People have been asking me ... where's the maiden voyage video and where is the Taiwan trip report. Well my "photographer" has been deathly ill with a sinus infection so the video did not happen. And I'm still editing the photos from Taiwan. Good things come to those who wait patiently!

Saturday Dave installed the rudder, the deck bungees, a compass, and a back band. I'm having trouble with the foam seat I got from huki. It fits well but I tend to ride too high in the kayak ... sacrificing what little primary stability I have ... and the back is too low. I may modify it by adding another block of foam to the back and filing down the front a little but in the interim we decided to install an old fashioned back band. For a "seat" I cut up a foam pad sleeping pad and added one of those permarest seat pads. It doesn't have the same snug as a bug in a rug feel as the foam seat but it will have to do for now.



So today I took the new SOF out on some rougher water. I put-in at Galesville and paddled up almost to Carr's Warf. People that know me well know that I'm not one to mince words. I'm pretty blunt. So I'll skip the mystery and tell it upfront. The day sucked. See the photo above. That's me covered in mud. I was having problems with the rudder and pulled into a secluded cove to do the needed adjustments. The wind was about 15 knots and the kayak was weather cocking or lee cocking. The waves were a little higher than normal ... maybe two feet but it was the wind which was killing me. It kept trying to push me to shore and the shoreline was nothing but rocks. So I paddled hard to get into the safety of a cove when I realized one problem was the rudder cable. I wasn't able to move the rudder to the right. It seemed to be stuck.

So I paddled into the cove and tried to make it to shore but the wind kept pushing me into the grass. Since the rudder wasn't working properly I was left trying to steer the boat the old fashioned way ... and it wasn't working. So in desperation I put my paddle down to find out how deep it was. The water was less than two feet deep. So I had this great idea to just get out and walk the boat over to the shore. As soon as I exited the boat I started to sink and sink and sink some more. I got sucked into the mud up to my thighs. At one point I thought for sure I would just be swallowed up by the mud. So there I was in the middle of a secluded cove stuck in mud. Fortunately I had been practicing my reentries earlier in the morning. So I grabbed the back of deck and pulled myself free from the mud, straddled the kayak like a horse and paddled to shore.

But the drama wasn't over. What looked like a sandy beach was not! It was more of the dreaded suck mud. I dismounted the kayak (big mistake) and tried to walk to shore only to find myself sinking again. I didn't sink as far. I was only up to my knees but this mud was suckier than before. I was stuck. Fortunately I was close enough to shore that I could grab onto some of the sea grass and swing myself around so that I was basically sitting on the clump of grass. From there I began the digging. I dug the mud out around my feet and pulled them out. By this time I was almost completely covered in this black stinky mud! But now I just want to get back on the kayak and paddle out of there. But I couldn't walk out to the kayak or I would just sink in the mud again.

So I did a scavenger hunt through the woods. I found some wood planks and few tree limbs and I built a walkway out to the kayak. The width of the boards was just enough to keep me from sinking into the mud. I still hadn't fixed the rudder so I had no steering and I was afraid to try to reenter the kayak. Because it's so tippy I was afraid I would fall into the mud and my whole body would get sucked in. So again I straddled the kayak like a horse and started paddling. It wasn't an easy paddle because of the wind and the weather cocking but I did make it out and found a real firm sandy beach right outside of the cove with the suck mud. I beached the kayak and went for a swim. After my swim I took the seat out of the kayak and dissected the rudder system. The straps were uneven and something had been holding up one of the cables ... after a few minor adjustments the rudder was working properly.

The trip back to the put-in was pretty uneventful. The wind and waves were still an issue but at least with a working rudder I had more control over the boat. I didn't feel pushed into the shore like on the paddle out. I also paddled a little farther away from shore.

Everyone wants to know about speed. This is only the third time I've had her out on the water and the first time with a GPS and the conditions were somewhat harsh. And a sample of size one is not necessarily significant (I'm a statistician so I should know better than to draw conclusions from a single sample) but I did come away with some initial impressions. The SOF is definitely faster than my Mirage sea kayak but not as fast as the surfski ... which is what I expected. On flatwater I can push the surfski over 6 mph and I can do a good race pace at around 5.6 mph. In the Mirage I'm working hard to keep her over 5.3 mph. I found that out when I paddled the Mirage at the Adirondacks last fall. There's just a lot more drag on a a 22 inch beam boat. I pushed the SOF up to 5.8 mph but I couldn't maintain it. It seemed like a good cruising speed was 5.2 - 5.4 mph. And its definitely faster in waves than the surfski just because I don't feel the waves as much and don't need to brace.

