First of all, it rains on the Oregon Coast. And not just the wimpy little showers you Seattle people are used to. No, when I say it rains on the Oregon Coast I mean that it really rains. For days at a time. Along with a lot of wind. Fortunately Pam had brought her "trailer". I put the word "trailer" in quotes because it does qualify as a trailer but only just. At 49 years of age it kept us warm and dry but at just over 13 feet in length only one of us could stand up at a time. The phrase, "Oh my god I am so happy we aren't camping in a tent!" came up in conversation on a regular basis. That said, the focus of the week-long skin-on-frame workshop was the building process itself and the area provided was dry with room for five students to build the kayaks they preferred while Brian Schulz himself ( www.capefalconkayaks.com) built a new design in an alcove (his newest surfing kayak). In addition to Brian the cast of characters included three people qualified to have "Doctor" put before their names, an Oregon software engineer, and a stove-up curmudgeon (me). This is the sort of group that could be described as "eclectic" if I were the sort of guy who bandied about such terms. One might imagine that it would take a genius in organizational talent to keep this group on task. One would be wrong. Brian is not an organizational genius but he did keep us on task and on schedule and at the end of 7 days we had four F1 kayaks (a very Coaster-ish kayak), one unnamed kayak that Brian pretty much made up on the fly but that looks a bit like a cross between a Mariner Express and a Mariner II, and Brian's surf boat; which he also made up pretty much on the fly. This is Brian's forte, there is no doubt about it. He clearly has a "feel" for what works on a boat and what doesn't and is able to translate that into a finished product that performs pretty closely to what he wanted. But he's also cranked enough students through his workshops that he has the teaching method down to a science. He had already asked us what we wanted from our boats and our body sizes so when we arrived on Sunday morning (yes, Sunday morning!) at 8am the gunwales (which are the basic components of an SOF) were already cut and mortised and waiting for us on two supports. Two of the F-1 models were exactly similar, one was smaller and one (ahem!) was larger. Brian assured us that not only would the F-1 kayaks look the same but they would perform the same for each of us. I have no reason to dispute that. Performance, at least for me, was the critical point. I had already been aware of Brian's work with the SC-1 which was an SOF version of the Mariner Coaster designed and built by Matt and Cam Broze back in the 1980s. The Coaster, based on a little kayak built by Robert Livingston (also a Paddlewiser), went on to become a legendary sea kayak almost in spite of its decidedly un-Greenlandish looks. It was featured prominently in at least one book about the Tsunami Rangers, and when one appears on craigslist it usually doesn't last long and sells for very close to its original price. (The Mariner website, www.marinerkayaks.com, has the Sea Kayaker Magazine review on the Coaster which makes for intersting reading.) But I already had a Coaster so looking at the SC-1 was just an interesting example of what could be done with the SOF system. Then my shop caught on fire and 4 kayaks - including my Coaster - went up with it. Suddenly Brian's workshop wasn't just an interesting read; it was a way to get the Coaster back. However Brian was no longer conducting workshops with the SC-1 (which was as exact a copy of the original Coaster as he could make) but had refined that design so that he could scale it up and down depending on the paddler. He was calling this new boat the F-1. (He has a reason for callilng it that but it only makes sense to Brian.) To me this only made the boat more intriguing because, as a petite-challenged person I had found that the only drawback to my Coaster was the small-ish cockpit which was difficult for me to enter and exit. The Coaster handled my body weight just fine; it was my body shape that we had problems with. Since Brian could scale the F-1 up or down my entry/exit problems could conceivably disappear. Sign me up!!! Brian's approach to re-creating a composite design in skin-on-frame is, as far as I know, unique. And it's not as if he doesn't like the traditional Inuit and Eskimo designs. Brian has built a number of traditional kayaks and will happily put you into one if that's what you want. But it's definitely not what I wanted. I wanted my Coaster back and if I could get it for $1200 but easier to get into and out of and weighing only 27 pounds then I was willing to gamble that Brian could produce it. So the first day Brian showed us how to set the gunwales up. We clamped the ends together and spread the gunwale pieces apart at specific place with forms that Brian provided. The forms were longer for mine and shorter for Pam's and exactly the right size for Steve and Peter. (Gee, no 3-bears?) They were entirely different for Marvin who was not building an F-1 but another boat entirely; one that Brian had never built before. This allowed us the opportunity to watch Brian go through the process of