Tuesday, February 10, 2015

winter paddling, and building the Petrel Play

Winter is a great time to paddle here, the water gets down to about 13C, not very cold by Northern standards, but for us who are used to 30C in summer its pretty cold.
To tell a secret, its not too cold to paddle , and we hardly miss a day on the water, except when the seas are too rough for the group to go our.  And even then all the members with private kayaks and a sense of adventure  get to play in the waves.
Nowadays almost everybody has a GoPro camera attached to their kayak or helmet  and the amount of videos is staggering. Unfortunately  most are too long and because of the limitations of the Go Pro they tend to get tedious. You can loose your sense of perception, don't get to see how big the waves are really and have the same view all the time. Unless that is  you are a bit more creative and can add takes from different cameras or views. Here's my contribution and all the above criticism  is valid.

Meanwhile I have been busy building my new petrel Play, the hull is now finished and glassed, I put carbon in the cockpit area and regular fiberglass in the ends. It goes pretty easy when you have help



We had a group paddle  round the northern coast, visited some small islands and had a great time 

Picnicking on the rocks

parking becomes a challenge with all those kayaks

Beautiful clear water

Back home I started working on the deck, first laying out all the parts, 

Some days are for surfing, some for working and some for kayak building, the trick is to get the proportions right.

Deck wired and glued just before fiberglassing

I  had to try getting the deck on the hull before continuing , just to see how it was going to join up. Looks ok to me so now I can get  all the seams joined and the fiberglass on.