Amohkali Swamp

Pirogue or skin boat?

2011-02-06T08:59:00.001-08:00

Still musing on whether to build a pirogue or a skin boat once the weather settles down enough to let me get outside and work.

Black 'yote

2010-09-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

I drove up north of Ellaville, GA on US 19 late this evening, looking for the road to a friend's where I've been invited to come and hunt.

On the way back, just north of where GA 26 crosses, a black something crossed the divided highway in front of me and jumped the guardrail. I was pretty sure it was canine, but it looked odd, so I slammed on the brakes and crossed the road to see it. I stood on the big 8x8 guardrail supports and looked, and as it got to the edge of the trees, it stopped and looked at me. A pretty big, solid black coyote. I've seen lots of very large coyotes in the south. This one wasn't all that big, but was clearly a coyote and not a dog. Thing is, it was solid black. I've never seen one, other than in pictures (http://bit.ly/d8W5ug) has a few Georgia 'yote pics, especially some from the Georgia Outdoor News forums.

It only stared at me for a few seconds, then a car went by and it slipped into the treeline. When it was out of sight, I howled at it, and got a bark in response.

I knew they existed (this article discusses them), but had never seen one. As I was leaving the house, I was thinking I should have grabbed my camera, but I decided that my cell phone camera was enough. It wasn't; all I got is blurry trees. Yeah, I'm sure it's a 'yote, not a dog, even though there are black dogs on the property a half mile up the hill. If you've seen - or more importantly heard - coyotes in the southeast, you know one when you see and hear it clearly.

Way cool.

LFG -- no, not a WoW group, a Greenlander...

2010-09-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

I mention in an earlier post that I spent about three months last summer (2009) looking for a boat to build.

She would have to be very sharp and pointy, particularly Greenland-like in form, but not an extremely long boat that tracks like a rail, because all too often I need to be able to turn in tight places, like the back waters in our local Lake Blackshear, or when a marsh stream runs out and it's either back up 100 yards or get out, sink in three feet of mud and pick it up to turn it around.
I still have recurring dreams of a skin boat, and am starting to be convinced that one might survive in the oyster beds and pokey-stick laden water I paddle, but not just yet, so I'll stick with wood/glass/epoxy composite for now.
Asking all over everywhere - several paddling lists/message boards, mainly - I got plenty of recommendations, looked at a lot of sites and pictures. After all this research, I finally decided on the Esk14, by Selway-Fisher, a design firm in Wiltshire, UK. I really love the lines of this boat, and stitch-n-glue (stitch and tape in the UK) is an easy, strong design that can take some punishment as long as it isn't a huge tree limb falling on it.

Life, lack of workspace and my impatience to get out of my LL Bean "Manatee" (Old Town Loon re-branded) made me postpone work on this boat. Now it's back on my mind.

My current thoughts:

The width is still about right, but I may add 6" or so by stretching the stations out by an inch each.

The hatches on this boat are particularly small, and there is lost storage space in the bow and stern because of fixed/sealed flotation chambers. Because US regs don't require them, and I don't want them, I won't put these fixed chambers in, so will lose the structural support of these two bulkheads. To make up for it, I'll use deck beams of some kind; probably laminated and/or sawed out. On the stern deck, it'll either be flattened out and put in a big hatch or do without bulkheads altogether and use float bags - need to think about this more.

I think I'll paint it a bright red-orange, after reading an article on color selection as it applies to visibility at sea in Adventure Kayak magazine. Even if orange, I gotta tattoo it some way though.

My current boat.

2010-09-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

I spent three months of the summer of '09 looking for a kayak design. After picking one (as outlined in this article), and ordering the plans, the reality of being barn/shop/garageless set in, so I picked up a Wilderness Systems Alto from someone on Craigslist. Looks just like the one in the bottom of the image below, only a good bit lighter colored, probably from age..

There wasn't a cover for the day hatch, and getting one from Perception/WS wasn't an option at the time, so I replaced it with a clear Beckson hatch of the same size - to get the best fit, I just replaced the whole thing, including the housing. I didn't replace the little bag that made it a "day hatch" (a/k/a "cat bag"), though I thought about it.

After the first day paddling, I ripped out the backrest and rather cheesy seat cover. Way too high and slippy. I used a hunk of polyethelene barrel cut so size and shaped with a heat gun to make an adjustable backband that will let me do a layback. This keeps my back from being a huge problem when I paddle for long distances.

To solve anticipated hatch leaking, I made a "spray skirt" of sorts for the hatch from coated nylon; I will probably order a neoprene one from TopKayaker or similar.

She paddles great in lakes and tight situations. As noted in the paddling.net reviews, she has a lot of rocker for a boat this length, and a tendency to weathercock in an even light breeze. I may put a skeg or real rudder on her some day.

I've paddled her in blackwater, marsh, and semi-open ocean, over some pretty tough oyster bars and through some tough, windy weather with small breakers - bad enough the folks on the dock were telling us to get off the water when I landed. For these uses, I would recommend this line (Piccolo, Shaman, Alto). I don't see doing much extended touring in her without a rudder or skeg; it's too inefficient in any significant wind.

All in all, I figure I'll keep her.

First!!

2010-03-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

I'm repurposing this blog for a more "bloggy" use. It'll include kayaking and paddling stuff, backpacking, and general outdoors - focused thngs.