19.10.2012
The predicted winds were S2-5bft. To find reasonable waves we to paddle the Hoornse Hop, just south of Hoorn. A spot were waves build up quite fast in southerly winds.
But unfortunately: the wind was only 1-2 bft and the IJsselmeer like a mirror.
Beautiful yes, but not to gather much information about the Etain after improving knee- and thigh-grip contact in the cockpit.
Today we started in Edam and on the first 14km-leg the wind came from aside causing our kayaks to weathercock very slightly. Jos and Henk dropped their retractable skegs slightly to compensate for this.
I didn't follow their example because I wanted to test the improved knee- and thigh-grip contact; just to be forced to keep course by using edging/leaning/sweepstrokes.
And yes, it was easy to keep course on a very relaxed, natural way without much force: only by leaning and using sweepstrokes almost every stroke.
Because there was almost no wind this was also a fine occasion to find out something about how fast the Etain is. Starting with a full sprint it turned out that the absolute maximum speed (paddled by me :wink:) is 11-11,2 km/h.
We varied also our paddling-pace and I classified the result as follows:
- relaxed touring: 7-8,5 km/h
- workout paddling: 8,5-9,5 km/h (for approx. 1 hour of paddling)
- spoiling energy: 9,5-11km/h. May be 10km/h can be paddled during a short distance.
Looking at these figures I think that the Etain fits in the average field of seakayaks. Meaning that she certainly is not slow but either not extremely fast. But she is easily driven and in combination with the way she handles waves, as described in earlier sessions, you can eat miles with here.