[Paddlewise] First Launch Announcement

Greetings!

Saturday, March 21st was another meeting of the Kayak Builders of
Southern California on the front lawn of the Southwind Kayaks store in
Irvine.  Our group has no real *membership* per se, and consists of
anyone who builds, or thinks of building, or is remotely interested in
building their own kayak.  Our touchstone is a web site maintained by
Rick Rubio and Jim Gabriel located at:

<http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/btreecs/>

Builders at Saturday's event showed several plywood stitch-and-glue
types, and a few skin boats.  After the showing and talking, the group
proceeded to the Newport Aquatic Center at North Star Beach on the
Newport Back Bay.  This is a shallow slough-type area perfect for a
relaxing and interesting paddle.  Go north and you're in a relatively
secluded environment great for bird watching.  Go south and you will
enter the Balboa/Newport harbor areas with tons of fancy (and not so
fancy) sail and powerboats, restaurants and watering holes, and
sightseeing possibilities quite different from the other end of the bay
on a sunny summer day.  But I digress...

On Saturday, March 21, I made the first launch and paddle of my own wood
strip kayak.  It has been about seven months of on-and-off work to get
to this point.  I won't say it is finished, yet.  I have some cockpit
outfitting to attend to, and few more coats of exterior varnish, but it
was a thrill to see my boat finally out in the sunshine, at water's edge
where she belongs; finally pushing-off and paddling her for the first
time!

The design is a "Panache" by Rob Macks of Laughing Loon:

<http://equinox.shaysnet.com/~robm/index.html>

It has an overall length of 18 feet, 5 inches, beam of 22-1/2 inches,
and is made of western red cedar and sitka spruce, using System Three
epoxies.  My initial impressions of handling are that it tracks
extremely well without a rudder, as long as you are not in a crosswind.
The boat is definitely subject to some weather cocking (fairly strong
wind conditions on Saturday; about 20 knots at times) and I was paddling
without any ballast like camping gear or whatever, so she presents a
fair amount of windage, especially on the bow.  Also, I found seat
placement to be important to maneuverability.  Sit too far back and she
was reluctant to turn, sit farther forward and it was not a problem.  I
worry about this a little for when I am carrying full camping gear and
more of the rocker is submerged.  Time will tell.  I am not interested
in a rudder if I don't have to have one.

Initial stability was delightfully tender, and secondary seemed quite
solid, though I really didn't push it too far.  I didn't want to go over
in the shallow muddy low tide conditions on my first day :-).  I'll save
that experiment for another time.  Carving the turns definitely helped,
and I'm sure when I have proper interior outfitting for my thighs and
knees I'll be more comfortable with that.

The boat is fast with little effort, the deck stays dry, and overall
feels very seaworthy.  In an area of  small reflected waves from the
concrete "cliffs" in a narrow portion of the harbor I could feel the
"confusion" though the hull, but no condition of the day, be it high
gusty wind or wave (maximum less than a foot) made the kayak feel less
than fully composed.  Since I mostly paddle the off-shore coast with
real currents and waves and wind, I will again have to say, "only time
will tell..." but I think this is going to be an excellent boat for my
channel-crossing, island-hopping, beach-camping plans.

On that note, the kayak has fore and aft bulkheads forming
hatch-accessible storage areas big enough for a three week trip even
carrying my own drinking water.  The capacity is awesome.

Finally, I will *eventually* write a more complete tale of construction
and post it to the Kayak Builders of Southern California web page.  The
photos from Saturday will go to the developer today, and be sent to the
web site by the end of the week, so look for the pic's sometime next
week.  Thanks to everyone who has offered support and advice over the
past several months.  And thanks to everyone Saturday who had such nice
things to say about my kayak.  I truly appreciate your encouragement.
                      >///:>Chris Hardenbrook<:\\\<
                        Sunny Southern California

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