DL - >phone Chris Duff. He is coming over to Victoria March 23 for a >slide show, "on Maori tides" (tickets going fast at Ocean River Sports). I >couldn't wait that long to talk to him. > >He was at home, working on his new book about the New Zealand adventure. > I had a few questions for him. I asked him about he boat breaking "in >half" (as exaggerated by some folks in Victoria). Chris said a few folks >said he >should have taken a plastic boat. Chris doesn't like the performance of >plastic >boats, We had at our national forum last weekend, the latest paddler to attempt a circumnavigation of the South Island (Chris spoke to us at our previous year's forum). He pulled out for this year a little before the halfway point after "problems". He was hit by 100+ kph winds, breaking 4 metre swells just at the end of a stretch of cliffs and in the end swam ashore. At one point the kayak turned bow towards the cliffs and surfed in - one bent kayak. Actually it was still paddleable or looks that way though about 4 feet of the front is quite wrinkled and though I didn't look inside, starting to delaminate (multilayer lightweight). He's getting another hull given to him to finish the trip next year. Work, holidays available and time of year have dictated that. The kayak, a plastic Quality Kayaks Penguin, 4.88 metres, lightweight version. >Chris also did miss a rudder or skeg on a number of occasions, As with all New Zealand produced kayaks, a rudder is a standard fitting. >And he had lots of surf. If Chris had surf, this year appears to have been worse with the resulting weeks of head winds down the east coast. Alex . . Alex (Sandy) Ferguson Chemistry Department University of Canterbury New Zealand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Mar 14 2001 - 14:10:37 PST
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