creating (not re-creating) a boat based on ideas that had already borne fruit for the Broze brothers and Mariner kayaks. In addition, the little surf kayak he was putting together in the alcove was entirely different from anything Mariner had produced so we could be exposed to many different ideas. Against the wall were more kayaks, both in finished and unfinished form, so we could examine those designs too. Once the gunwales were set up we created the ribs from a design sheet that Brian had already at hand. Because the boats were to be of different proportions, the ribs also had to be different. We cut the ribs from a special bamboo laminate that Brian had discovered; light and strong and easily pliable when steamed. Once the ribs were cut and set up with tenons we checked the fit and insterted them into the bulwarks ready to be steam fit the next day. The first day we quit at 5pm but we did get an hour for lunch. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent finishing the frame and adding chines in specific places. Brian emphasizes that almost every mistake you could make in building one of his boats is fixable and many mistakes are simply not worth fixing because they won't change anything enough to make it a problem. However there are some parts of the design that are critical and the placement of the chines would be one of these. As before, the boats all had different numbers for these placements and he read them off to us and had us scribe them onto the appropriate ribs. Measuring from the bottom edge of the gunwale we set the chine pieces in place and clamped them while we bound them to the ribs with twine. A second chine was set in place and then a sheer strip just below the gunwale was installed. Looking at the boat with no bow or stern was puzzling to me. I could not imagine how we were going to be able to fabricate a bow that would fit. Brian did it simply and efficiently with a marking pen and an arc and we all stood in line at the bandsaw waiting our turn. At the end of Wednesday we had a completed frame ready for covering and had treated the wood with a mixture of tung oil. We wiped it all down and went home. I need to take a moment here and talk about the "workday". Most days we started about 8am and finished about 5pm with an hour or so off for lunch. But two days we did not take a structured lunch (we grabbed a bite when we could get time to do it) and we finished nearer to 6pm. This is simply due to the amount of work needed to finish the projects in the allotted seven days. Brian had previously held classes over an eight-day period but had figured out a way to cut a day out of the schedule with no penalty. These long days were, at least for me, seriously difficult at times. I can remember two days when I "hit the wall" at about 3 or 4pm and had to go recover. I was the oldest of the participants at 66 and I have difficulties walking due to an old knee injury so some times, even with a judicious supply of medications, I found it impossible to continue. Brian and the rest of the team worked around this gracefully and efficiently. By this time we really were a "team" of five boatbuilders working together in harmony and good humor so when I needed help there was always at least one or two other members ready to step in and get the job done. Thursday and Friday we concentrated on getting the skin over the frame and getting it sewn up and treated. Again, I had absolutely no inkling of how this was going to be done other than turning the boats upside-down and draping the nylon cloth over the frames. It was not, as it turned out, a difficult concept. But it surely was work. We had to drape the cloth over the frames and pin it in place. Brian then pinned the stern in place and cut it to fit and showed us how to sew it up. When that was done we did the same thing to the bow and pulled the cloth tightly so that it fit down over the bow and stern. Brian then clamped a guide strip along the top of the boat and used a heatgun to cut the nylon so that it would fit the framework perfectly once it was stretched and sewn in place and showed us how to do it. It took about 4 hours to get the skin onto the frame. Next we had to sew the cockpit rim to the skin. Brian had already built the cockpits in the appropriate sizes so we did not get to see how he did that. Basically he used his steam box to bend wood around a form that had been prepared dimensionally and then clamped in place. Brian uses a two-part polyurethane that he claims is practically indestructable to seal the nylon. Normally he uses 9-oz nylon but he had difficulty obtaining enough cloth in that weight so went to 12-oz nylon. For my purposes it was even better although it probably added a couple pounds to the finished boat's weight. Adding the seal coat was a mini-marathon. Brian prepared the mixture for each boat and then poured it over one side of the bottom while the student followed with a plastic squeegee to begin spreading the stuff around. Back and forth we went with out squeegees doing first one side and then the other and trying to spread the goop out enough to cover the entire project. Once we were done with that we turned the boats over (Brian devised an ingenious method for keeping the