Re: [Paddlewise] poor man's bivy

Elias Ross <genman_at_noderunner.net> asked:
<SNIP>>>>>>Speaking of bivies, I wonder who's slept inside their boat?  I
wonder if
anybody has modified their boat to make it possible to lay down and
sleep in.<<<<<

Having been influenced by long distance voyager John Dowd's first book "Sea
Kayaking" that had just come out (about 24 years ago) that had favored a
kayak like a Klepper you could sleep in, we made sure you could lay down and
sleep in our first kayak design, the original Mariner, if we had to spend
the night out at sea. Our second kayak the Escape also had a relatively high
front deck and the same long enough cockpit (that the sliding seat could be
slid all the way back in for more room) to be able to do this as well. I
could get all the way down in them both and rest my head on the seat for a
pillow. I may have fallen asleep for ten or fifteen minutes on Lake
Washington once while testing this in the wind waves and boat wakes at
Sandpoint. I hadn't intended to fall asleep but I found the rocking motion
of the broadside waves to be very relaxing even though they were 12 to 18"
high and quite steep and whitecaps were starting to form. I remember waking
up and wondering how far I had drifted before taking a look. I can sleep
almost anywhere, so this might not work for everybody even if the boat was
comfortable. I had learned is wasn't going to capsize and I could right it
easily if it did, and the wind wasn't blowing me towards shore but rather
along it, so I had very little to worry about to keep me awake. I usually
have carried a sea anchor when paddling on the open coast in case I couldn't
get back in through the surf and had to spend the night at sea but I have
never had to use it in earnest (or lay down in my kayak to get some rest and
lower my center of gravity while doing so).

With the center of gravity so low in that reclining position I had
discovered that I couldn't even capsize the kayak (to test righting it again
should I accidentally capsize) by rocking around inside it as hard as I
could. A roll was easy from that position though (when somebody would help
me capsize in the first place to practice). In fact, in the 20.5" wide
original Mariner I could right myself just by rocking around inside the boat
as it seemed a lot less stable when upside down than when right side up
(probably due to the high buoyant bow that didn't want to stay straight down
and round fore deck and narrow width). If I left my spraydeck on (it had
quite a large opening at the top if the shock cord wasn't tightened up at
all) I could slip down through the opening and close it over me (by
tightening the shock cord down to a little hole, or by gathering up the
slack near the opening and holding it together in my hand) and keep out
almost all the water when capsized. Then I could just rock the boat upright.
There was no hurry to do this though as there was plenty of air inside the
cockpit to breathe while upside down. As a back-up I learned that I could
reach one arm out of the hole in the spraydeck and right myself with one arm
sticking out of the cockpit very easily with just one downward stroke.

 I can still get slouched down to where only my arms and head are out of the
cockpit with the smaller cockpit size of our later kayaks but at 6'1" and
190 pounds with broad shoulders and size 12 feet it is harder for me to get
totally inside than it would be for a smaller person. To do this you must
either have a front bulkhead mounted well forward or no bulkhead and a float
bag with a long fill tube so you can let some air out of from the cockpit to
make room for your legs when laying in the cockpit (like I did).

Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.com

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