News archive
News from June 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007, 0 comments
An often raised question is the construction of cockpit rims. On some designs it is hard to get the spraydeck in place and hard to avoid leakage at the hem.
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Friday, June 29, 2007, 12 comments
Technically the water surface is the worst place for those interested in propulsion efficiency. No animals use the surface to get away - they dive or they fly. And submarines are the most efficient displacement ships in term of fuel efficiency.
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Thursday, June 28, 2007, 1 comments
"Hi Björn!
Another happy owner of a Black Pearl. I am curious to see in what ways it will influence my paddling.
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Thursday, June 28, 2007, 2 comments
"Hej Björn,
Här kommer som utlovar lite bilder på sjösättningen av min Kavat. Det var jag som ringde dig förra veckan ang problem med små luftbubblor i lacken; Internationals Perfection.
Till att börja med kan jag dela av mig med de råd jag fick av en kille på International. I färgaffären har man uppenbarligen inte riktigt koll på vad man säljer...
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Thursday, June 28, 2007, 0 comments
"Good afternoon Bjorn,
Well the Hunter SOF is built and I will send pictures to you after this weekend of both boats together as Tripp and I are going to test them out on the beach. If you remember, I decided to make the sof version with Tripp Stanley (who just sent you pictures I took of his beautiful wood strip version.) I hesitate to call it the “Hunter” as I did not follow the plans faithfully having to deal with hard chines and I wanted a bit more volume.
Surprisingly enough, the boat paddles very similarly to Tripps boat even though he seems to have a much flatter hull. Not sure I understand but it works anyway.
Anyway, not being a builder I tried and have a very serviceable boat that I am very happy with. Sorry if it doesn’t look like what you designed to your eyes.
Paul
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007, 4 comments
Hello Bjorn!
I finally finished building the Hunter and paddled her on her maiden voyage yesterday.
What a fine looking AND handling kayak you've designed!! And fast, fast, fast...........
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Monday, June 25, 2007, 3 comments
Hi Björn!!
On may 20 we undertook the first uncertain paddling trip in the lake Kornsjön at Stampefallet … a little unsteady initially but a very nice feeling to glide over the calm waters… waves will have to wait! The Isfjords are finished after a lot of work during the winter … but well worth it … they turned out beautiful…
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Sunday, June 24, 2007, 3 comments
Hi
My latest kayak where she belongs, Ålands hav (the archepilago between Sweden and Finland). Have done a couple of extended tours and am very satisfied with the kayak. Thanks for convincing med to build a Njord instead of another Najad. Presented my wife with the kayak this weekend and in spite of being a novice she immediately liked it. So it seems I have to build another (was hoping she would prefer the Najad so I could keep the Njord...).
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Saturday, June 23, 2007, 20 comments
On a number of occasions lately – mails, phone calls, launching reports, discussion fora – the problems with pitching kayaks have popped up. Those ponderings appear frequently and the answers are the same. Yes kayaks, as all other ships and boats, do pitch in a short head sea – more or less so depending on hull form, speed, volume and weight distribution – but all pitch in conditions not suited their configuration.
The pitching becomes worse with increased weight and/or volume in the stems, flat bottom, high speed, short steep sea and an inflexible paddler.
In contrast to most other crafts pitching kayaks can be tamed. A dose of body motion, diligently applied, makes all the difference between slowing, slamming and splashing, and silently smoothing over the waves with maintained speed and no apparent effort.
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Saturday, June 23, 2007 (segling, språk), 26 comments
En kort tur i mina vanliga vatten – Vikhög, Bjärred, Barsebäck – och som vanligt: lite motion och lite roll. Vinden 4-5 m/s västlig, vattentemperaturen ca 18 (drygt 20 i ytvattnet nära stranden).
Att det är midsommar syns på att flera av segelbåtarna i Vikhögs hamn visar stor flaggning – innebär att alla signalflaggorna hissas löpande från för till akter över masttoppen. Ibland hör man detta felaktigt kallas för flaggspel, men med marin terminologi är flaggspelet en flaggstång. Stor flaggning skall det heta.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 0 comments
Again I realise I have been conventional at the drawing table – with wood almost anything is
possible…
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 0 comments
Per Angvert in Jämtland has after a couple of strippers started building a SOF (Skin-on-frame) – and of course put together a nice and well designed presentation on his site.
