> Finally got on the site and can see it's appeal for all the pockets. > Speaking from being all legs and what is left is torso, I think the vest > is a bit too long for the spray skirt- end up with a pool of water > around you if the vest comes lower than the cockpit rim I paddle a SOT so that's not a problem for me. It ends above the waistline as it has belt loops sewed on the bottom so it can be fastened to a belt or one of those military web belts. > .. Might be a good idea to check the return policy before the > investment. This is always a good idea, I always read/check the warranty and return police before I buy anything. **************************************** I had an experience today at Monterey that drove home to me, very solidly, the philosophy of backup the backup plan that Matt and Doug seem to propound often. If I hadn't been exposed to that I might not be here. I went out from MBK's beach at the same time that a guy with even less experience than I have was going out. He said he'd been in a kayak a couple of times. The waves were a little confused but not big and the swells were 4-5 feet with a really long period, like I could turn around 360 deg. between them no problem. I even sat abeam watching things for quite a while no problem. I went out to the Aquarium area and stayed pretty well off shore because there were some pretty good breakers going in there with surfer's playing. All was pretty copacetic until I had passed the breakwater on my return and was maybe 600-800 yards off the MBK beach when suddenly I capsized. I was caught completely by surprise. My Cobra Explorer is pretty wide and pretty stable, I thought. I suddenly found myself at about 30 deg. and there was nothing I could do to keep from going over. Here's what I think Matt mentioned somewhere about initially stable boat not having much secondary stability, and vicey versey. "Oh well, I thought. No big problem, I've gotten back into a SOT (my old royks) a thousand times when I was diving." This was the first time I tried it in this boat. (MISTAKE, I should have experimented close to the beach.) I tried pushing myself down and then kicking hard to drive me up and pulling the boat in under me at the same time, the way I did with the Royaks. It didn't work. When diving I would sometimes almost overshoot the boat. I had more boyancy, lower on my body with a full farmer john 1/4 inch wetsuit with short leg 1/4 jacket, and an inflated BC over that. Plus I had fins on. I'm going to buy some fins to keep in the boat too, even when I don't plan on diving. I know I can put them on in the water, I've done it a lot. ("Where did I hear that thinking before?" Perhaps some practice, close to the beach is in order?) When I grabbed perimeter rope on the opposite side and tried to get in, the boat tipped over on top of me. Then I tried both ends and couldn't get up enough to stay on. I started feeling really cold and could feel my strength going on a long trip. I decided "to heck with this, if this goes on much longer I'm in real trouble", so I pulled out one of the flares I had and popped it up into the sky. When I was trying to get into the boat the moving around seemed to be pumping cold water into my "dry" clothes so I decided to stop the futile effort and just float, holding onto the boat. Just as I was about to pop off my remaining two flares,the guy that went out just before me, who had been paddling around the harbor looking at the boats, showed up. He saw my flare from near by and came right over. With him to help, by stabilizing my boat by holding onto the opposite side of my boat and pushing down on the gunwale, I was easily able to pull myself up onto the boat, even in my near exhausted state. There I just lay crosswise on my belly like a beached whale for two minutes, catching my breath and enoying being out of the cold water. I rolled over, sat, and pulled in my paddle by the tether and was ready to paddle back in when one of the MBK people showed up. Tom? Thin younger than me guy with short hair, really nice. He said to go on in and stand under the hot shower and drink sumpin' hot. I got ashore and felt OK on the way in, guess the exercise made me feel warmer. By the time I got up to the shop I was shaking with cold so when I did the hot shower thing it was almost as good as sex. (Certainly not as good as sex in the hot shower.) In a very short time I felt fine and got into dry clothes and downed some hot cocoa and was in good shape. Spoke to the CG on the phone, they showed up about the time I was hitting the beach. The experience taught me a little. (Definition of experience, mistakes that you live through.) I immediately bought one of Matt's paddle floats, which would have allowed me to easily and quickly re-enter the boat. I didn't think I needed one in a SOT. Now I think it's a good idea. I didn't experience any trouble getting into a sit in side boat during the classes I took at Santa Cruz. In the future I plan to carry it 80% inflated in the tank well behind my seat under bungees as suggested in the manual. This will be conveniently to hand and quicker to implement if I don't have to blow them up, while I'm in the water. I think I may get a second one as a backup or to use one on each end of the paddle if anybody ever gets hurt or so cold they can't paddle very well, or sea sick. I'm going to rig a stirrup to use with the paddle floatsystem, too, which will make it even quicker to get out of the water. COLD water sucks! I'm glad I had, at least, the sense to confine my paddling to an area where I was probably always under someone's eye, in the cannery row/harbor area. If I hadn't and had been dressed for a summer's day, I might have been in REAL trouble. My wife is buying me a wet suit for Christmas and with that on over a polartec longjohn top, and under a Polartec vest and "dry" paddling jacket, I should be a lot more comfortable if I do end up in the wet away from my boat. In the summer some of that insulation will have to go. When diving, in a wet suit, I didn't get cold for an hour or so. Already using a paddle tether which made it easier to try to get into the boat without losing that. For anyone who hasn't seen Matt's float, it comes with tether that is long enough so you can probably leave it snapped to the boat while doing your boat re-entry. For the sit in side crew he describes what sounds like a really good idea, if you're in really rough conditions and your roll isn't bombproof, for fastening it to the middle of your paddle where you could paddle with it on and then if you capsize you can easily, & very quickly,push it to the end of your paddle and use it to right the boat. It's very well made and can even double as a dry bag and still be used as a float. Good design, Matt, not that I'm surprised, after reading you here and on your web site. 'Nother problem was my PFD rode up, which means I wasn't floating as high in the water as I'd like. That might have made a real difference in re-entering the boat, who knows. I looked at all the PFDs that MBK had and they all looked as tho' they might ride up. The Tactical Float vest has crotch straps like a 'jump' harness which would make sure the flotation stayed low on you. It might make sense to use crotch straps on any vest. As Shakespeare said, "all's well that ends well." If anyone can learn from my mistakes (besides me, I hope), the discomfort and fear will have been worthwhile. Comments and suggestions welcome, I developed a thick skin when I was a cop and this isn't the first time I made a mistake. I think there was one about 42 years ago when I got married the first time. :-) Happy by tes, ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Flory, San Jose, CA. daflory_at_pacbell.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speak softly and study Aikido, then you won't need a big stick. ©1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Dec 08 1999 - 21:14:15 PST
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