My friend Niklas has a kayak, built by @mr_david_tang, which he wants to fit him better. He trusted me to do this over the winter but I have mostly been busy doing other work. Digital. So, anyway, I flogged the poor thing and will remove and re-bend most ribs. Hopefully before the next solstice… If there is a chance I will also lighten it a tiny bit. With a little sorcery, the refurbish will make both forward and rearward finishing advanced rolls become easier to perform.
Oh, and I came up with this tag. Don’t know if it will ever have a chance to become a thing but it’s fun 🙂
#kayakalchemy
The Guys are standing at the dock in Vinterviken where we first wanted to host the national championships in Greenland rolling 2024. Maybe in another couple of years… For 2025 they will host it September 13/14 in Västervik.
Sorry about this post. I spent hours editing and explaining why and what I did to this poor kayak. Today I realized it has suddenly all vanished. Probably “skit bakom spakarna”. You can search the web about that expression. Images not really in order now and mostly lacking comments. Forensics ongoing.
So. What did I do? Well, first off, I should have built a new qajaq. You might have guessed that by now. But then again, throwing stuff away is not my forte, losing stuff is 😉
Here is what i have done so far and the thinking behind it:
Only 4 ribs did not get shortened or flattened out. This made it at least 2cm lower overall, except at the feet.
I remade the stern, both end piece and gunwhales. A piece was simply glued on and honed into the shape. This made the kayak much more aesthetically pleasing. The stern is now “thicker” and runs somewhat deeper in the water too, which is good for tracking. I have also completely removed the rocker (banana shape) in the back. This qajaq had all it’s rocker in the back and none in the front. I can’t paddle that because of weather cocking, to name one reason, and neither could the owner. So the rocker had to move to the bow end instead which promotes steering. I also cut most ribs to lower the overall volume and “thinned” her by 2cm of height. Oh, and I lowered the bow by around 2cm, so maybe 5cm less bow in total. The whole length of the gunwhales were lightened by 2-3mm of material from the sides. This made the qajaq somewhat narrower (and lighter), which I compensated with a wider and lower iserfik (the beam behind the back). Since I am lowering the height I need to widen it to not make her sink.
Now for some numbers if I may. I have heard about “Depth Amidships”. I suppose it means right at your ass so let’s take two of them: Depth (amidships) at the masik (beam at your thighs) will be around 23cm measured from the skin/keel to the inner masik. This is the practical depth for the paddler and I don’t care about the outside measure particularly for a rolling kayak, except that it matters when the kayak is upside down. The beam, or width, will be 46cm. One up from the original which should compensate for the lower depth.
Depth at the iserfik (beam behind your back) is…drumroll…13cm. This will definitely be a wet ride 🙂 And, I will probably have to promise to eat my hat if Niklas can’t practice the hardest moves and master the no-handed straight-jacket roll in this kayak. Bold words. Anyone got som spice and onions?
