another post of a carbon flavour…

I feel as if I should apologise to my cycling readership for the recently rather kayak-heavy flavour of my posts… It’s not that I am not riding, I am.. it’s just that nothing exciting is going on in that department right now.. Just cruising around on my Storck and DeSalvo fixed and not really missing the racing scene and attendant training schedules at all :-) I may have some adventure cycling flavour of news to share soon however but in the meantime however it is back to kayaking and things of a carbon flavour… :-)

The Greenland Paddle.. the latest iteration has proven to be the nicest paddle I have ever used I think.. the word that sprung to mind while out testing it on a choppy day was “silky”.. the blade is wonderfully well behaved in the water and appears to be very efficient. I’m enjoying the wing-paddle effect one can get with a greenland stick with the right stroke. Effortless :-) The 600g weight is thoroughly spoiling me.. I have continued to use my euro-blades with my Tiderace just so I can enjoy the Greenland all over again when I get back in the skinny Tahe boat.. hence this picture taken by a friend last weekend while exploring the nooks and crannies of Godrevy Island on a rare perfect summer day. Nooks and crannies of a different kind appeared to be on offer when our planned lunch stop turned out to be a secret nudist beach… we didn’t stay long.

black paddle.. black boat

perfect match for the Tahe Greenland

I’m happy enough with the design that I think I’ll offer it for sale later this year…. drop me a line if interested.

Fins then.. I didn’t really plan to write any more about these but I feel compelled to. I have a couple of sets of 3.5″ fins in use by friends and the feedback has been of the <quote> “.. fu**ing fantastic..” and “amazing” flavour.. Modesty suits me I think… <cough> One of my friends has been selected for the GB team at this years surf kayak world champs.. and he’ll be using my fins which is a very cool thing :-) The performance of them as compared with commercial glass fins does appear to offer a significant improvement in speed and responsiveness. Durability appears to be excellent too. Now that I refined the construction I might just have to start offering these for sale (to order) as well. Price I think will be £70/set, a price that compares very favourably with Rainbow glass fins, generally considered to be a very good fin. I think it is fair given the cost of carbon and the amount of work in a set. There is the added advantage for the owner in that damaged fins can be returned to me for repair and should one get broken or lost I am happy to make single replacement fins.. which is something you definitely don’t get with standard commercial fins. Later this year I’ll get around to developing some more templates.

mmmm

All of that, and the ongoing Boatbuilder’s Story project is going to have to wait until the fall.. sorry, autumn. You see in 10 days time I’m off up to the Outer Hebrides to pick up a job working as a sea kayak adventure guide. A summer of week long kayak/camping adventures among the wild coastlines of Barra, Uist & Harris. Can’t wait.. but it is also going to be the longest period away from my bike and riding for, oh.. 15 years or more . Hmm.. will probably do me good :-)

Greenland twins.. & Bullitt S for sale..

Last year when my Greenland carbon cracked a local friend of mine acquired it and repaired it while I was messing about on my bike down in Patagonia. So now I have a Greenland buddy as it were. Yesterday was icy cold on the water but a good opportunity to play with the carbon Greenland paddle I made just before leaving for Patagonia. It is very similar shape to Johns wooden paddles but has quite different handling characteristics.. It is light and very stiff in all directions so without the natural flex/damping of wood I find it is quite unforgiving of poor technique.. “squirrelly” was the word John used and it describes it perfectly.. but once used to the handling characteristics I find it is a fantastic paddle to use.. very efficient and quite satisfying.  It still amazes me how much power can be developed with the slender Greenland blade as compared to my regular euro-style blades. As soon as my garage warms up enough this spring for composite work I shall be making a Mk2 incorporating lessons learned on the Mk1… assuming of course I haven’t got back on my bike and hit the road again…..

We didn’t spend long on the water, the increasingly fresh north wind was icy cold and my body is still very much rebuilding from the hammering I gave it riding in Patagonia… so just a couple of pics to look at.

a fine pair of kayaks.. mine, replaced by Tahe, is with the black paddle. Johns has the wooden paddles.. I must remember to photograph these on the next outing, they are quite beautiful.

I love the way these low volume boats almost disappear in the water

sliding below the castle on St Michaels Mount

sheltering from the fresh northerly..

