Mon - December 20, 2004

The Blade - Surfski Paddling


This fall I had an occasion to try a surfski - Futura Blade in a carbon layout. I borrowed her from a friend and still have her in my garage but Colorado weather and water condition is not very surfski friendly right now. Futura Blade surfski

I paddled the Blade four times on Beaver Pond. I didn't have any problems with stability on calm water, but I wasn't very comfortable and couldn't paddle for much longer than 20 minutes without a break.

The seat well was too narrow for me, so I had to add two layers of sleeping pad to make sitting more bearable. However, I still found my paddling position quite akward and uncomfortable with my feet higher than my butt. I had troubles to apply any leg work. It's true that I paddle boats with elevated seats (X-treme safari canoe, Surfrigger, Sea Wind), but most of my paddling time this year I spent in Sisson Nucleus kayak. I found that kayak with a tiller bar steering quite comfortable. Well, my legs are getting tired from pumping after 2 or 3 hours.

There was another distracting problem. The nine years old Blade was leaking really badly. After each loop around the lake I had to stop to pour out at least a gallon of water. I fixed the rudder mount but it didn't stop leaking. So, I put the poor boat on sawhorses and fill her with water. It was one sad view: a rain coming from the bottom under the seat area and some sweating in the bow area. I marked wet spots and after drying them I painted them with epoxy. It reduced leaking but didn't eliminate it. It looks like the boat needs a new layer of epoxy over the entire underwater hull. She weighs ~40lb! I guess this weight includes a lot of absorbed water.

I am not sure if a surfski is a really good idea for Colorado paddling. I may be more attracted to West Side Boat Shop type of racing boats like Thunderbolt or EFT, but I am just making my research. Anyway, if I reach 6.5 mph average speed in 5 miles time trial in my Sisson, I will start to think more seriously about a new faster boat. Right now, I am around 6.1 mph but I started from 5.8 mph this summer.



Posted at 10:35 PM    


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