Words set to blow in 3, 2,,,,

Not a rant!!!! Srsly!!!!

Yesterday, out with friends on warm and calm waters (after a VERY perturbing start to our day. I’ll leave that for another post. Maybe. Let me think about it some.) Friend B and i discussing the pros and cons of the types of kayaks we have been using. I sold him the Carolina and this was his maiden voyage in it. He’s never really been in a ‘long boat’ before but has tons more white water time and is a very powerful paddler. He even tried my Greenland for a spell and was downright shocked by it. “Its just a stick and it bites water like my $400 paddle” me: “well, the Inuit have been using that design for 1000 years give or take. And they didn’t use boats for stress relief but to keep food on the table. “

But something he said while we discussed cockpit coamings (yeah, it was definitely a kayak geek convo) set off a chain reaction of thought that “Splodied” in my skull this afternoon at work.

Serena, the newer SOF in my fleet has always prefered some extra mass in the bow area when paddling. Handles better, more cutwater in the soup and she edges better. My biggest issue has been, I have never been able to lay back on the deck.

At all.

With the new WW boat I picked up, I can lay all the way back and even hook my hands around the stern and do so comfortably. What B asked me was if I could make the coamings bigger to accommodate other body types for my boats. I don’t recall the exact words but that was the gist of the question.

Anywhoos, to keep from dragging this too thin. When I returned home, Serena was put on the bench (aka porch) and I did some shuffling of things. She doesn’t have footpegs, but a plate, and I shifted its location forward 2″. Moved that new seat bottom forward 2″ and the backband 1 1/2″ .

Plop my narrow ass in the hole, wiggle a little to get things situated (everything except the backband is loose at this point ) make sure my knees still clear the small arch of the coaming (they do) and laid back. I actually laid back and was able to touch the back of my head to the deck.

Bam!

Moving forward shifts my weight forward so I won’t need to load gear as trim ballast, and being able to lay back increases the likelihood of a roll recovery. Win-Win!

And of course I need to get in water to verify, so, yet again its going to be a drag-ass week as I get antsy to see. Or I’ll piss off the boss and take a day for me,,,

Why hadn’t I tried that sooner? Preconceptions of what I thought was ‘right’. And why did his words jog me to reconsider? Hell if I know. I’ve long since given way to let the subconcious do its thing and work on details while I carry on with the day to day. Intuition is another name for it. And there have been more than a few occasions where I had only information A, G, K, and Z, and still managed to work out the solution of B,C, D, ,,,

But, a lesson learned never to be forgotten and will be applied as needed in future. I can even see needing it if someone is having similar issues on their boats.