Nice work Per – we look forward to launching!
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 0 comments
…så kan det vara kustbevakningen som är ute och jagar fartsyndare, smugglare och andra bovar med sin nya RIB. Från kustbevakningen hemsida:
"Under tre månader i sommar hyr Kustbevakningen in en större rib för att förstärka övervakningen i Öresund.
Båten, en 12,5 m lång holländsk Madera Rib, är stationerad i Höllviken men ska främst operera i Sundet. Den ska användas i tull- och sjötrafikövervakning med tyngdpunkt mot narkotikasmuggling.
Vi behöver en båt som kan komma upp i lite högre hastigheter, och som är lättare att borda andra båtar från. Därför provar vi det här konceptet i sommar, säger regioninspekör Jan Sjölin."
Tur att inte min racerkajak är klar - några fortkörningsböter vill jag inte ha…
(Tack Rickard Kohlström för tipset).
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 2 comments
What a luck that the sea offers other possibilities than land. Otherwise it might have ended like
this …
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Tuesday, June 19, 2007, 0 comments
Those who watched This Is the Sea II may remember Bryan Smith, who did some amazing stuff in the Skooks - now he is making his own DVD. Judged from the trailer, Pacific Horizons will be something to remember. Available this fall.
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Monday, June 18, 2007, 3 comments
A couple of months ago there was a discussion (in swedish) following a news posting, about old tools, that are so good that the manufacturing industri haven´t been able to improve upon the concept (only enhance a single quality at the cost of others) – with the humble pencil as a good example. Another is the bike.
Iris Murdoch said in the sixties: "the bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man; other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish."
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Sunday, June 17, 2007, 2 comments
This is a posting about the Swedish weather service, SMHI, and their new and improved web site.
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Saturday, June 16, 2007, 3 comments
Ett nytt grönländskt företag "Greenland kayaks, Inuit Qajaat" bygger kajaker på beställning. Kajakerna är antingen historiska originalkajaker eller moderna adaptioner. Snickaren och jägaren Jens Peter Kielsen och vinnaren av rolltävlingen 2006, Karl Isaksen, står för byggena och Baldvin Kristjansson är vd och samtidigt aktiv i Arctic Sherpas som ordnar och utrustar expeditioner runt om på nordkalotten. Målet för företaget är att återföra"the traditional kayak, with its superior design and flex, to the kayaking world!".
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Friday, June 15, 2007, 1 comments
Per Andersson has built and launched a new Kavat in lake Vänern.
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 2 comments
After giving the kayaking community a real scare, having disappeared for more than a day, causing a full search of the Icelandic Coast Guard, Freya and Greg continues their circumnavigation of Iceland. The trip can be followed through Freya´s site, where Derrick Mayoleth will post messages from Iceland.
Iceland has been circumnavigated a couple of times before, by Shawna Franklin, Leon Somme and Chris Duff in 2003 and last year by Rotem Ron from Israel. What sets Freya´s and Greg´s trip apart from the others is speed - decision and upstart (”How about a little trip round Iceland next week?”) as well as the paddling itself - big open see crossings instead of hugging the coastline.
Interesting to note Freya´s comment that ”we move well together on the water” and that Freya is using a wing and Greg a Greenland paddle.
And disappearing? It seems it occurred at one of the big crossings (22 hour at sea) and with telephones not cooperating afterwards (one wet, one low on battery)…
Update: Erik reminded med that Nigel Foster and Geoff Hunter went round the island in the seventies.
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Monday, June 11, 2007, 2 comments
Musical instruments and kayaks does not go together well. And who needs instruments when a sweaty armpit can
produce this. ´nuff said…
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Monday, June 11, 2007, 3 comments
”Hi!
The kayak is launched, in the local river! Here are a couple of pics from the first tour. Still missing a few coats of varnish and some hardware. The project have exceeded expactations, and the next, if there is one, will be even better?!
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Monday, June 11, 2007, 0 comments
Termometern föreslår ett nytt möjligt rekord i arbetsrummet, arbetslusten är minimal, disciplinen på upphällningen och jag har upptäckt ytterligare en fördel med att rolla…
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Friday, June 8, 2007, 3 comments
Comparison Nomad vs Njord
When a powerful anticyclone have halted over Sweden and the temperature in my study is approaching 30 deg C, it is very easy to choose the kayak instead of the computer – the work has to give way as a relevant adaption to the conditions. Since I mostly work freelance from home I can get a little done early in the day and in the evening.
