[Paddlewise] New boat launched

After six months of building I finally launched my new boat last 
weekend.  I started building the Outer Island (designed by Jay Babina) last 
January  The Outer Island is 17'10" long, 21" wide, with a low flat rear 
deck. One of the primary criteria for choosing the design was something 
that I could lay back on the deck with for layback rolls.  Once the plans 
arrived I decided that rather than buy pre-milled bead and cove strips I'd 
make an attempt and milling my own strips.  It turned out that it wasn't 
that difficult once I had the table saw and router table set up.  I'm glad 
I chose that route as it gave me more control in selecting wood colors. I 
knew it was going to take awhile to build so I decided not to rush it.  I 
certainly didn't work on it every day and getting a new puppy last November 
meant I just couldn't spend a lot of continuous time down in the basement 
and leave "Archie" unsupervised.  However, taking my time paid off.  The 
boat came out gorgeous and is everything I hoped it would be.

After a dousing of cheap champagne on the paddler (I wasn't about to try 
cracking a bottle of champagne across the bow) I climbed into the cockpit 
and took the first few strokes.  I paddled forward about 50' and then let 
it glide...and glide and glide.  It went straight. Whew.  I had hastily 
carved a foam seat for it and quickly realized that I'd have to carve it a 
bit deeper as the boat was a bit tippy sitting up so high.  After a half an 
hour or so I got used to the tippiness, but the high seat tended to force 
my legs into a too straight position.  The initial tippiness wasn't too bad 
but the transition from initial stability to secondary felt pretty 
squirrelly.

After paddling for less than five minutes said, "we'll, you going to roll 
it?"  Ok, next test.  I tipped over, set up and rolled up.  No problem.  I 
rolled a couple more times, slowing it down each time.  After spending all 
weekend it it and rolling it dozens of times I'd have to say that I don't 
think I've ever paddled a touring boat that was a easy to roll (yes, 
Gabriel, even easier than a Romany).

It was a busy day at the kayak shop so I spent a good part of the day 
helping out before getting back in near the end of the day.  I let a couple 
of friends paddle it and one thought it felt like he was sitting way too 
high in the cockpit so I borrowed the seat from a Seaward Endeavor 
(basically a thin piece of carved foam in a nylon casing.  The difference 
was *very* noticable.  It no longer felt tippy, and in fact, it felt quite 
stable.  The twitchiness between the intial and secondary stability point 
was gone.  It became very easy to gradually edge the boat from a flat hull 
until my head was in the water.  Rolling it became even easier.  Rather 
than a backband I built a foam "ramp" glued to the rear bulkhead.  Even 
with the very thin seat I can lay back onto the ramp and put my head on the 
rear deck without my back rubbing against the cockpit combing.  I still 
need to build in some knee padding but it's already pretty comfortable now 
that I've got the seat height figured out.

I also used flush hatches with internal bungies and didn't know how 
watertight they would be.  After spending several hours in it on Sunday, 
rolling dozens of times, the bow hatch was bone dry.  When I opened the 
stern hatch, I discovered that the hook I had glued to the inside of the 
hatch cover had come loose (I think because I had epoxied it after the 
cover had developed a bit of amine blush).  Even with the cover being held 
down only on one side I still only had a couple of spongefulls of water.

I have been keeping a web site with some building pictures on it (I tended 
to lapse near the end though) and once the picture of the launching get 
developed I'll post the URL.

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