kayaks from touching the supports so we could do both top and bottom in a single day) and did the upper side. I ended up with some runs and goopy places that will, no doubt, bother me forever but they really aren't noticeable. A word here about color. Out of the 5 of us only Pam chose to dye her boat a color. The rest of us chose to keep the boat natural (white, actually, the color of the nylon). We all regretted this once we saw Pam's boat which turned out to be a beautiful yellow. But it was too late for us and Brian's workload was significantly reduced. I suggested several names based on the color of the boat but Pam refused to go along with "Sweet Pee". Rats! At any rate, if I were doing this again I would certainly add color to the boat based on the results Pam got. The polyurethane seal coat dried overnight enough for us to add deck lines. Brian uses thick leather for a pretty traditional SOF deckline look. Pam wanted grab lines and added those herself with Brian's help. This made her boat look even more like a composite kayak by the time the project was completed. After the deck lines and backbands were added (the backbands are an extra $45 because Brian found that some people want their own) and foam seats added (basically cutting a foam sleeping pad used in camping to fit) we were ready to put the boats into the water. Brian handed out paddling tips, Pam demonstrated some rescue techniques and did some hotshot paddling around the group. I found that my foam seat was too high and using the camping-pad as a seat significantly improved handling as well as being more comfortable (astonishingly enough!). Even the one student who had never really paddled a kayak felt secure in the cockpit and enjoyed his new boat. Unlike a traditional SOF, the F-1 feels comfortably stable in the water for even a new paddler but maneuvers incredibly well on edge. Very much like the Mariner Coaster which inspired the design. I was happy to find that entries and exits were much improved and that handling, as near as I could tell on flat water, was about the same. And the boat feels feather-light after lugging around 50-pound kayaks. I could easily lift my kayak up to the rack on top of my SUV. I should add here that after we had finished with our test paddles and said our "good byes" Brian went out to the beach at Manzanita and tried out a couple of kayaks including his own F-1 in the surf. While he was there he met up with Robert Livingston who, you might remember, was the person who had designed a playful little kayak that caught the eye of Matt and Cam Broze and eventually ended up as the Mariner Coaster. That chance meeting between Livingston and the Broze brothers took place when Brian was about 4 years old and now, all these years later, Robert helped Brian carry the latest version of his "Ursa Micro" up the beach at Manzanita. It must be a nice feeling to see your ideas carried forward and appreciated across the years. We built our own Greenland Paddles on Friday evening and, while I was beginning to get the hang of it, I was not fully comfortable with it. I am still not fully comfortable with it but I have resisted using a Euro paddle until I get a better feel for the technique. It's certainly light and, if you have a bandsaw and power planer handy, easy to make and its buoyancy is an advantage. Mine flutters a bit and that is either due to my poor workmanship or stroke technique or both, I'm sure. I would certainly love to try one of those fancy $300 carbon-fiber versions. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the boat. It tracks well without a skeg or rudder yet turns quickly when placed on edge. In fact, if you have the boat going straight and just put it on edge it will start to carve a turn! It's comfortable to sit in and has enough room for a weekend camping trip as long as you don't try to bring along Dutch Ovens and porta-potties. Is it a replacement for my Coaster? Well, I'm not sure anything can be a replacement for that Coaster. But so far it looks like it will do the job nicely. You can see some photos of the build and the finished product on my blog, www.nwkayaking.net. Pam has more and we'll figure out a way to get those on here too. The entire week - except for the rain - was an enjoyable and educational experience. I'm not sure I am ready to just hammer out another SOF boat but I think that with a book or two to help I will be able to do it once my shop is rebuilt. I certainly like the size of the boat and the weight. We should be able to put two or three of these on an overhead rack on the Muthah-Ship without a significant penalty in center-of-gravity issues. It's an attractive little boat, too. If you, like me, are not average in size and feel that an original Mariner Coaster is the perfect match for your paddling tendencies then I encourage you to explore the idea of attending one of Brian's workshops. If you are interested in other designs or ideas I'm pretty sure Brian would be interested in talking about them with you. Brian will also be happy to custom build your boat if you can't spare the time for the workshop. His little surf boat wasn't exactly what he wanted but he's ready to build another one that will be closer to the mark and expects to add that design to his reportoire pretty soon. It's a fun class but expect to work hard and you will come out of it with a kayak that you should be pretty happy with. Just try to choose a week without rain. 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/ ***************************************************************************
