West Greenland Kayak Build, Frame number 3, second water test.
After pulling a quarter inch of rocker out of the stern, we wrapped the frame in black plastic and then wrapped it again with the last of my clear plastic which actually ended up adding so much tension that it distorted the frame, but the extra wrap held tightly enough that it very closely simulated the feel of a finished kayak.
I strapped this, the older version of this kayak, and an F1 on top of the car, which is a completely different kayak but serves as a good benchmark for both glide and maneuverability.
The entire time I was driving to the water and also while I was paddling the older version of this kayak to get a baseline, I was thinking “Man I really hope this new boat is actually better than the old boat because I don’t have any more time to work on it.”
Hopping in the new boat for a side-by-side comparison I was delighted by the difference. Better glide, better turns, better stability, more comfortable, and a nice bit of extra ‘pop’ on the roll. Not so much of an improvement that I dislike my older version but definitely an modest improvement in almost every way.
I’m not really sure why this came to mind but as soon as I got out of it the first words out of my mouth were “You know I would license this for production in carbon fiber.”
Definitely a relief because I really can’t put any more time into this design right now, and we’ve still got a solid month of updating the course videos and the plan sets ahead of us.
I didn’t actually get in the F1, but a prospective student stopped by to try one out so at least it got wet. It’s always kind of funny to me that the Greenland Kayak is sleeker looking, but waterline length and width is nearly identical to the F1.
I’ll post some on the water video tomorrow.
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