for a weekend trip to St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore. Great paddling and great food. A vintage boat show at the museum to boot. If you happen to be there, paddle past Judge North's house near the Miles River YC. I believe that he may be having a party where he rolls out his vintage cars on the lawn for all to see. Absolutely stunning cars of Pebble Beach Concours quality. If you go to bigmac.smugmug.com, you will find photos of an earlier trip to St. Michaels. I was impressed once again with the utter brilliance and simplicity of the Long Haul/Klepper construction, details and strength. Nothing like Teutonic efficiency of design tweaked to perfection by Mark Eckhart, a genuine Amurican from Coloradi. I think that one of Mark's boats should hang in the Museum of Modern Art along with the Movado Watch and the other masterpieces of modern design. Wood.....stronger than steel ounce for ounce. God was a hell of an engineer. No pullys, tools, belts or pins. Goes together like a dream. The Long Haul double will never win awards for the lightest and most agile, but it's the boat I want to be in if things go wrong, I want to bring the kitchen sink, take a nap, read a novel or land a bluefin. I rigged a new Spirit Sail on a Long Haul deckboard and will be anxious to see how well it works. The Spirit Sail also has a certain simplicity of design that appeals to me. After our shake down in the Chesapeake, some friends and I will be off to Lake George in Early July for three days of camping on one an island in the Mother Bunch group. August will find us on Barters Island near Boothbay Maine for two weeks. We'll be staying in a Cottage with Finnegan and Lily, our perps. Jan's not a camper, but she's an avid paddler. This year we added a new Stolquist PFD for Janet, the Spirit Sail and and Icom M-32..... which means that I have shot the wad and can't think of anything else that we could possibly need except good weather. Actually, I was thinking of getting a 17 foot composite single to tow behind the long Haul. Inspired, I think, by the Ford Explorers towed behind the giant RVs. So there. I have half my fantasy. The 38 foot Erickson will just have to wait until I'm reincarnated as an investment banker. In the mean time. We're having a hell of a time with our little red kayak. John MacKechnie Bethlehem, PA *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
> No pullys, tools, belts or pins. Goes together like a dream. Yeah... there are pins, actually; many of them (not loaded with any stress - just retaining pins); they need both hands to lock or unlock, but, the word is, they are more reliable than aluminum locks used in Klepper. Longhauls have been making those doubles for a longer time than singles, so some details in a single need tune-up (I've got one); but nothing serious. Somehow they've missed out "the first thing in the morning", - I mean, in the evening :-) - when you land somewhere and want to tie the boat to something. Oops, no docking line; I had to add one, similarly to the one on Feathercrafts and some hardshells - tied to the bow and with a long loop (on sliding hangman's knot) clipped to the D-ring near cockpit. > The Long Haul double will never win awards for the lightest and most agile, Longhaul is a good one. Wide, stabile and a bit slow. Well, I don't complain - people say it's faster than Klepper AE. > I rigged a new Spirit Sail on a Long Haul deckboard and will be anxious to > see how well it works. It will work, - just enough to make paddling easier; not enough to make a trip wtihout paddling (if it's a smaller Spirit, 8 sq.ft). I tried my single Longhaul with 11 sq ft Pacific Action sail; just about the right size for this boat. > This year we added a new Stolquist PFD for Janet, the Spirit Sail and and > Icom M-32..... which means that I have shot the wad and can't think of > anything else that we could possibly need except good weather. With a high backrest of Longhaul and TAD bulky and stiff srpauskirt funnel (compared to nylon or neoprene ones) I found difficult to pick the right PFD. (For those who don't know this boat - its seat is something like those Crazy Creek chairs, with backrest few inches above the cockpit rim). So, my back was resting on the back of the PFD, not on the backrest itself. There are meshback PFDs by Lotus, but for now I've just cut some foam panels out of the back of the old canoe PFD, so that I could normally lean with my back against the backrest (when I need this). There is some other problem with this high backrest in a single LH - it sometimes hits the metal tip of the rear deckbar when I paddle and torso is pushing against the backrest. 1" thick wooden stoppers on the top section of the rib will solve the problem. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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