There had been no e-mails going around about paddling this weekend. I woke up a little early this morning and looked outside. Not much was happening in regards to wind. I checked the weather; it was calling for a bit of rain in the morning but only 15 km wind from the northwest. A good morning to go for an impromptu paddle. So had some breakfast, threw my gear together, loaded up a kayak, and headed out to St. Philips for a short paddle to Portugal Cove.
A few pictures…
Today was a rather excellent paddle, for today I was paddling Clyde’s Nordkapp RM... Hmmmmm!!
Now you understand why I paddle a Nordkapp :)
ReplyDeleteyes... I think I became a cult member yesterday!!!
ReplyDeleteDean, what differences did you notice between the Nordkapp and your current boat? Speed, stability, turning etc?
ReplyDeleteTony :-)
Speed: the Nordkapp RM is faster when cadence was the same, or same speed with less strokes/min...
ReplyDeleteStability: with the same amount of gear in it, it felt more stable than mine. I think this is largely due to the fact that my kayak has a capacity of 375 lbs, and the Nordkapp RM has a capacity of about 100 lbs less...
Turning: when I edged the Nordkapp RM it turned. When I did not edge it definitely tracked very nicely. This was the first thing I noticed as soon as I started paddling...
From what I read the Nordkapp RM's handling is very very close to that of the Nordkapp (i.e. the FG version)...
Would you go with a RM boat, or are you still thinking of making the switch to FG?
ReplyDeleteFor most of the paddling conditions around here, a plastic boat is normally much more fitting(surf launching, rock hoping all the fun stuff). Yet everyone slowly makes the switch away from plastic. For the normal paddle of sight seeing and playing, compared to trying to cover "X" ammount of distance, in as little time as possable, why do we switch??
I've been in a couple glass boats, and loved to paddle them, but the landing and putting outs, were a pain. Granted they werent my boats, so I was playing extra attention to not dragging them on the rocks. But is the weight difference and less fatigue on long days, worth the extra $$
I'd love to hear others opinions on this. If I were buying a new boat, and not building, I must say, it probably would be a glass boat if the budget allowed. Mainly because the boat style's that appeal to me, are only in FG. And I know if i had my own FG boat, I'd have no problems with tearing the bottom out, and fixing it myself as a weekend project.
I dont know enough to know excally why a FG boat is better, and I figure its just not because they cost more, and thus a status symbol.
lol, maybe I should stop rambling, just noticed how long this got. (slow afternoon at work!)
Robert, I am still going with the FG. True, a plastic seems to make sense given our coastline, but that can be said of almost any coastline... But yet people all over the world use FG kayaks. It seems most (all?) the expert and top level paddlers go with a FG kayak. Must be a reason for that. From what I read and from what I am told by FG kayak owners, a FG kayak is a stiffer boat and affords a nicer ride. I hear people say 'once you try FG you'll never go back.' Must be something to it. I think maybe a FG kayak is part of a kayaking progression... start with a plastic so as not to worry about damaging it, learn some control skills, how to get on and off a beach, etc... and then progress to a 'better' kayak... Is FG better? I guess I can only really answer that once I have one and have paddled it for a while. But to find out I will have to get one first...
ReplyDelete