Pam and I regularly send each other craigslist ads; I send her ads featuring motherships and she sends me ads featuring kayaks. The other day she sent me this ad: http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/boa/1070530687.html which caught my attention because my picture is in it. I'm in the white kayak wearing the yellow helmet. The photo was taken about 1 mile south of my house at a public launching ramp on Moses Lake on a cold sunny day (35F air and 32.5F water). The kayak is one designed and built by Noy who used to build the kayaks for Matt Broze of Mariner Kayaks. He asked me to meet him at the launch ramp and try out his own designs. Since I'm familiar with his work (Noy's fiberglass work is flawless) and have been encouraging him to start building kayaks again (although I wanted him to build the Mariner Coaster and Mariner Express) I thought it would be a good idea to go check his boats out. I should say here that I have no pecuniary interest in Noy's kayaks. He and his family moved here when he took a job with a company that was designing and building powered surfboards. That company closed its doors two weeks ago. He has a garage full of boats and each and every one of them is beautifully made. I like Noy and I like his work and thought I'd mention his work here. My impression of the white boat (I paddled two of them) is that it's very much like a combination of a Mariner Express and a Mariner Coaster. On edge the boat is nimble and carves sweetly but when held level it holds its course with only a slight tendency to weathercock in a 15-kt breeze. And I suspect that even that was because I had to get the backband all the way to the rear seat coaming in order to get in easily (with my bad leg). Once I was in and settled (in my new drysuit) I was immediately at ease in the boat. Like a Coaster, it's a boat that you could put a 7-year-old in one day and take to Puget Sound the next. It was such a nice boat that I spent 15 or 20 minutes just tooling around in it. It would have been even more fun if the temperatures had been warmer as I was somewhat reluctant to risk going over in water that froze over later that night. Sue's Nimbus Solander was one of the kayaks burned up in the shop fire a few weeks ago and I am going to get her into this white boat and see how she likes it. So if you've ever wondered what I look like you can see me here. Of course, you can't see me very well. That's probably for the best. :) Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA *************************************************************************** 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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