Before I go.. my Bullitt S surf kayak is now for sale.. I acquired an XS last year so this is now surplus.. just on the off-chance you’re reading and fancy a surf boat :-) It’s in terrific nick, I’d like somewhere around £600 which is a bit of a bargain for a boat in this condition given a new one in the same carbon/kevlar construction will set you back around £1200 this year… I’ll throw in a decent spraydeck too.

Lizard etc

another picture post.. I haven’t been doing much constructive really except riding, surfing and kayaking.. could be worse, hehe. In the process of sorting out my flights back to the wilds of patagonia for the winter too.. stay tuned as that happens. In the meantime though…

Saturday morning paddling out of Poldhu Cove the Atlantic was eerily calm..

 

it so rarely looks like this..!

 

we were headed for a relaxed day out to Lizard Point for lunch, taking in the fabulous coastline along the way.

 

lots of caves to explore

 

 

reminiscent of the South China Sea, albeit a little cooler.. this is Kynance Cove (go to 49°58'27.76"N ; 5°13'58.57"W on Google Earth)

 

 

'Darth Kayak' rides again - that's the replacement Greenland.. looks tiny next to the Tideraces despite being same LOA

 

 

met Grizzly Adams (or a close relative :-) out sailing his home-built canoe yawl, looked very pretty under sail..

 

 

the wind got up in the afternoon, just enough of a chop to make rock-hopping fun

 

It’s only a 26km journey but it means lots of time for playing in and around the caves and rocky inlets of this part of the coast. My GPS recorded a top speed of 22.3 km/hr (12 knots) for the day… which can only have been surfing the waves back in to land at Poldhu under a beautiful late afternoon sun.

Back on two wheels this morning.. have been spending an awful lot of time on fixed this summer so pulled out my Storck for a change for a terrific blast down west towards Lands End. It takes me a while to adjust to gears again – particularly climbing.. it just feels weird. Disappointingly the carbon shell on the Specialized Toupe saddle cracked right across the middle… that’s the third specialized saddle I have had fail in this way over the last few years – all were replaced under warranty but given that I’m not exactly a heavyweight I can only presume the design is flawed. Won’t be buying another one.

 

slow? ... nope, don't think so. It's only a short descent but nice and twisty and a bicycle is very much the best tool for going down it quickly :-)

 

The roads of Cornwall are  relatively quiet again after the madness of the school summer holidays – the mummies and daddies in their huge 4x4s have gone home.. but instead have been replaced with a significant quantity of corpses creeping around in pristine Nissan Micras.. they sit at roundabouts and junctions for half an hour at a time while nothing goes past and then suddenly pull out in front of an approaching cyclist.. still, they’re easy to overtake ;-)

Tahe Greenland update and other stuff

Morning, classic Cornish drizzle outside my window right now so as I settle with a large mug of Colombian gold I’ll try and write something despite the mushiness that is my mind at the moment – I seem to have collected both ear and chest infections you see.. I got stuck in a vicious circle with hayefever stopping me from sleeping and recovering from the journey home – despite antihistamines… so I just got more run down… dammit, why did I ever come home, lol? Stupidly, as a result, I’m still not getting to sleep ’till around 3am and then waking around 9 despite various sleep remedies and mental strategies.. which just leaves the alcoholic solution… ;-) Anyway, I didn’t come on here to have a moan though I guess it’s already too late for that…apologies too for the rather unimaginative title.. So not much time by bike or kayak this week but I have used the time to strip my Nomad right down after it’s journey – a little bit of corrosion evident on some components from the crusting of salt in Bolivia but nothing like I feared while riding along, watching the wet salt accumulate on my bike. James took a useful pic that illustrates perfectly – this is his Surly LHT:

 

wet salt...

 

I’m going to enjoy building the bike back up again – new wheels to build in particular.. well, new rims, old hubs.. which reminds me, despite leaving Pete behind in Peru  the rather overused in recent weeks ” it’s not rocket science” phrase has followed me home, yesterday riding to the cafe with a friend we were talking about wheelbuilding and it’s perceived complexity… “but it’s not exactly rocket science..” was the simultaneous chorus from deep among the Cornish hedgerows.. My Storck Scenario Pro is also looking rather good too, just waiting for cables and bottle cages now and it’ll be back on the road. It looks a completely different machine to it’s original guise. Stay tuned for both of these projects.

News of the week I suppose is that my Tahe Greenland Carbon kayak cracked… big time. Monday evening after coming off the water I noticed rapidly growing cracks along the deck forward of the front hatch. A little bit of investigation in the form of sticking a camera and flash up into the bow revealed these were more than just gelcoat cracks -they went right through the boat over a length of about 2 feet each side of the bow.

Most likely what happened is that there had been some small cracks developing as a result of the boat flexing in the water for some time. A late evening windblown chop plus the high temperature differential between cold sea (11 degs) and sun-heated deck probably was what caused the final failure. I do know Tahe had some problems with deck cracks on the early glass fibre boats… mine is carbon hull with glass deck so maybe there is some commonality there. I can only surmise I got unlucky with the natural variability in a hand lay-up and the deck was just a little too light or had a flaw in it from the beginning – c’est la vie. Anyway, the happy news is that Pete at Shoreham Sea Kayaks has been brilliant working between me and Tahe.. and Tahe are being most excellent by standing by their product and sending me a new boat… it’ll be here in July :-) Looking at the the latest specs for this boat the quoted weight has increased a little so I assume Tahe have beefed up the build in areas where they did have problems with the early versions. So there you go, if ever you wanted to know you could buy a kayak with confidence then you could do a lot worse than go and talk to Pete about a Tahe :-)

In other news, hehe, I’m still struggling to adjust to life at home… I’m unable to apply myself to basic tasks like laundry and washing up and stuff… not that it is a new problem, just exacerbated in this instance ;-) It’s interesting too how every time I return home after an extended trip I see things in a new light.. my eyes are opened by the unfamiliarity of being home.. last night walking back from the shops I noticed that my local Chinese Take-out is called the Golden Pool… I had never noticed that before but sadly it didn’t conjure images of exotic oriental goodness… the only thing it reminded me of was stopping for a pee on the Salar de Uyuni..

 

wide stance avoids shoe splashing...

 

I’ve never eaten from Golden Pool… likely never will….

Oh, and one final bit of news… I return to the ranks of the gainfully employed on Tuesday. I should be grateful I suppose…. hehe. Strangely at the moment I feel the worst part is simply going to be having to wear shoes all day…

Tahe Greenland – more photos

By popular request… a few more photos of my Tahe Greenland boat.. (original post here)

Footrest is a simple peg affair, easily adjustable even while afloat…

Very basic seat and backrest… barely any depth to the hull means there is no room for seat adjustment. At first I took the backrest out as it got in the way sliding in and out of the cockpit and did not expect it to be very effective… but I have since refitted it – it does work. Outfitting is minimal – there are no knee braces for example but with such a narrow form and low deck you don’t need ‘em….

The sliding skeg control on the left of the cockpit. The skeg itself is pretty long, I’ve never needed to deploy it more than halfway…

Close up of the logo on the bow and that carbon weave that just looks cool… you can see the neat deck seam in the top right corner

Manufacturers ‘tag’ bonded inside the cockpit. The boat also came with a certificate stating the weight and a qa sign-off. The construction is very neat and tidy with a clean hull/deck seam. There’s not much else to say… there isn’t an awful lot to it. All of my friends who have paddled it straight away understand the appeal of it… :-)

And finally from last night down at Perranuthnoe… a pic of muggins (comments about “is that canoe between your legs” will be, errrm, ignored) after an evening of surf, refreshments in hand and waiting for the BBQ to get going :-)

