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Everybody has his habits: good, bad, strange, ... !
One of my habits is that I store a testkajak at home in the narrow corridor: a safe place. That is the way I am used to nurse the properties I borrow from persons.
A few days ago I used the same place to customize theVestVika-testkayak with foam. Doing that I am busy for a couple of hours, making a mess there with all the bits and pieces of foam around the kayak.
It is ready now and in the mean time I paddled the customized kayak and am happy with the result.
Most of the time I can't be stopped in preaching felllow-kayakkers how important it is to customize your own kayak to suit your own physics.
It is not the first time I am asthonished about the result, in such a way that a kayak can behave completely different (read: much better) than before the customizing.
Try yourself.
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In the last two entries in my weblog I planned pictures but did not, at the same time, find time to make and upload them.
But yet I managed to include them in the entries; please look below. 
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Instead of picking up my improved AnasAcuta up on last friday at JG.Polyester, I toke off 2 free hours doing it around midday today.
John did a nice job with the lower- and longer skeg-housing: I guess the surface of the skeg must be enough to prevent the weathercocking.
Although I went over to JG last week, to establish the best place for the controlbutton of the skeg, there was a small surprise with my knee interfering with the tube, going from there to the front, behind the controlbutton. I will have to improve that with some foam John gave me with that purpose.
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On friday-evening the weatherforecast for the next day was that bad that I wondered if the planned tour, organised bij the NKB (Dutch Canoe Association), would be canceled.
To my surprise Joris not intended to do so and only planned to change the destination according to the level of the participants of the tour.
In testing kayaks I love the bad weather which was predicted now. Not because of the bad weather of course, but because it is my intention that testing a kayak should be done under the conditions an organised tour can meet. As a tour normally will not be canceled at 5 Bft- wind or less, I believe a kayak must be able to function in 6Bft because the wind can be stronger than expected. That is why I love 6 Bft to test Kayaks in.
although I did not yet paddle 1 meter in the VestVika, the testkayak I picked up yesterday, I took the kayak with me today.
Honestly it is against my principles, which are that I first wants to try a kayak on protected waters, to get used a bit to its characteristics, before I encounter heavy weather in it. This of course from a safety point of view. However today there were quit a lot of kayakers nearby and the level was intermediate so in this case I dare doing so.
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It´s friday and I planned to take half a day off to get my AnasAcuta at JG Polyester, who added a variable skeg to it.
After that, not the most economic plan, I intended to drive back to Bram in Baarn to pick up his VestVika, a brand new kayak which I will test the coming weeks.
However, due to production-problems at work I was not able to leave earlier than 17.00h. Because of that I skipped, with pain in my hart, the trip to JG: I dare not ask him to wait for me because of the traffic-jams that are expected this time of the day between Utrecht and Gorichem and because of which it is impossible to predict a estimated time of arrival.
So instead of that I went directly to Bram. Together we drove to Meander, the kajakclub of Baarn, where the kajak was.
The kajak is the result of Brams suggestion to Jan from "Kajakcentrum De Bieschbosch" (that does, regrettably, not exist anymore) to develop a fast kajak based on the Svalbard, a succesfull design of Jan, maintaining its characteristics.
So Bram made, in close contact with Jan, the plug. Once the plug was ready, Jan made the mould and a first hull was presented the last "kayak exhibition at Nieuwegein" about 5 years ago.
Regrettably Jan ended his company shortly after that and the building of the new kajak was delayed.
A few months ago however Jan and Bram finished the new kajak and gave it the name VestVika. Jan built one kajak in his spare hours at JG polyester´s, before the mould was transported to Tjechie like some of Jan´s other moulds.
The kajak is now Bram´s and probably the only existing and finished one at this moment.
The VestVika is a beautifull looking kayak which "breathes" the quality you can think of as the "watermark" of all the kayaks Jan built in the past. :wink:
I am very curious how the kayak will behave.
The first contacts with Bram gave me the impression that I could use it a day or so to get a first impression of the kayak. Thus I planned to "do" the VestVika before the planned test with another kayak that I could borrow from Leo, a clubmember. Now it has become clear I can keep the Vestvika longer, the other testkayak shall have to wait for a few months. Sorry Leo, I come back to you soon.
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I think every kayakker has these thougths now and than: to drive much more kilometers than actually paddling them.
Today I succeeded in driving without paddling:
A few weeks ago I brougth my AnasAcuta to JG-Polyester; a good, Dutch company to get your kayak repaired or adjusted to your wishes.
He was going to install a variable skeg into my kayak.
Due to the fact the AA is very flat on the back, he has to make a new mould for a lower, but longer skeghousing. So he needed some time, but the moment has come now to finish the kayak.
To be sure that the controlbutton of the skeg would not interfere with my knee, I drove the 100 km´s over to JG-polyester to talk about the best place for the button.
The skeg was in place yet and looked promising. The position for the controlbutton was easy to find and after some talk I drove homewards again: satisfied but dusty because of the polyester-dust a workplace of a polyester company is normaly covered with.
