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. 