But the wind ... killed me. Truly. As soon as I got off the water and back on the road I called my kayaking friend and racing coach, David Shames. He has a kayak of every type and I knew he could diagnose the weather cocking. He said he noticed the same thing in his Custom Kayak surfski on a windy day. The boat is so light it just gets tossed around in the wind. He had some ideas so tomorrow we'll take her out on Blackwater Lake and do some tests. We're also going to work on rolls and reentries. And he has some alternative seats he wanted me to try out. When David used to paddle with us at Pier 7 he used to talk about building the perfect kayak. I've decided there really is no such thing. The SOF has the best secondary stability of any of my boats but we squeezed out the secondary stability by sacrificing some of the primary stability. The lightness is great for speed and the high bow cuts through the surf. But it seems to catch the wind and weather cock a bit. If the seas are rough of the wind is high nothing beats the Mirage. It was designed for the big ocean waves like they have down in Australia. And the Mirage has so much primary stability I could probably stand in the boat and paddle it. But it's not fast.

So the bottom line ... everything is a tradeoff.

-Susanita

Mystery kayak
Above are pictures Gina took last weekend as Dave Isbell was putting the nylon skin on my "Mystery" SOF kayak. Then I stopped by Dave's house this Saturday to see the newly skinned boat. She's beautiful! Next he'll coat the skin with several coats of thinned clear urethane waterproof paint. I asked him to use a clear coat because I want to be able to see the frame when it's skinned. I have this "Mirage" color changing sparkly paint which I may add as a top coat ... but I don't want to lose the translucent effect the skin currently has when the light hits the boat.

Dave put a lot of work into the design and construction of the kayak ... and I am truly amazed and thankful for his expertise. When we started talking about designing a fast SOF kayak last winter at the pool rolling sessions I never imagined that it would turn out this well. Dave could tell you all about the kayak design software he used to design the hull and deck as well as pinpoint the optimum placement for the cockpit. All I know is it wasn't just a matter of scaling down the design of the Mystery, which was our original inspiration for the kayak. It's truly an awesome kayak.

There are more photos on the Photo Gallery Page ... check it out. For the next few weeks I'll be competing in the Dragonboat Races in Tainan, Taiwan. When I get back there will be photos of the maiden voyage as well as photos from Taiwan. Until then ...

Take care,
Susanita

Last Wednesday we had two saran wrap test paddles. Jenny brought her newly finished greenland kayak frame and Dave Isbell brought my newly finished racing frame. Dave wrapped both frames in pallet wrap ... a stronger version of saran wrap and we had our maiden voyages. Jenny's boat is designed to be a great rolling boat so she even managed to get in a few rolls. Mine is designed to be fast but rollable. I didn't really get to test out either function but I did get a feel for how the boat performs. It's definitely tippy but it has this very big area of secondary stability which will make bracing easy. The bow is roomy and I have lots of room for my knees which is important for racing but it's also tight. I laid back on the back deck just to get a feel for what it would feel like to roll the boat. I definitely felt like it could be rolled. So it was a success! The next step will be for Dave to put the skin on the boat then he'll start coating the skin to seal it. I ordered my "Mirage" paint and it should be here soon. I found this paint that changes color depending on how the light hits the surface. It's called "Mirage" ... so I had to get it. I would write more but it was a busy weekend and I just got in from Monday night race practice. I'm bushed. There is a full photo album from Wednesday night on the Photo Gallery page.

-Susanita

Dave Isbell has been building the frame of my new Skin on Frame (SOF) kayak in his basement for a few months now. Except for an occasional email asking me for another measurement I really haven't heard much about it. And I've been so busy working on the house I haven't asked. But I asked him to email me as soon as the frame started to look like a kayak.

