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A website is sometimes a nice communication medium. This time Arnold contacted me last week and offered me to try his Silhouette before he was going to sell it.
The Silhouette looks like she had an active paddling life yet, but seems to be in very good condition. She was built by John Van Leeuwen of Watermark, a company existing till approximately 1999 in the Netherlands. Watermark produced the NigelFoster kayaks at the time. As I heard strange stories about the construction and watertightness of these Watermark-kayaks, this one seems an exception, being well built.
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Last night I had to paddle away some frustrations and I took the Greenlander for my weekly visit at the kayakclub; a 20km paddle vv.
It was very quiet weather with a mirror-like water surface.
What I noticed first was that the speed of this kayak is much better than the AnasAcuta; also a hard-chine kayak. Arriving at the club 65minutes later means an average speed of 8,7-9,0 km/h, which is not too bad for a seakayak.
My way back was somewhat troublesome as the water was beginning to freeze, creating large icefields. Astonishing that after 1,5 hours the ice was thick enough to require piercing the paddleblade very deliberate into it. Of course the ice dropped the speed a bit.
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Years before I wrote a study about the Argonaut and Aquanaut; I travelled over de WWW and collected as much opinions as I could. It was interesting to see a general positive opinion gradually started to grow around this kayak. I did this survey for a friend who wanted to know more about these kayaks.
Later I tested the Avocet, a famous kayak being the starting point for the designs of the Aquanaut. "Today" Valley combined Aquanaut an Argonaut in one family: Aquanaut in 2 extensions LV and HV.
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To repair or not to repair
You noticed perhaps that I did not write very much during the last two months.
Yes, that's right but there was a reason. Being a bit impulsive, I bought this NDK Greenlander which was punctured during a surf session and declared total loss. A nice project to improve on repairing kayaks; that's what I thought.
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Yesterday I joined the club KVU playing in surf at the coast near Bakkum.
As I am reviewing the Romany-S, I took this kayak for today.
Circumstances at sea were a bit rough as the tide was lowering in combination with a NW-wind that was blowing at 4-5Bft for some time already .
The results were steep dumping waves. At first I had been accompanying a member who wanted to stay closer to shore. But when I was going to accompany the other members, who were at the outer banks, I could not reach them anymore as the dumping waves were grown so strong that they let me flipping backwards on every attempt.
If this flipping backwards is a characteristic of the Romany-S or that it’s just the waves during this session, I don’t know yet. So I will have to go for another surfing session to investigate this. 
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Wow, that´s something!
I just found, at www.qajaqusa.org, pictures of Ken Taylor and Duncan Winning: The two man where the roots of the AnasAcuta started.
As I look at it, it´s those two man who, together with Derek Hutchinson, initiated the development of modern seakayaks until now; well done my boys! 
Looking at the pictures, these man, being in there 60-70ths, are still looking very fit.
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Bonnie made me remember some pictures where the AnasAcuta is compared with a replica of Ken Taylor's kayak.
So it seems a good idea publishing them underneath:
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Introduction
As I paddle an AnasAcuta (VCP - Valley Canoe Products) for years already, I think it´s just about time to write a review on her. :wink:
The interesting fact about the AnasAcuta, being introduced in 1972 already, is that she is still in production. Which is remarkable because that gives her a history of 36 years!
A kayak with such along history is interesting because we can learn from a kayak that appeals so long to paddlers.
The reason could be that there are enough paddlers who appreciate the beautiful and original Inuit-look of this kayak. But certainly it has also something to do with the capacities of the kayak. Often heard are positive comments on her playfulness and rough water handling: it is just fun, paddling an Anas Acuta. That’s what they say. And I can only agree with that.
KLIK hier om verder te lezen en een grotere foto te bekijken
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Having not paddled the Romany S rm before, the evening of 8 Oct. was an ideal occasion to collect my first paddling experiences with this kayak and to get used to her.
Conditions were very mild on the Alkmaarder-lake (NL: Alkmaardermeer): 8okt 2008, 20.00 h, wind 1-2Bft, no waves above 10cm.
Stability
When fumbling around in the dark to close the zipper of my jacket, while leaving the club, I completely forgot I was sitting in a kayak. Maybe that tells something about the stability.
Edging the kayak felt very natural and did not give you any unstable feelings. In fact the capsizing point is very far away.
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As I wrote in my first post about the Umnak Icefloe Fjord, Derek designed her on request of the Norwegians. He used the Icefloe-design which he modified by taking away the integral skeg. As Willem Molengraaf understood from Derek the hull and deck of the Fjord are equal to the Icefloe.
I quoted in this first post that Derek once talled Willem that he did not like the Fjord.
Just now I found a discussion on the Sea&Surf-forum where Owen wrote something similar on the 26th april 2007: