Bumpy Bits.

Managed to get out with the club again last night ! The tide at Chanonry was on the way out and there was a fresh breeze blowing against it from the east.

We paddled into the wind towards Fort George. Just around the point at Chanonry the tide runs quite fast, it was a nice paddle into the wind. We were pointing into the waves ( which I like ) but the swell was changing direction and coming more and more from the side.

When hillwalking you know that conditions can change rapidly, when sea kayaking the conditions and sea seem to change by the second - it's great !

Up ahead the waves were breaking on the shore just past the fort, we headed there. Neil took the first group in I stayed out and nearly went in with the bigger waves until Neil pointed out a better route to come in on.

That's what's good about paddling with the club, there's a constant flow of helpful info and advice, both theory and practise.

Once ashore I watched as Neil guided in another paddler.



Straighten up now...



There we go..



Once we had been fed and watered or tea'd and coffee'd we were going to go back to the larger waves but they had disappeared.

There was still fun to be had though, on nearing Chanonry the waters got a bit bumpy again. There was a wee section of overfalls ? which was quickly followed by some lumpy stuff like clapotis. We detoured to the right of this and took a shore route in. ( Sorry my descriptions of the water are poor, something to brush up on )

My boat performed much better tonight, even in the lumpy stuff, no problem at all in that sideways swell. I had two bottles of water fitted to the boat. YES fitted.

I wanted to make sure the bottles wouldn't shift if I decided to go upside down so I glassed in some fixings.



Add a strap and then your preferred ballast.



Doesn't look that pretty but it gives me the reassurance that the bottles won't be tumbling about if the sh*t hits the fan. Still working on the best positioning and number of bottles.

Hip Pads

No paddling in my days off this week as I was installing new gates, that Postcrete is good stuff eh ?

I didn't take any photo's of the gate build but I did sneak off and do a bit on the boat and took photo's of that !

I wanted to make the cockpit a little snugger ( is that a real word ? ) so I did the following.

I had some handy tubing fitted as part of seat lowering. I knew back then that I could use the tubes to help with fitting hip pads. First I cut some foam to size.



Hey, google web albums now lets you choose the size of the image. Looks like they listen to customer feedback !

So next to those tubes. I did have ideas of sliding another tube inside but I went for the easy option, drill some holes in it for cable ties.



Now a wee covering of sleeping mat, tucked into the seat at the bottom.
***Sleeping mat supplied by Andy Todd. He's the guy that gets you stuff, whatever you need he's the guy. You're old lady giving you grief ? He's the guy ***



Finish off with another cable tie.



And that's it folks. I'm now as snug in this boat as I am in the wee river boat, sea trials begin on Monday so long as the gate hanging goes without a hitch.

You Silly Id-uit

You know when you wake up with an idea in your head ? Well after the nightshift I awoke this morning thinking that I would take that wooden home made paddle down to the water, my Sea kayak is away right now so I had to use the wee thing.



The dog was wise and went back into the house. It was 8degC today with no wind, quite nice.

I went in with the normal paddle first and warmed up then did a couple of rolls. I then grabbed the wooden thingy. Very strange, I felt it was harder to control the boat's direction and also the stroke was not as smooth. The water seemed to judder past the blades which doesn't happen at all with the 'normal' paddle.

Anyway I tried to roll with it and had no luck. Another swim to the beach again today then, hands freezing and basically useless on reaching the shore.

I had another new bit of gear today which helped a lot with my 'head in the sea' moments. A friend bought me this for my birthday. He tried it on before giving it to me and was worried it was too little. I can testify that this thing is REALLY tight, but I think it needs to be.



It's action is probably spoiled slightly by the fact that I have to slot my glasses into it and so open up gaps on both sides.
The hood can also be slipped back when it's warm and easily stretches into this position despite it's initial close fit.



So there's you have it, two bits of gear tested today, the paddle needs more testing but the hood worked very well.

About My Drysuit

I was fortunate enough to be telling a friend of mine about my interest in Sea Kayaking. They enquired as to the type of wetsuit I wore and I replied that I wore a 'longjohn' and a dry cag, but that I was looking for a drysuit. They had one in their locker at work which they hadn't used and I could have it, I told them I would give them something in return.

-For Tech Info On The Suit-

The locker was on a north sea oil platform, I had no idea what it would be like. It came home two weeks later and I gave them four bottles of single malt for it.

The suit is a three layer affair.

From drysuit

Polychlal knit outer, whatever that is, then a Goretex middle, and a fleece inside, very nice.

Now the fit isn't great as my pal is bigger than me but it does the job. Prepare for some great posing in the next two pics !





It has a cork screw style zip starting at the top back and ending where it can be used as a relief zip.



