Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Change of Plans...
Life...
Enough said. You have probably figured out by the lack of posts to this blog that my plate must be pretty full. Understatement.
Skeptic is sitting in the basement in Connecticut as a million unfinished pieces and I am in Florida with no way to put the pieces together.
As impossible as it sounds, it was looking like EC2011 was going to be a bigger bust for me than EC2010 was. Last years boat isn't going to make the scene (and is a subject that I'd rather not discuss). Skeptic isn't going to be ready in time. What to do?
I thought long and hard about my options and kept coming up with nothing. It is in my nature to do something in an over-the-top type of way. Our family motto is Fortuna Favor Audaci, which we take to mean 'Go Big or Go Home'. So I ran through every option that I could think of for each and every class, looking for something that I could put together in next to no time, with next to no money that had a good chance of winning. You might be thinking "Yeah, good luck with that...". You'd be right - not happening.
So I did some serious soul searching and playing against type, decided that rather that trying to win it all, I'd hang back, just finish, and enjoy the ride. You might be tempted to say, "Duh...". But this kind of thinking is somewhat revolutionary for me.
I could take my wife's Hobie Tandem Island and race in that, but, while we have a great time pottering around in it as a family, it wasn't speaking to me as the boat I wanted to race in. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it just wasn't 'me'. Turns out that was a good decision because my daughter Elizabeth aka Ginkgo, has now claimed it for herself to race.
Something simple and cheap - kayak is the obvious choice. I could get one for a reasonable price and they are the boat of choice of many of the EC veterans. My problem is that I can't sit in a kayak for more than 20 minutes before I go out of my mind. It's a very uncomfortable seating position for me. No way was I going to be able to do 300 miles in a kayak. I could do it in a Kruger, but there was no time to have one built (and no money), plus, it isn't really my style either. That put paid to classes 1 and 3.
Class 4 monohull would be too expensive and require a search to find a suitable boat. Most, if not all, of the boats that have competed in the past don't have much appeal to me anyway. The possible exception being Wizards really interesting boats, but then again, no time to have Matt design one to my peculiar sensibilities and no time (or money) to build one. Class 4 - out. Class 5 would be a possibility. I have the A-class cat that I bought to serve as parts for Skeptic and I could put it back together and give it a go. But, it's in CT and there's no way that I could find the time to drive up there and drag it back here. Scratch that idea. Every other Class 5 boat I could think of/find was too expensive or too impractical, or both - naturally. Class 5 - out.
This leaves Class 2. Class 2 has always been the farthest from my mind because I've been a sailor and a rower all my life and not a paddler - canoe paddler, yes - kayak paddler, no. I considered a Huki Dragon Boat which is a sort of surfski with training wheels but I felt that after the bad boat decision I made in 2010 I couldn't afford to commit to a type of boat I'd never even seen, let alone paddled.
The boat that I finally settled on was an OC-1 outrigger canoe. It has a much more upright seating position that a kayak (which is much more comfortable for me), plus, it's a sit-on-top which means that I can move my legs around and stretch them when I get uncomfortable. I did a bunch of internet research and came up with a boat that I thought would work. I contacted the builder and found out the the East coast rep was only a 40 min drive from me. I got in touch with him and he brought three different boats down to the beach and we went out paddling. I tried a Hurricane (which was the winner of my internet search contest), a Pegasis, and a Zephyr. The Hurricane was a very stable boat and the fastest boat on the flat, but it has a small seat (great for a sprint - not so much 300 miles) and the deck design was going to make it next to impossible to stow all of the stuff that is required for the EC. The Pegasis was a more comfortable boat and had a better hull layout for stowage, but it has a very large upsweep to the ama - useful for the big Hawaiian ocean swells, but not so good for for paddling in the flat with a crosswind or paddling upwind. Too much to get caught by the wind and blown around. It also seemed (to me) to be less stable. The Zephyr was sort of in the middle. It wasn't as fast in the flat as a hurricane, but it was really comfortable and has a hull design that would not only accommodate stowing things on deck, I could even place a large hatch under the seat and stow stuff in the hull of the vaka. Plus it was white - SOLD $2500
I've got a new Kialoa bent shaft paddle (carbon) coming via slow boat from Hawaii - should be here next week (I hope). I've ordered a hatch from Defender Marine - due in the 29th. I'm going to build a deck bag for the foredeck, a spray skirt, plus I'm going to rig some netting between the iakos (crossbeams) to hold some stuff as well as maybe even giving me the ability to sleep on the boat - sweet.
The nice thing about the netting is that I can stow enough stuff there to put some weight on the ama. This will make the boat super stable and prevent a huli (capsize) when I'm not concentrating as well as I should be - if you can imagine that ever happening ;o)
I've been out paddling every day and loving it. I have plenty of time before March to get in shape. And plenty of time to make the changes I need to make to the boat.
So, my thought for this years EC is, as long as I don't stop paddling - what could possibly go wrong?
I'll post some pics and a movie or two sometime soon.
