Re: [Paddlewise] Into The Mystic (was Mariner Max for sale)

On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 10:38 PM, Doug Lloyd <douglloyd_at_shaw.ca> wrote:

> Okay Craig, maybe it was a bit weird more than cool - 4 weeks straight now
> completely flat out at two jobs where I'm averaging 35% higher production
> than anyone else leaves me a bit spaced at nights for any 5 minute poetry.


I thought it was pretty cool... but you may need to learn how to pace
yourself. :)

>
> Well, Matt is a way cool guy.
>

Hard to beat a weekend at Pt. Townsend hanging out with Matt Broze, that's
for sure. All the stories about the early days, who designed what, and what
features were "borrowed". I only wish I'd taped it. You should have jumped
on the ferry to Port Angeles and let me pick you up. Remember that for this
September.


> But where's that Melissa when we need her for some real cool prose?
>

She's probably boogying up and down the wild coast. :)

Anyway, maybe something will happen yet with Mariner. I'd like to try an
> Elan out in the southern V. Island area sometime if anyone knows where I can
> try one out that is, before I hunt down a used one to buy. I'm sure one of
> my two daughters would love one if I bought one anyway, even if I didn't for
> myself; we'd use it for family touring as we gear up to replace our family
> summer canoe trips with kayaks. I am more open to the idea of a Mariner
> kayak than in the past, as far as an Elan for myself goes. Matt thinks I'm
> in the news too much to be in one of his kayaks, though. :-)


I might never have tried a Mariner if Pam hadn't forwarded me a craigslist
posting for an $1100 Express in the U-District of Seattle. She had just
bought a kevlar boat she probably shouldn't have, but we met at that place
and took the Express over to Lake Washington where there was a nice little
13kt breeze and boat wakes. When I felt the Express try to get away on every
wave and wake I was in love. The Elan is almost exactly the same boat but
lower volume; just the way you like them, actually. If you can get to
Whidbey Island we can put you in my boat and turn you loose in Deception
Pass.

But it's hard to test a kayak out for real these days. You almost need to
> rent one for a week, test how sensitive the design is to gear related
> placement issues in different winds and waves, all-day comfort levels,
> happiness with stability levels, etc, etc. Anything else is a cold one night
> stand. Symposia testing just doesn't cut it for me, though it does rule out
> kayaks that are too small to fit into and kayaks with too high a rear deck
> and kayaks that are too stable.


Well, the Express seems to me to be rock-solid stable. By that I mean I
don't have to think about staying upright in a seaway. It just rides over
everything. But it is nimble and playful too. Not as nimble as the Coaster,
but a sweet ride nonetheless... and fun. The Elan may feel even more stable
being so low in volume. The Express and Elan are pretty too... at least to
my eye.... slender and shapely. The Coaster, on the other hand, isn't
pretty; it looks like a boat REI might sell. LOL


> As for Mariner kayaks and those Broze brothers, this world would have been
> so much more different without them. Big wet suit booties to fill there for
> sure.


LOL... yup.

For now, I'll stick to singing Van's original song while I'm out paddling.
> I'm hoping to get out in a couple more weekends over to the WCP weekend on
> Pender coming up. I'll actually be paddling for other reasons than simply
> the pure joy of being in my Nordkapp this time, in the Forager. I remember
> one year, very late at night, sitting in my freshly painted/modified
> Nordkapp (Air Canada aircraft-paint red over white it was then) having just
> finished up the new deck lines and a better seat, sitting in the cockpit up
> on sawhorses for over an hour, just sitting there snug as a bug, listening
> to Enya cranked ("Sailawaysailawaysailawy"), dreaming of a west coast
> adventure about a week hence, all excited and not wanting to go to sleep -
> too pumped for bed. Those were the days Craig. Just big kids really, right?
> No retrograde horizon. I was already in the Mystic by the time I punched
> through the shorebreak I think.


LOL... my wife says men are kids until the testosterone fog lifts about age
40; then we have about two weeks of sanity before we launch into our first
mid-life crisis.

And I've got the Harley to prove it!!!


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
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