Hi! Just a few comments about this workshop. It probably rained 4 to 5 inches while we were there. The last two days were great. A tent would have been unworkable, esp. on the days that winds over 40 MPH were predicted. Even a 14 foot old travel trailer is very good in this situation. When Craig says he hit the wall and others pitched in, he really means his SOF was built by a committee. I'm sure he will find this to be an acceptable excuse for anything that goes wrong with it. I had told Brian I was looking for the most visible color possible. When I arrived and saw the way the finish ages, I choose yellow rather than pink. He ordered the brightest yellow his supplier could find, a color he had not used before. Everyone thought it was a good choice (probably not as good for a baidarka or a Greenland kayak, though). It should be very visible. Brian asked me to remove the perimeter lines for the photos, so you won't see them on any on water pictures done there. I used reflective line and Midshipman's knots, and a carabineer so I can use the line to tie up the boat, also. Craig for once is being polite and says I demonstrated rescue techniques. I actually managed to capsize (side sculls, my nemesis) and then missed a roll in the boat, not having fitting in yet. I got to show the other students the between the boats recovery and then a heel in rescue. It's hard to get the water out of these non-bulkheaded boats, though Brian did give us some hints on that, too. Does anyone use sea socks in a SOF? I have never been in a boat that carves turns on edge like these SOF's do! Wow! And, I say, Wow! I'm sure Craig will enjoy his SOF though I think maybe the neighborhood 8 year old he has gotten hooked on kayaking may be in it more than he is. It was a rather intense and wearing week. We learned a lot and each ended up with a unique boat and paddle. I'll try to get my photos to Craig so he can post some of them. Pam in Washington State. In a message dated 5/11/2009 9:51:09 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, crjungers_at_gmail.com writes: First of all, it rains on the Oregon Coast. And not just the wimpy little showers you Seattle people are used to. No, when I say it rains on the Oregon Coast I mean that it really rains. For days at a time. Along with a lot of wind. Fortunately Pam had brought her "trailer". I put the word "trailer" in quotes because it does qualify as a trailer but only just. At 49 years of age it kept us warm and dry but at just over 13 feet in length only one of us could stand up at a time. The phrase, "Oh my god I am so happy we aren't camping in a tent!" came up in conversation on a regular basis. I need to take a moment here and talk about the "workday". I can remember two days when I "hit the wall" at about 3 or 4 pm and had to go recover. I was the oldest of the participants at 66 and I have difficulties walking due to an old knee injury so some times, even with a judicious supply of medications, I found it impossible to continue. Brian and the rest of the team worked around this gracefully and efficiently. By this time we really were a "team" of five boatbuilders working together in harmony and good humor so when I needed help there was always at least one or two other members ready to step in and get the job done. A word here about color. Out of the 5 of us only Pam chose to dye her boat a color. The rest of us chose to keep the boat natural (white, actually, the color of the nylon). We all regretted this once we saw Pam's boat which turned out to be a beautiful yellow. The polyurethane seal coat dried overnight enough for us to add deck lines. Brian uses thick leather for a pretty traditional SOF deckline look. Pam wanted grab lines and added those herself with Brian's help. This made her boat look even more like a composite kayak by the time the project was completed. Brian handed out paddling tips, Pam demonstrated some rescue techniques and did some hotshot paddling around the group. I found that my foam seat was too high and using the camping-pad as a seat significantly improved handling as well as being more comfortable (astonishingly enough!). You can see some photos of the build and the finished product on my blog, www.nwkayaking.net. Pam has more and we'll figure out a way to get those on here too. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA **************Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in the U.S. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlcntustrav00000002) *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
A correction to the story. I'm told that it's www.capefalconkayak.com (not "kayaks"). This is one of the dangers of having a web browser that completes URLs from just the first few keystrokes. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** 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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