Doug, I enjoyed your 3-part trip report. As always, reading it provided more insight into your fascinating character. Those darn skegs! It is funny to once again read about another paddler (someone in your group) having major skeg problems on a trip. I am beginning to think that the old sales pitch that skegs are more reliable than rudders is the biggest scam to hit the kayaking industry. Once again it is too bad that more kayaks aren't designed to not need them. As for your comments about rounded hulls vs. chined hulls, I like them both for different reasons. The rounded hulls seem more forgiving in the surf and rough surging water. Chined hulls are a bit grabby (gotta keep the edge up) in the surf and rough surging water, but they also track and carve edged turns better. Choosing between them is a flip of the coin for me. My Point Bennett is a hard chined hull simply because it was easier to design and build in plywood. I would like to hear more comments from you about the Romany and Mariner II that you tested on the trip. It is interesting that you read novels on your trip. I haven't read fiction in a dozen years. It just seems that there are too many interesting true events to read about to be spending time reading made-up stories. Except for books about local history, geology, wildlife and etc., I don't usually read on trips. I like to live in the moment rather than what's written on a page, sort of like living my own adventures rather than read about others. A funny example is my wife sitting on the couch reading about yoga while I was doing my nightly yoga routine right in front of her. You wrote about beating your kayak up on the trip, and recently you wrote about strength demands you had for a kayak you might build. I am a supporter of strong, well built kayaks too, but only to a certain degree. I think it might be better to have a kayak that can be easily carried and only needs an occasional repair, rather than one that is hard to carry and never needs repair. There is also a certain appeal to paddling a kayak in rock gardens, knowing that if you mess up, you might damage your kayak. Besides, nothing is indestructible, including our bodies. It was also interesting to read about your feelings about being in a group, because you are usually a solo paddler and tripper. I could tell that with the group and your health problems, you were really having to hold back, which probably wasn't a bad thing. Again, I really enjoyed the trip report and hope to someday meet and paddle with you. Duane Strosaker Southern California *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Aug 26 2004 - 21:43:25 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:16 PDT