Heres the nice soft fleece inner, there's also loads of space for thermal base layers and fleece's if it's really nippy.



Here's the collar which occasinaly lets a drip or two in, but makes my normal touring cag feel like a sieve.



Not sure what this thing would cost to buy and I don't know if other sea kayaking drysuits have fleece liners ? I get the whisky for nothing so it didn't really cost me anything :-)

Seat Lowering V2

I wanted to put blocks inside the boat between the seat and the deck where I had only a bolt and lockniys before, just to relieve any strain on the deck.
Something very stiff was needed but with a tiny bit of flex, something that wouldn't corrode. Blocks of wood were considered and high density foam but these didn't quite fit the bill, metal was right out.
Then it came to me, plastic pipe. I found a length in the shed and it was a perfect fit.



I had toyed with the idea of fitting a longer piece so that I could add mat to make thigh pads but it would have been a job getting enough padding on and being able to fit it between the pipe and the side of the boat.



I'm going to get thinner pipe, make up some hip pads then slide it into the pipe I have fitted, make adjustments then glue or screw into place.
I also added a foam block behind the seat for more stability.



And for good measure a big one under the front of the seat.



Now if that isn't stable I'm going to have to weld in a metal one !

Black Isle Stability Check

Today I was able to have a wee paddle over to the Black Isle.
I set off from the slip, my usual departure site for trips in the firth.



I noticed the difference from lowering the seat immediately, much better stability. I was quite surprised how much better the boat felt.

Paddled under the 'smelter pier'.

This used to have a conveyer belt running from the end right into the Aluminium Smelter. Now wagons roll up and down to load and unload various other cargoes.


I then headed towards the end of the Admiralty pier to make the crossing.


Near the other side I manged to get some shots of the other stuff in the firth, it's usually rigs in for repairs.


Here's the view back to the Admiralty Pier.


On the Black Isle I stopped for a coffee.




Then headed back. On the way into the tide and a wee breeze the GPS reported 6.6 - 6.9 kph. It was now telling me 7.5kph this is similar to what I was getting before the seat lowering. The twitchiness I felt last week seems to have disappeared too. I got some pics on the way back.


You can see Ben Wyvis behind this rig.


I also spotted the object that I hit last week when it was submerged, a big bloody tyre !


And that was it, I am happy with the seat lowering results. No, I am very happy. There seemed to be no movement, the seat is quite frimly pinned hard to the hull against the additional foam. I may still put blocks between the seat and the deck just to be on the safe side.
A nice paddle.

Lowering The Seat On P&H Sirius

After reading Douglas Wilcox' writings about improving stability on the P&H boats fitted with a plastic seat, I decided to give it a go.

The first problem was removing the seat. After removing the securing bolts I was able to slide the seat about so it was not glued to the hull but I simply could not get the thing out. I wonder how P&H ever got the thing in there, maybe it's heated up to make it more pliable ?

Drastic measures were needed, I cut it in half !





I then removed the excess foam from underneath. I bought some more M8 bolts, nylock nuts and washers. The seat was replaced and taped back together.



I then added more foam to the front to stabilise the seat, 'glueing' it to the seat with silicon sealant. I think the front part of the seat is close to what it was originally.



The bolts were put in and in the absence of nylon washers I used PTFE tape to make a seal. I screwed nylocks and washers on the inside to fasten the bolts and then another nylock and washer before passing the bolt through the seat, this was to keep the seat pushed down.If this proves too unstable I may add small blocks of foam or wood.



You can see the gap between the seat and the deck in the above pic. There used to be no gap here with the seat bolted hard up against it.

I fitted one more set of nylocks and washers to the underside of the seat.

A small piece of foam was needed at the back.



Everything was tightened up and the seat pad replaced to hide the tape. My butt now sits 40mm nearer the bottom of the boat.

From Seat Lowering

I couln't get out to see the difference today as the weather is crap again.

Lollypop Stick

I decided to have a go at making an Inuit paddle following the general intructions found here

I have to say that I ain't no joiner and I was a bit, no a lot rough. I chewed a lump out of the end with the circular saw then over egged the depth of cut in several places with the wood saw :-)

It all started with a piece of scaffoling board. First cuts were made witha circular saw then not very tidied up with a wood saw, surplane, spokeshave and sandpaper.

The result was something like this.

From Inuit

The sandpaper for the loom is still attached.
As I said the thing is ruff ruff, I forgot to mention the attacks I made on it with a chisel and an axe !!

From Inuit

Anyway here she is after a few coats of Danish Oil.

From Inuit

I don't think I will be trying it out until I have paddled the new boat a wee bit longer.