Kanoottikompassi

Posted by derrick on July 4, 2008

There’s no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There’s no knowing where we’re rowing
Or which way the river’s flowing
- wondrous boat ride

Now the thing is I just never really had time to kit out my kayak. I ran to Chicago to pick up the Rockpool Alaw Bach just a few days before I flew out. Of course time flies and suddenly here I am almost a year later finally tending to it.

Of course my NDK Explorer has had all those little personal touches added some time ago. I purchased a compass. I added a cleat on the back deck for towing. I cut the back toggle and reworked it so there was no longer a loop. (This of course eliminated people pinching their fingers if I was ever in the situation of towing a swimmer.) I added a bead so I could easily slip my traditional paddle under the front bungies. I added a keel strip. There are a myriad little things you do to make a sea kayak more “expedition ready”. My Explorer is geared out for the big dance as it were.

Of course the first thing I needed to do with my Alaw Bach was just repair it. So as you know a few weeks back I glassed some weak sections damaged on my trip, and fixed up all the gel-coat as well. My initial attempt to re-attach my cockpit combing that had separated on one side failed miserably. I finally went after it with industrial grade 2 ton epoxy and a gaggle of clamps. This morning I could stand on the rim and I can see the boat would break before the combing comes loose again!

My next task is to deal with the back bulkhead that separates the cockpit from the day hatch. The Rockpool design uses a thin plate as a bulkhead and a bit of gasket to keep it from letting water through. Of course being hard on everything, I managed have it leaking in no time. So today I’m going to get about re-working a bulkhead. With that in mind I ran down to Rutabaga and purchased a big block of mini-cell. My plan is to rebuild a more slanted bulkhead that will better drain water when the boat is flipped.

While I was there I also dealt with another issue, a compass. I’ve always said one thing I’d like to see on the Alaw Bach is a compass recess similar to the NDK designs. However, until then I had to go with one of those bungee type designs. I chose a SUUNTO ORCA. It’s set into a flexible rubber housing that grabs the deck to keep it from slipping. The card is luminous so you shine a flashlight on it and it’s supposed to glow for about 20 minutes. . . we’ll see. On the 3 piece Alaw Bach I was able to easily attach it to the front section just in front of the hatch cover. The extra bungees there allowed me to wrap the straps in a way that will keep it from moving forward or back, as well as left to right. It’s easy to see that these bungee compasses could move around easily and become difficult to use if they are not fairly secure.

Now, if the bulkhead work goes well I’ll wrap up the modifications with all those fiddly bits, re-working the back toggle. . adding a bead for my traditional paddle and all the rest.

Funny thing. I can remember when I was terrified to do any sort of customization on my kayak. There was a time when I paid more money than I care to say to have a bit of gelcoat repaired. Over time, and with lots of practice I’ve learned that I can do this stuff on my own. Most of the time it even holds together! Thing is, your kayak is not really YOUR kayak until you start really customizing, tweaking, and repairing it yourself. You find that when you first buy a new kayak what you are really buying is an unfinished product. (No, that is not a commentary on certain manufacturing issues. . . I’m not going there!) Once you get it home you start really making the kayak your own personal craft.

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So here in the States we’re enjoying a long holiday weekend as today is the 4th of July.  A celebration of our independence from Britain.  Of course these days we all get on a bit better.  As years passed we came to an agreement; . “If you don’t burn down our capitol, we won’t drink your tea. . .”. at least that was my reading of the treaty of Ghent.