When is a kayak not. . .
Posted by derrick on December 29, 2007
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
So when is a kayak not a kayak and “not a kayak” well, not a kayak?
Kayak.com announced they grabbed $196 million dollars in venture capital to acquire rival company SideStep. By the way, Kayak.com is a travel site similar to Expedia and actually has very little to do with Kayaking, unless of course you use them to book your hotels and car rentals. And no, they don’t offer discounts to kayakers. Hmmmmm. . . .
Then there’s this; Remember that debate some time back about whether the “Crossing The Ditch” team was actually paddling a Kayak? Interestingly another team will make trans-Tasman crossing this weekend.* Steven Gates, Andrew Johnson, Kerry Tozer and Sally Macready are expected to arrive in Sidney Harbor this weekend. They set off on November 29th from Auckland New Zealand in their 11.1 meter “Rowboat”. Fair play to these guys and congratulations seem in order. Visit their Website Here.
Propel, Propel, Propel your craft
Placidly down the liquid solution
Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically,
Existence is but an illusion.
- alternate version
Meanwhile James and Justin continue their journey in the other direction toward the coast of New Zealand (Under shark escort mind you) in their 9 meter kayak. According to “The Age”, they are not bothered by the other team crossing the Tasman first. As Tom Mitchell was quoted, "These boys are doing it, just the two of them, and it’s a kayak as opposed to a row boat." (read article)
I think I’m happy to let Guinness sort that one out. For my part I’m impressed by both teams. What do you think?
* Correction - this post originally stated that the .* Steven Gates team of rowers would be the first, however “In 1977 Colin Quincey astonished the world when he rowed alone in his six-metre fibreglass dory Tasman Trespasser for 63 days 7 hours from New Zealand to Australia. He was the first (and so far only) person to have accomplished this feat. Quincey battled a bad back, setbacks by currents, screaming winds, sore fingers from bailing, sleepless nights and salt water irritations while completing his 2170 km arc across the top of the Tasman.” - Thanks Tim
* photos from team websites.
It’s pushing the limits of kayakness but I argued this against canoes. A Canadian canoe and a Maori war-canoe are two different things but still “canoes”. Maybe the same should be said about seakayaks and ocean crossing kayaks.
I’d say as long as it gets ‘em where they are going safely, it’s a fine…uh…
boat.
It’s interesting how the two designs look so similar and both resemble the craft in which Roz Savage was trying to cross the Pacific last summer.
Convergent evolution in boat design.
Funny, they don’t look much like normal rowboats either, but I guess with a rowboat they can point at the oarlocks & say “See? Rowboat!”.
Well, whatever you wanna call the boat, I agree with you on both main points -
a) it’s impressive.
b) it’s better left to Guiness to sort it out!
Seasons greetings!
It’s a boat, and we need to start coming up with new names for them. The skin on frame is always specifically referred to. It is now assumed that kayak refers to that same design in synthetic materials. Same with an inflatable, etc.. Not to take away from the human feat of these adventures, I still vote not to call them kayaks. (we do the same with cars..compacts, sedans, etc.). My fear is that we lose the connection to the origins of our sport.
If I remembed correctly, the original definition of the word kayak.
Is a “hunting boat”.
I don’t think the “Crossing the Ditch” kayak is optimized for hunting, but I guess it’s possible.
Most Americans invision a white water kayak when they think of a kayak. A ww boat would probably really suck as a seal hunting platform as would an Olymic racing K-1-4 kayak:-)
I enjoyed Silbs’ further thoughts on the issue.
Seems like the first big jump in nomenclature was when the term “kayak” started being applied to non-SOF’s - maybe another when folks in warmer climes began disposing of the deck -
Whatever that is, it’s been fun having this arise & seeing people really thinking and talking about definitions! This is the sort of debate that’s actually fun.
Hey, my secret word is Madison! Captcha must be in Wisconsin!
The BaseFx Rowers will not be the first to row across the Tasman,
New Zealander Colin Quincey did it 30 years ago in a boat called the Tasman Trespasser. Taken from the Ocean Rowing Website,
“In 1977 Colin Quincey astonished the world when he rowed alone in his six-metre fibreglass dory Tasman Trespasser for 63 days 7 hours from New Zealand to Australia. He was the first (and so far only) person to have accomplished this feat. Quincey battled a bad back, setbacks by currents, screaming winds, sore fingers from bailing, sleepless nights and salt water irritations while completing his 2170 km arc across the top of the Tasman.”
An amazing feat in the pre Cell phone, GPs, Internet era.
When the Crossing the Ditch Team hit New Zealand they will be the
first Kayakers to complete the trip, although Andrew McAuley certainly
prove it was an achieveable goal. Both AM and CTD used the much
more difficult route from Australia to New Zealand against the prevailing winds and seas.
As for the CTD kayak and the BaseFX Rowing boats looking similar
I guess they do for the same reason long range aircraft all basically
look the same, only the power plant is slighly different.
Tim W
corssing the
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