not a full 8 inches clearance. But that is a good two weeks work away from now.

Trying to get the two bottom hull panels to stay together.

Copper wire stitches.

Stitches, tape, supports removed and gel sanded from hull interior.

Starting to get the sheer clamps installed.

Paddling on The Dark Side

I’ve got a confession to make that runs counter to my sea kayak soul. I’ve been paddling with those “other” people lately. No not the whitewater others. Worse. The sprint paddling others. Yes, those paddlers who paddle insanely tippy boats with no spray skirts and no PFDs. I know I should be ashamed but … it is so much FUN!

It all started when I kept running into Washington Canoe Club folks at the various races I go to. They kept saying “come paddle with our Masters team”. Rich Libby added my name to the WCC masters’ email list and I started finding out about their plans and training schedules.

At the spring racing camp with Holm, I fully realized the value of coaching for the first time and wanted more. So one Tuesday night I wandered down to the club. Derek, the WCC coach put is in team boats and I was in a boat with three other women. That was a first. I had never even paddled a tandem before let alone a K4 sprint boat! It felt tippy but not too bad and boy could we ever fly across the water.

After practice that night, Derek said I should try a K1. I think he just wanted to see me swim. The boat he got off the rack was an Orion. Now, I don’t know much about K1’s but I do know that this boat is tippier than a typical K1 trainer. It looked so skinny, I was a little worried. But I put it in the water, adjusted the seat, got in and started paddling … and just kept paddling. Bill and Derek were both watching from the dock waiting for me to tip over but it didn’t happen. I happily kept the hull side down and stayed dry. I made some big circles and while the two inch waves felt more like two footers I managed them all with a good amount of bracing.

For my first month of practices at the club I had been to I’d been in team boats. It was fun to work on matching strokes with others and learning balance. But let’s be honest, I much prefer to paddle my own boat.

So two weeks ago I got my first shot at a real workout in a single K1. Mind you that I had probably paddled the Orion a grand total of two other times and very casually at that. When I arrived for practice Derek tells me it is training time and from now on it is all K1s, to get the Orion and to go warm up. I get in it and feel really comfortable – surprising since I hadn’t been in the boat for awhile. I paddle up to three sisters and then down to Jack’s to say hello. Coming back to the docks Derek says I look good – I’ll take that as a compliment!

Then he put us through our paces – 300, 500, 750, 1000 meter sprints in succession. Each time I started off the line strong, kept upright and paddled hard. I consistently was in the lead and having a ball. The highlight of the evening was when, at the end of the practice, Derek said that perhaps I should try to join one of the elite paddler practices and then proceeded to show me the types of boats I “should” be paddling! Another insane compliment.

Up until now, I have had the unique experience of learning to paddle a K1 without also having to work on my swimming skills at the same time. However, I think that is about to change. For next week, Derek said its time to get a “real” boat. I’m scared just thinking about it. Stay tuned.