News archive
News from March 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 (Frej, Launchings, Panthera), 1 comments
From northern Finland, a couple of beautifully built kayaks finished just in time to get a brief taste of water before the sea froze over. Follow the photo links – lots of nice and instructive photos of the finished kayaks and from the building process!
"Hi Björn,
I’m writing you to say really big thanks for the kayak plans you sold us last year!
We finished our project last September, just before sea going iced. We had time to go sea couple of times for testing. I don’t have so much experience about kayaks. Anyway, my feeling was that it is perfect (Panthera). My son liked Frej too a much!
Sea is still iced here at North Finland, but it will be free soon. So we are waiting really impatient that we’ll continue our journey :)
Here are some photos from our kayaks & building process, if you are interested to see:
Panthera and Frej
Many thanks and best regards,
Arto"
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Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 25 comments
Another new kayak from the busy Chinese manufacturer, that I have designed a couple of kayaks for recently – this time, a short plastic (HDPE) surfski, 505x55 cm, aimed at the recreational market, workout and light touring, rather than the racing circus.
A surfski has some interesting advantages for this kind of use: it is fast and very manoeuvrable, easy to get in and out of, and to take a swim from (no tight cockpit to crawl into and no spraydeck to attach) and it is safe to use as it is easy to get up on from the water (no balancing with a high center of gravity while getting your legs in under a foredeck. If you get water in the cockpit from a breaking wave or a capsize, the footwell bailer will drain the cockpit when you speed up (more about this here).
The surfski will be shipped with either a racing rudder if you are serious about speed, or an aft mounted touring rudder (Smarttrack) if you prefer a rudder that can be lifted for getting close to the shore or in shallow waters. These are easily user interchangeable.
I have yet no information where and by whom this surfski will be marketed.
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Tuesday, March 22, 2016 (bluffmail), 0 comments
![Mail från jag, "skat-teverket"](/en/thumb/700x0/newsimg/16/skat-teverket.jpg "Mail från jag, "skat-teverket"")
Jag fick ett mail från skatteverket idag. Eller?
Det har genom åren kommit många stolliga bondfångerikonster, nigeriabrev och annat, men sällan ett så patetiskt genomskinligt som dagens alster.
Den vanligaste varningssignalen vid bluffmail är ett förbluffande taffligt språk (Skatteverket har, utöver sin dokumenterade förmåga att multiplicera, ett alltid korrekt språk). Men här ringer varningsklockorna högt och gällt: “Jag (skatteverket?)”, “Skatte aktivitet” (en viss skatteaktivitet har jag däremot), “Motta din refound” – och: “Vårt huvudkontor adress kan hittas på vår hemsida www.skatteverket.se” (länken går som synes till teverket.se!). Avsändande adress är som väntat inte skatteverket utan ID-246030887@store.skat.se. (där den senare delen – store skat(t) – väl är ett uttryck för avsändarens förväntan om kommande "skatteåterbäring"). Inget pris utgår till den gissar vad som händer om man klickar på länken “för identifieringsprocessen att motta din refound!”
Men hade fjompen varit lite bättre på att uttrycka sig, hade hen förmodligen haft ett riktigt jobb och sluppit fnaska runt i bedrägeribranschens rännsten. Jag hoppas bara att ingen får för sig att från eget konto (och in blanco) belöna dylika taffligheter!
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