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Friday, June 8, 2007, 0 comments
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Dan Caouette on CSFW is building a new Black Pearl - silver grey this time - and is trying a new and simpler way to strip the hull. Stripping the hull, planing the chine and then stripping the bottom from the keel out, eliminates most of the time consuming precisions cutting of strips. The picture shows this better than my attempt to descibe it in words. Nice!
There are also a bunch of new pics on Dan´s site...
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Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 2 comments
Lars Alexius, a couple of years ago member of the same kayak club as I, is now in Canada for a very exciting kayak project. He is building a driftwood baidarka with hand made tools, sewing his own clothes, sleeping bag, pack bags in cotton, wool, furs etc, impregnated with beeswax and linseed oil, living on what the sea and nature provides, lighting fires with flint and tinder during a 3000 km paddling along the coasts of Alaska and Canada (maybe stretched to 5000 km, depending on sponsoring etc).
Crazy? Maybe, but there is a very solid and healthy plan behind - apart from living in harmony with and being part of the nature, about showing how appropriate and reliable these natural materials and methods really are - in a time where the rest of us have become totally dependant on nature-alien high-tech petroleum based products for just about every aspect of outdoor life.
Lars have a site with a lot of info on the project. Don´t forget to download the film trailer!
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Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 6 comments
"Björn!
On the second day of my vacation, I finally launched my new Njord. The launching marked the end of many hours of "woodworking meditations"! Perhaps not as many as I usually spend on my kayaks, but very enjoyable ones, without stress and obligations. Except the few hours spent on an unwanted reparation - the kayak fell down from under the roof during finishing!
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Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 0 comments
Not only Black Pearl, but also Hunter has been converted to SOF (skin-on-frame). This one is built by Paul in USA, who also has taken pics through the building project. But the Hunter plans were only the starting point – more deadrise, lifted stems and a higher deck makes it different bird altogether.
In Norway an Isfjord is being built as a SOF – interesting developement.
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Monday, June 4, 2007, 3 comments
Dan with CSFW has revved up a new pearl project in northeastern USA. The buyer this time is Chris Russo and he ordered a White Pearl.
Dan has simplyfied the stripping further - planed the chines even with the bottom of the forms and stripped the bottom from the keel out. That means no precision fitting of strips - all is planed to fit afterwards and should save some time. Good idea!.
Due to the similarities with the last “White” Black Pearl there will be a few less updates this time.
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Monday, June 4, 2007, 0 comments
Yes, what goes on in the attic - the cosy attic at Escape Kajak? Isn´t it Sara with a new Black Pearl.
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Sunday, June 3, 2007, 0 comments
In August Dubside Dubside is visiting Sweden for a number of rolling and rope gymnastics classes: Stockholm (18-19/8), Skåne (Malmö 20-21/8), Göteborg (22-23/8) and The Stocken Kayak Meeting (24-26/8). The program is posted on Escape Kajak´s site.
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Sunday, June 3, 2007, 6 comments
Mail med bilder från Erik Møller Nielsen:
”Hej Björn, så kom min SMART i vandet 1.juni 07 her på Tåsinge, Danmark. Vedlagt er tre billeder som du vælge iblandt om du finder den værdig til din hjemmeside. Selv synes jeg det lykkedes godt, ikke mindst takket være din tålmodige hjælp undervejs. Der er ingen "buler" eller forkerte linier i skroget, men på billederne kan lysreflekser ligne fejl - men det véd du vel alt om. Jeg har gjort mange erfaringer undervejs og visse ting vil jeg gøre anderledes og andre ting skal blot finpudses på min næste trækajak.
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Saturday, June 2, 2007, 0 comments
Yes, you can fish from a kayak – Per Angvert does it - even from a narrow Norton.
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Friday, June 1, 2007, 0 comments
17 swedish bathing sites (beaches and lakes) got a red flag in the 2007 european survey. In my corner (southwest) we got away reasonably well: just two sites, well known locally for bad water quality. But Skåne as a whole can claim half of all failed swedish sites, with a third in city Trelleborg with surroundings alone. To some extent there may be a neighborly exchange: Denmark have more than 30 failed sites in the waters close to Skåne, while bathing sites in Finland are all good or very good. List of bathing areas and maps.
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