See you on the beach,
Komoniwannashoya
Enough said. You have probably figured out by the lack of posts to this blog that my plate must be pretty full. Understatement.
Skeptic is sitting in the basement in Connecticut as a million unfinished pieces and I am in Florida with no way to put the pieces together.
As impossible as it sounds, it was looking like EC2011 was going to be a bigger bust for me than EC2010 was. Last years boat isn't going to make the scene (and is a subject that I'd rather not discuss). Skeptic isn't going to be ready in time. What to do?
I thought long and hard about my options and kept coming up with nothing. It is in my nature to do something in an over-the-top type of way. Our family motto is Fortuna Favor Audaci, which we take to mean 'Go Big or Go Home'. So I ran through every option that I could think of for each and every class, looking for something that I could put together in next to no time, with next to no money that had a good chance of winning. You might be thinking "Yeah, good luck with that...". You'd be right - not happening.
So I did some serious soul searching and playing against type, decided that rather that trying to win it all, I'd hang back, just finish, and enjoy the ride. You might be tempted to say, "Duh...". But this kind of thinking is somewhat revolutionary for me.
I could take my wife's Hobie Tandem Island and race in that, but, while we have a great time pottering around in it as a family, it wasn't speaking to me as the boat I wanted to race in. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it just wasn't 'me'. Turns out that was a good decision because my daughter Elizabeth aka Ginkgo, has now claimed it for herself to race.
Something simple and cheap - kayak is the obvious choice. I could get one for a reasonable price and they are the boat of choice of many of the EC veterans. My problem is that I can't sit in a kayak for more than 20 minutes before I go out of my mind. It's a very uncomfortable seating position for me. No way was I going to be able to do 300 miles in a kayak. I could do it in a Kruger, but there was no time to have one built (and no money), plus, it isn't really my style either. That put paid to classes 1 and 3.
Class 4 monohull would be too expensive and require a search to find a suitable boat. Most, if not all, of the boats that have competed in the past don't have much appeal to me anyway. The possible exception being Wizards really interesting boats, but then again, no time to have Matt design one to my peculiar sensibilities and no time (or money) to build one. Class 4 - out. Class 5 would be a possibility. I have the A-class cat that I bought to serve as parts for Skeptic and I could put it back together and give it a go. But, it's in CT and there's no way that I could find the time to drive up there and drag it back here. Scratch that idea. Every other Class 5 boat I could think of/find was too expensive or too impractical, or both - naturally. Class 5 - out.
This leaves Class 2. Class 2 has always been the farthest from my mind because I've been a sailor and a rower all my life and not a paddler - canoe paddler, yes - kayak paddler, no. I considered a Huki Dragon Boat which is a sort of surfski with training wheels but I felt that after the bad boat decision I made in 2010 I couldn't afford to commit to a type of boat I'd never even seen, let alone paddled.
The boat that I finally settled on was an OC-1 outrigger canoe. It has a much more upright seating position that a kayak (which is much more comfortable for me), plus, it's a sit-on-top which means that I can move my legs around and stretch them when I get uncomfortable. I did a bunch of internet research and came up with a boat that I thought would work. I contacted the builder and found out the the East coast rep was only a 40 min drive from me. I got in touch with him and he brought three different boats down to the beach and we went out paddling. I tried a Hurricane (which was the winner of my internet search contest), a Pegasis, and a Zephyr. The Hurricane was a very stable boat and the fastest boat on the flat, but it has a small seat (great for a sprint - not so much 300 miles) and the deck design was going to make it next to impossible to stow all of the stuff that is required for the EC. The Pegasis was a more comfortable boat and had a better hull layout for stowage, but it has a very large upsweep to the ama - useful for the big Hawaiian ocean swells, but not so good for for paddling in the flat with a crosswind or paddling upwind. Too much to get caught by the wind and blown around. It also seemed (to me) to be less stable. The Zephyr was sort of in the middle. It wasn't as fast in the flat as a hurricane, but it was really comfortable and has a hull design that would not only accommodate stowing things on deck, I could even place a large hatch under the seat and stow stuff in the hull of the vaka. Plus it was white - SOLD $2500
I've got a new Kialoa bent shaft paddle (carbon) coming via slow boat from Hawaii - should be here next week (I hope). I've ordered a hatch from Defender Marine - due in the 29th. I'm going to build a deck bag for the foredeck, a spray skirt, plus I'm going to rig some netting between the iakos (crossbeams) to hold some stuff as well as maybe even giving me the ability to sleep on the boat - sweet.
The nice thing about the netting is that I can stow enough stuff there to put some weight on the ama. This will make the boat super stable and prevent a huli (capsize) when I'm not concentrating as well as I should be - if you can imagine that ever happening ;o)
I've been out paddling every day and loving it. I have plenty of time before March to get in shape. And plenty of time to make the changes I need to make to the boat.
So, my thought for this years EC is, as long as I don't stop paddling - what could possibly go wrong?
I'll post some pics and a movie or two sometime soon.
See you on the beach,
Komoniwannashoya
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