RE: [Paddlewise] Successful Paddle-Float Re-entry

Dave Seng wrote:

>  I assume that most people are aware of the technique but you can
>  also get a piece of rope about 15' long and tie the ends to form
>  a loop.  Lay the paddle across the deck and through the loop.
>  Pull the rope under the boat and then wrap it around the shaft
>  several times to form a stirrup.  Stepping into the stirrup
>  while the other leg goes over the paddle and paddlfloat will make
>  it much easier to climb onto the deck without using a lot of
>  upper body strength.

I used a simpler variation on this trick when I was learning the re-entry
night before last, and it worked very well for me. My boat, an Old Town
Loon 138, sits relatively high out of the water. I just put a loop of
webbing around the coaming of the boat so that it hung down into the water
to about even with the bottom of the boat. With my left foot on the paddle
shaft, my right foot in the stirrup, and my hands grabbing the far side of
the coaming, I was able to lift myself easily onto the boat. My friend Eli,
who also learned the re-entry at the same time, was able to do it without
the stirrup, but then she weighs probably about eighty pounds less than me,
has terrific upper body strength for a woman, and was in a boat whose deck
is lower. On the other hand, the boat she was using had no back deck
rigging, so she had to hold the paddle to the boat with one hand, and she
has cerebral palsy, so maybe it all evens out.

People have also responded to my question about how to right your boat
without getting water in it by making some suggestions about PFDs and by
telling me to learn to roll. I don't plan to learn to roll anytime soon, as
the Loon is not the kind of boat you roll in.

And believe me, I would love to own a better-fitting PFD, but I have tried
on plenty in different brands and styles and I have the same problem with
all of them, which is that they are a little too long (maybe because men
are used as the models?). Every type of PFD I've tried on is too long in
the body; they all come to slightly _below_ my waist, so that when I
tighten the waist strap, it's not at my narrowest point, and it wants to
slide up to my narrowest point. This is true even of brands, like the one I
own, that have shoulder straps to adjust the length, and of special "short"
PFDs especially designed for kayaking. I might have less trouble with this
if I were a smaller woman, but I wear an XL PFD and I think they get a
little longer as they get bigger, whereas I do not get longer no matter how
big I get.

I do intend to install a crotch strap on my PFD as the best option
available to me right now; several people asked, "but how will that work
with a spray skirt?" Well, in the kind of boat I have and the kind of
paddling I do, I don't wear a spray skirt unless there's weather, so that
wouldn't be an issue much of the time. My friend Adrianne, who is an ace
seamstress, also thinks she might be able to secure the strap inside the
PFD in such a way that my spray skirt could slide up between the PFD and
the crotch strap. I'll let you know if that works.

Su Penn


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