This is best described as an experimental kayak design. He's started with the design of the Guillemot Mystery then modified the hull to work within the design constraints of a skin on frame. Marek provided an excellent summary in his kayak blog. The Mystery is designed to be built using strips of wood. A skin of frame is built by using long intact pieces of wood to build a skeleton or frame. Then the frame is covered in canvas and painted. The earliest remains of these SOF kayaks have been found in Greenland where wood is scarce. And this makes sense. A frame kayak covered in canvas (or seal skin) would use considerably less wood than a kayak built entirely of wood. The early Greenlanders worked with what they had. Although speed is always a good characteristic, most greenland kayaks weren't designed for speed. They were designed for ocean hunting of seals and they needed to be easy to roll. The waters around Greenland are deathly cold. Thus the deck was low and hugged the body tightly. Getting into a traditional greenland kayak is not unlike putting on a tight fitting pair of jeans. You wiggle in. While these design characteristics worked well for a stealthy ocean hunter they don't work well for speed.


So the first design modification we made was to raise the fore deck. The fore deck looks approximately liked the scaled drawings on the Mystery, but scaled down to fit my 5'1" frame. Because I also want to be able to roll this boat in the event of a capsize we made the deck as low as possible while still providing room for my knees. The sides taper down and the idea is that I will pad out the sides so that I can roll the boat with my knees pressed against the sides. The back deck was designed to be flat which will also make the boat easier to roll.

The beam of the boat is a maximum 18 inches, although we're expecting the waterline beam to be around 14-15 inches. The shape of the kayak is Swede-form, which means that the maximum breadth of the kayak is aft of the cockpit. Also the bow of the kayak tapers down sharply from the cockpit to allow the paddle an entry point close to the center of the boat. In working through the design of the boat with Dave I learned a lot about the tradeoffs one has to make when designing a boat. Greenland style boats have lots of "rocker". Rocker refers to how the keel of the boat sweeps up at the bow and stern. A boat with a high amount of rocker is easy to turn and maneuver. But it slows the boat down. For maximum speed you want a long waterline. So Dave designed the boat to have almost no rocker. Because of the flexibility in the wood which provides the framework for the kayak, we think there will be some rocker introduced by the weight of the kayaker.

Everything is a tradeoff. I'm expecting that my Huki S1-A surfski will still be faster than this SOF kayak but taking the surfski out in open water still scares me. Knowing that I can roll this boat if I have to will give me incredible peace of mind. To see more pics, click here.

-Susanita

This is the computerized sketch of the chine of the my new kayak. Dave Isbell is building it using skin on frame (SOF) techniques, but it won't be a traditional SOF kayak. We started with the design of the Guillemot Mystery and scaled that down to fit my 5'1" frame. But the Mystery is typically built as a wood strip boat which allows for a more rounded hull. We could have designed a more rounded hull by adding in more chines but I really wanted a kayak with a solid area of primary stability and secondary stability. But I wanted it as narrow as possible and as long as possible ... for speed. So what we've come up with so far is a 18 1/2" wide kayak with a 16" wide hull at the water line. The extra flare in the hull is to add the secondary stability I wanted built into the boat. And I think we're up to 19 feet for the length which would 19 feet waterline. The bow and stern won't flare up like in a traditional greenland style boat.



Above is a side view of the hull. The slope of the deck is still under development. I want to be able to roll the boat. To roll the boat I need to be able to make contact with the deck around the upper thigh. But I want to get the maximum speed out of the boat. To get maximum speed I need amble room for my knees so that when I rotate my body through the stroke I can push with the legs. So we're going to have to be a little creative with the design of the deck. And the final kayak will probably only fit one person ... me.



Above is another view of the chines on the boat. The program he's using also provides data on hull displacement which we used to modify the width of the hull. This is my first attempt at designing a kayak. And what I've learned is that everything is a trade off. I want the boat to be fast and the best hull shape for speed is a circle. But a circle is also the most unstable and virtually impossible to accomplish in a SOF kayak anyway. So we're trying for fast but stable. I'm hoping that the narrow waterline will compensate for the less rounded hull. Also the less rigid structure of the SOF kayak should compromise speed as well, but I'm hoping that will be minimal.

-Susanita