Re: [Paddlewise] Maine Symposium

On Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:35:37 +0000, "skimmer" <skimmer_at_enter.net> said:

> Your review reminds me of the good old days when our sea 
> kayakers used to go to the Castine kayak symposium, and then 
> paddle the Maine coast for some days after the symposium.
> I think of Bass Harbor Light- at night-down the road from our camp 
> ground.
> 
> Did you notice if there were any canoe sailors on the water? My 
> wife, the canoe sailor, wants to know. 

There were definitely canoe sailors.  Benson Gray was sailing a closed
gunwale sailing canoe that was his grandfathers boat.  It was rigged
with dual masts.  They had 4 or 5 sailing canoes for the sailing
lessons.

 
> What was the water temperature? 

There were kids in swimming... the water was in the 60s.

> Was there anyone demonstrating or promoting cold water gear? 

Not explicitly.  During the introductory demonstration Ben Meader was
wearing his wetsuit when he intentionally rolled his whitewater boat,
rolled up successfully, then flipped back over and called for a rescue.

> Any idea how many 
> people attended the show? Who was the sponsor/management?

My guess would be 160.  I can get real numbers if you want.

The canoe symposium is put on by the Maine Canoe Symposium...  A group
of paddlers took over managing the symposium after LL Bean decided it
wasn't a profit center.  Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the
event.   http://mainecanoesymposium.org/

For this year's evening presentations they had Reinhard Zollitsch and
the Peake Brothers.  Reinhard had both his Savage River surf rigger (an
open cockpit outrigger canoe) and his Kruger sea wind covered touring
canoe.  The sea wind had a passive radar reflector on the rear deck,
which looked very much like this one:
http://www.sailgb.com/p/trilens_radar_reflectors/

The Peake brothers presentation was more of a history talk, showing lots
of historical video and photos which they have had digitized.

Kirk
-- 
  Kirk Olsen
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