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

Let's give credit where credit is due, John Fereira wrote the paragraph
ascribed to me.

Dave Seng

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Su Penn [mailto:supenn_at_voyager.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 1999 7:14 AM
> To: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
> Subject: 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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