I am looking forward to next friday when the AA will be ready.
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It is about the last 3 months I could not do much on seakayaking. It was a busy period with sad family circumstances and at the same time much work I promised to do.
But now there is some time again, making it possible to start the study on footpumps I announced in the test of the Valley Avocet RM
The reason, because of which I want to write an essay on the mounting of footpumps, is the fact that it is not possible (better to say "not advisable")to mount a footpump on the bulkheads in a PE-Seakayak in such a way that it is durable and safe.
During the test of the PE Avocet I thougth quite a lot about this problem because it is only one of the very few remarks you can make on this excellent kayak.
First I thought about using the JR-footrests as a base on to which a construction can be mounted on; a construction where a pump could be fitted. However I doubted if this could ever be a strong, stable and safe construction.
Finally I found THE idea in my WW-kayak. So I am planning to use my WW-kayak to explain the idea. Therefore I tried to take out the footrest: no way! 
It is of course my own fault: Because if you use your kayak in salt water, aluminium- and copper-parts can do some strange things over time if you don´t give them the proper maintenance.
So this week I was busy with grinding away the heads of 4 big copper bolts; carefully not to damage the kayak.
These screws has become "united" to the kayak
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Om ruimte te creëren voor het komende vaarseizoen ben ik bezig geweest schoon schip te maken.
Zo heb ik de laatste tijd hard gewerkt aan het verslag van de test van de Avocet. Alhoewel de test al in juni 2005 was afgerond kon ik door familie-, werk- en NKB-omstandigheden maar geen tijd vrijmaken om aan het schrijven beginnen.
Als dat verslag niet klaar is kan ik met goed fatsoen niet aan een nieuwe test beginnen. Dus het werd nu hoog tijd. Inmiddels is het verslag gepubliceerd en resten me nog wat kleine verbeteringen of aanvullingen. Ik ben zoals altijd weer heel tevreden als het klaar is en weer aan een volgend avontuur kan gaan denken. Ja een avontuur vind ik het altijd wel.
Een andere voorbereiding is het laten aanpassen van mijn AnasAcuta. Dit is mijn eerste zeekajak. Ooit heb ik die ik bij Jan van Sluis op veel punten heb laten aanpassen om hem (of is het haar) te laten aansluiten bij mijn wensen aan veiligheid en comfort. Wat ik toen niet heb laten doen, en waar ik steeds meer spijt van kreeg, was het laten plaatsen van een variabele scheg. Toen was een praktische gedachte dat dit teveel ruimte verlies in het achtercompartiment zou geven. Inmiddels ervaar ik steeds meer dat de AnasAcuta, die sterk oploeft in veel wind met lage golven, me hard laat werken in een groep kajakkers waarin tegenwoordig vrijwel iedereen een variabele scheg heeft. Ondanks dat ik de eigenschappen van de AnasAcuta vooral in zwaar weer en in “heavy seas” zeer waardeer, liet ik hem toch steeds vaker thuis.
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Als je tijdens een tussen-vakantie eens een weekje op Terschelling rondloopt merk je dat je gewoon met het
zeekajakvaren bezig blijft.
Zo liepen we langs de Boschplaat richting Oostpunt. Of moet ik Noordkaap zeggen?
In ieder geval waren we op een gegeven ogenblik zo ver dat ik perse naar het uiterste puntje wilde doorlopen om
de Noordkaap, het onverlichte baken dat daar staat, eens te bekijken. Deze bakens stammen uit de tijd zonder GPS, GSM en dergelijke hulpmiddelen.
Toen waren het de gidsen om veilig je weg door de geulen te vinden.
Nu zijn het historische objecten die leuk zijn als doel van een kajak- of wandeltochtje
Bij de Noordkaap aangekomen bleek hij tijdelijk buiten bedrijf voor onderhoud. Daarvoor lag hij zoetjes op zijn
zijde te slapen. Hij zag er keurig uit, alleen het scheef gezakte, verroeste onderstel dat even verderop stond
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We hadden er weer last van: de Kanokriebels.
Daarom hadden Wietse en ik de 21e gepland om op groot water te gaan varen. Het mooiste was geweest om een tochtje in rustig weer langs de kust vanaf Castricum te varen. Omstreeks deze tijd van het jaar kan je op zee, zo vertelde Wietse, allemaal mooie vogels zoals Alken en Roodkeelduikers zien. Aangezien het ´s-nachts windkracht 7 was geweest en het ´s-morgens helemaal geen rustig weer leek, waren we het er snel over eens dat we een ander tochtje moesten varen: van Muiden naar Marken vv.
We startten van een strandje aan de voet van een fort in Muiden. Een fort waar overigens nu de Scouting is gevestigd. Dat is toch eigenlijk prachtig. Ik zie het helemaal voor me: Jonge Scoutjes die door zo´n oud fort mogen dwalen. Hartstikke spannend. Voor mij was het vroeger wel wat geweest in ieder geval.