Re: [Paddlewise] Another Tiderace Review

I paddle with all kinds of people who bring along the paddling philosophy they've developed over how long they have been paddling. When trouble starts it is often a series of small things that culminate in a yard sale. Like the paddle float that was clipped onto the rear deck of my friends Mariner Express. She said it was wave proof. I raised my eyebrows, flashed a grin and said, it's your call. Coming back to Hobuck beach from Cape Flattery there was that one last wave that washed it off the deck, unrolled it in small 3 foot waves, extended the length of the tether and broached her along the wave, all the while going eeeeeeeeek. Luckily she stayed in the boat and not go over until someone else could sort her out.

Not 30 minutes later another friend, who paddles a Coaster and clipped his paddle float to the rear deck rigging, was playing along a reef front and when a set developed and it was his time to boogie outta there, guess what? Yep, you got it, the *wave proof* paddle float connected to the rear deck rigging washed off, unfurled to the length of its tether, filled with water and broached him along the very wave he desperately wanted to avoid. He was dragged back into the reef and capsized. He completed a roll, luckily not entangling himself in the tether, grabbed the big bag of water, stuffed it on his lap and resumed his hasty paddle out to a protected area to detox from adrenal bingeing.

The debrief on the beach went like this:

Each of their boats could have provided a secure place to lash the pump and float without subjecting?them to the absconding ways of ocean waves. Failing that, a place could have been found on their life jackets for at least the paddle float. Events were set into motion to rescue the folks failing their inability help themselves. Should a swim occur in those 2 incidents we would not have sat around and waited for them to blow up the float and rescue themselves, so why have them there in the first place? Habits learned some time ago and not means tested for that day. The takeaway for me that day and many more preceding and following is that the more stuff a person puts on his or her deck, the more ocean litter that will occur and more body, boat and blade yard sales to clean up, sometimes in places where it is not advised to do so. It was understood then that none of this is a problem inherent with the boat or more importantly the deck of the boat, it was a problem with how th
 e operator of the boat thought about what they would bring along for the day and how their expectations for conditions did not reflect reality. There is a reason why whitewater paddlers have nothing on their decks. I have never seen a Sealine deck bag, a set of splits or a paddle float and pump on the deck of a river kayak. In the ocean, though it is a completely different environment, waves steal all kinds of stuff from unwitting paddlers.

Basically what is on my deck is a recessed compass, a paddle in the front where the shafts are encased in 90 degree plumbing pipe waste elbows and secured under bungie, a short tow line with krab and a chart. Incidentally, I removed the perimeter lines from the recessed VCP deck fittings one place above where they usually terminate in front of the cockpit. This enables my tethered chart case to be seated on my deck or slid up under the bungie. Although I sometimes tether my pump to the rear deck, most of the time it is wedged behind the seat, quite close to where the float is lashed behind the back band. When I'm on the river there is nothing on front or rear deck.

Cheers,

Rob G



For Rob Gibbert, Sterling and I also talked about deck designs. He and I
agreed that anything you put on your deck is likely to be lost. I put charts
under the bungees forward, tether my GPS and keep it on deck, tether my
flashlight and keep it on deck, and I put my spare paddle (2-piece) aft
under the deck rigging. I really don't like anything else on the decks. The
deck rigging on Mariners has been given rave reviews by several paddlers but
I took a look at it yesterday with Rob's eyes and I have to say that it does
look cluttered. Part of this is the 1980s design. Sterling thinks that he
could bring the deck into the 21st century and I tend to agree. He wouldn't
touch the hull.
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