Tahe Greenland Carbon

OK, I promised you some carbon after my “bluepeteresque” post below… so here it is… my carbon kayak :-) It’s a sliver under 18ft long and weighs just 14kg… to put that in perspective it’s just a couple of inches longer than my Tiderace sea kayak (which does actually have  quite a lot of carbon and kevlar in it…) but pretty much 10kg lighter…. It’s a greenland style boat – very low volume, hard chines, not so much primary stability (although the secondary is OK), super responsive and very exciting to paddle. It is more fragile than my Tiderace so rock-hopping tends to be a much more ‘considered’ activity (i.e I don’t…) but in rough seas it’s the closest thing to an ocean ‘play-boat’ I’ve come across. In rough waters now that I’m tuned into it it’s a huge adrenalin rush… and it’s the easiest boat to roll I’ve ever come across – not that I’ve come across a boat hard to roll, it’s just that this one seems to roll by telepathy if you see what I mean… :-) I do have a Greenland paddle which is great for doing various rolls and relaxed cruising but I must admit I prefer my Euro-style paddle for the power it gives me to accelerate over the wavetops, and surf the ocean swells… in a decent swell it’ll go forever… if you can keep it upright that long ;-) If there is a downside it is the tiny cockpit, being such a skinny boat as well, getting into it is more akin to pulling on a sock than getting into a kayak. Having said that it does enhance the feeling of being an integral part of the boat in the water. When there’s no beach a floating entry and exit can be a bit of a comedy if there is much movement in the water… especially if tired. Sometimes when it’s rough (or even if not…), there’s no safe landing and I’m worn out the easiest thing to do is simply release the spray deck, roll it over and slide out. It has a retractable skeg but to be honest it sits so low in the water I’ve not yet had to deploy it more than halfway even running in a force 6. Best thing about it though… it’s beautifully put together, looks the absolute dogs bollocks and always causes a stir wherever I take it :-)

Anyway, given that shortly I’ll be on my bike for nearly 3 weeks in Eastern Europe this weekend has been given over pretty much completely to the blue, salty variety of adrenalin (though I did get a ride in yesterday). It all began Friday night with a stunning evening under clear skies. Launched (in the Greenland) from Sennen Cove around 6.30pm with a few friends for a trip out around the Longships Lighthouse and reef… the ground swell was running at around 2.5 metres in height… seemed rather big to me sitting down low in a kayak… but the fun really started around the longships reef itself – with a strong tidal race in flow, plus the ground swell and rebound from the exposed rocks the seas were the ‘heaviest’ and most challenging I’ve ever experienced to date, though my kayak experience ain’t exactly global – confused peaks piling up to over 3 meters (possibly more, at times the top of the lighthouse was hidden from view…!) in height with chop on top of that… the kayak was bouncing in all directions as we picked our way around and through the reef..  very exciting…. I had a camera with me but to take a hand off the paddle would have been silly I think. so instead you’re going to have to make do with a distance shot… (I really must get myself a video cam to mount on my head) On reflection I might have been better off in my Tiderace in such rough waters but hey, nothing like pushing boundaries and I was surprised what this kayak can cope with despite the feathery build and sharp handling, very seaworthy indeed I think… On reflection maybe that isn’t so surprising given the origins of the hull shape.

(not mine, borrowed from the public domain but it gives you the idea… a stunning place)

From there we transited across the tide back to Lands End itself before cruising back along the coast, past the shipwrecks, to Sennen for a half hour playing in the surf before the sun dropped below the horizon with a perfect green flash*… Couldn’t help thinking of all the folk stuck in traffic on the M5 motorway, fighting their way to Cornwall for the long weekend…

This morning the surf forecast wasn’t that great so rather than take my whitewater boat I took the Greenland (again…) down to Sennen for a session. Was there by 7.30am and had the place to myself. The surf was bigger than expected, sets up to around 1.5 metres, which is plenty big enough for some excitement in a long sea kayak. The sea this morning was crystal green under clear skies … beautiful, and not a soul :-) I surfed for around 4hrs I guess, the speed and easy acceleration makes for being able to surf smooth swells well before they break although I did suffer one or two  comedy moments… that easy rolling ability is  definite bonus.. the Atlantic ocean is still dripping out of my sinuses as I type… :-)  Not quite the same but by a bizarre twist (well, not that bizarre really) the Sennen Webcam “image of the day” picked me up at 9am hanging around out the back … one of my friends who joined me around 9am in his surf kayak emailed it this afternoon… how cool :-)

anyway, back to the boat… got mine from Peter at Shoreham Sea Kayaks , if you’re interested in this or any of the other Tahe boats you could do no better than give him a call,  and you can find out more about the boat on the Tahe website here. The construction quality of mine by the way is truly excellent. ** update 4 July 09: More photos of the Greenland and it’s construction here: here: http://mikesimagination.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/tahe-greenland-more-photos/

* the green flash just as the sun dips below the horizon is a refraction effect of the atmosphere – higher frequency light (green/blue) curves more than lower frequency light (red/orange), so green/blue rays from the upper limb of the setting sun remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the earth. So there you go… don’t ever say this blog ain’t educational :-)

Now I really must get my arse in gear and sort my bike touring gear out…. so if you’ll excuse me.. à plus tard ;-)