A White Pearl in the Netherlands

Wednesday, January 28, 2009, 0 comments

From Monique van Vuuren there was a mail and a couple of photos:

"Hej Björn,

Last sunday, this Dutch Black Pearl tasted salt water for the first time! The BP is still very naked: no proper seat or deck lines - the plastic toggles are just a shortterm measure- and inside padding for the cockpit is missing: not for long though.

Although the kayak feels absolutely fantastic on the water I’ll take it slowly and practice more before going into rougher stuff. I managed to do a few rolls but with no proper seat and padding it felt awkward. I am sure it will be really comfortable once it is properly padded, still……so far so good!

The kayak weighs a staggering 22 kilo´s but still floats with me in it ;-)). We used double glassfibre layers on the hull, Valley hatches and Nigel Dennis deck fittings. It has been a challenging, sometimes daunting but an always exciting time, and sooo much fun!! As first time woodworkers every little aspect was started hesitatingly, clumsy and shaky. But as we went along and built it, little by little, like you advised, we felt that we found solutions and we fixed things and made them work. And if not, we started again. It is not only getting a kayak, it is also getting how a vessel like this has evolved in all aspects. Together with the priceless support of my life- and kayakfriend Stef, this BP is the most beautiful kayak in the whole world.

Thank you very much Björn for encouragement and advise and thanks Johan Wirsen for providing excellent materials!

Big thanks to our friends and families who forgave our social neglect and did not scrape us of their X-mas cards list ;-))!

Also very big thanks to the men of Desto Yachting in Yerseke for providing us a warm, very friendly and very professional workshop to build in!

Happy paddling from one very happy paddler!

Monique

Update 090201

Dressed to party!
best
Monique