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From: Paul Grant <paragrant_at_webtv.net>
subject: [Paddlewise] The Ultimate Kayak
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 18:07:53 -0800
In the 52nd edition of "NSW Sea Kayak Magazine" there's a great article
by Tim Dillenbeck titled The Ultimate Kayak.  I'm wondering if anyone
out there is familiar with this boat or the author.  Did anything ever
come of the design.
On Kayak Knives:  I've had a folding Stainless steel knife living in my
pfd pocket for about 5 years now. It has a small rust stain around the
hinge pin but still works fine.  I WD 40 it maybe once a year.  Got it
at Wal Mart for less than $5.
Paul on Puget Sound   
From: PeterO <rebyl_kayak_at_iprimus.com.au>
subject: RE: [Paddlewise] The Ultimate Kayak
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:00:22 +1100
Paul wrote: -
>I'm wondering if anyone out there is
>familiar with this boat or the author.

G'Day,

Amazing that our club magazine is so widely read!! And like Sea Kayaker
theres an increasingly lomg list of contributors waiting to be published.
I've often wondered what US readers might think of the Flotsam and Jetsam
page!

I knew Tim quite well, paddled with him from time to time until he went to
Queensland. He's a good bloke and a professional Naval Architect. I think
its fair to say that he has designed the most original kayak I've ever seen,
with an extraordinary miracle of a retractable rudder almost a skeg
mechanism. The stern is also unconventional looking more like the transom on
a yacht and betrays Tim's professional background. I've never paddled the
boat but some of the most experienced members of the NSWSKC, Rob Mercer and
Andrew Eddy, were both very impressed with it. I believe it is being
manufactured commercially in Queensland but that the retractable rudder
almost a skeg has been simpified in the interest of mass production,
maintainability and reliability.

All the best, PeterO

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