Some news are awaited so long that when they arrive we are almost embarrassed to make the announcement. Which is why this post is a short one.
In September 2007 I took a course from Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks the Wooden Boat School in beautiful Maine to build the Stitch & Glue Night Heron.
You walk out of the course with the hull assembled and one fill coat on the bottom of the boat. What's left sounds like little work: three fill coats on top and bottom, three coats of varnish on top and bottom, hatches, deck rigging, end pours, foot paddles, seat assembly, and finally grab loops.
Well, that little work added up to another 40 hours of work and took me all of a year and a half to get around completing. Partially because I ran into slight issues, such as water getting enclosed when pouring the end pours, and my own dust experience when varnishing (Why did I have to experience it myself, when I had already read about it? Well, now I know not to varnish dusty pieces in the middle of putting on the final coat. - Genius!).
Well, here it is, a new S&G Night Heron (at Shepherd Lake):
It handles quite well and is reasonable fast. Of course, my other kayak is what is now called a Klepper Aerius Classic I 450. That is a fast boat for it's length and width, but certainly can't keep up with an 18'x20" sea kayak:
I tested our three pairs of paddles and discovered that the best one for now (tomorrow's race) is the longer Werner pair, but it is really longer than needed.
Yuki and I did a bunch of test runs, which were well recorded by Yuki's mother, then packed up and went home.
No comments:
Post a Comment