[Paddlewise] My Tardy Introduction

Greetings,

   Although I've been a routine "listener" of this
great group of paddlers for over a year now, I'm 
only now getting around to introducing myself. I
happily own a folding sea kayak, the Klepper Aerius
I 2000. It's of the single-mini class of kayaks, if
I'm not mistaken. A modest picture of it is on my
web page, http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~meehan. I
took possesion of my boat back in 1997, after consulting
with Ralph Diaz first, of course. :-) As he had
explained to me, this boat was of two models, the designs
of the first version having been lost in a fire at
the Klepper facility. So they apparently reconstructed
the design, which is what I now own. It really is a
pleasure to paddle, and has a very nice glide to it.

  Lake paddles in northern New England (I live in
the Boston area) are more to my liking, rather than
the sea. Part of this is due to my Klepper's length
of 12.5 feet, which doesn't seem suitable for the open
waters. Also, the design of the spray skirt necessitates
that I apply a velco strip permanently to the beautiful
wood of the coaming, which conflicts with my impression
of the boat's aesthetics. If there are alternatives
to this design, I'd love to hear of it. I seem to recall
that Klepper used to make a tuck-under spray skirt.

  If there are any New Englanders out there, perhaps
we can meet for a paddle some day. My most memorable paddle
was out onto a lake in New Hampshire one August evening
to sit back and enjoy the Perseid meteor shower. At the time,
I had been introduced to the Folbot line of kayaks in the
early 1980s as a teenager. 

  Aside from kayaking, I work as a physicist at the Center
for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA, where I contribute to the
exciting field of x-ray astronomy. I played a part in building
an x-ray telescope observatory that has been orbiting the Earth for 
about two years now.

  I look forward to continuing my kayak education by reading
these informative posts.

  Sincerely,

  Gary Meehan

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