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It is difficult to imagine: to love seakayaking and yet to decide to quit with it.
This is about Willem Molengraaff. The man who tested seakayaks for years. It was Willem who started doing these tests in the Netherlands; I dropped in just later.
Together, Willem and I tested quite a lot of kayaks and it was our fate that the weather turns bad most of the times at the days we made an appointment for testing. We got used to that and turned it around: we need bad weather for testing.
After being rescued in november 2003, because of a lower back injury that made Willem capsize and we not being able to reentry him again, Willem and I only dare to paddle in good and warm weather. Doing so, Willem made several seatours in Holland, Germany and Portugal since then.
A few months ago however, Willem phoned me after a solotour on inland waters and told me that he had decided to quit with paddling: "The mind is willing, but the body, being 76 years old, is not any more!". It is too painful and because of that it is no pleasure.
He regrets not to see his beloved sandplates any more.
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You know what a skayary is?
Well, I invented this word because I realised I had to help some Dutch people in reading Kayak-English.
I got some comments on the fact that I started writing my seakayaktests in English: Some Dutch people don't like this very much because their English is not that good and it became not easier for them to read the report.
On the other hand I can see it as an opportunity to improve on English: "if you like to read something that interests you, you will learn".
However to help them, I made a Dictionary with specific words of the seakayaking-jargon and looked for a name of this.
Looking at the words "Seakayak Dictionary" it was not difficult to invent the word Skayary.
I hope it will help my Dutch friends.
And I invite them also to send me a word when missing words that needs translation.
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Writing a testreport about the Vestvika was a challenge on several subjects.
To start with: this fast seakayak is so very new that there are no experiences, references or comments on it whatsoever.
Secondly: this is the first report I wrote completely in English. A real maidentrip because I had to learn quite a lot of the technical words that are used in seakayaking.
However, writing the English report turned out to be a very instructive excersize for me personally.
I must say that writing this first report, took me more time than when writing in Dutch, but yet I am proud to present you my first English report on: home.kpn.nl/aoxo94sx
This does not mean that I will translate all earlier tests. May be a summary in English is an alternative there, but I am afraid, when I were starting to translate everything, there would be no time for testing for a couple of years.
May be, when you have questions about a certain seakayak, it is better to follow the "alert-system": you ask questions on kayaks and I answer in English.
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After 4 weeks I am still feeling the recovery of my lower back is progressing. I am not completely there yet, but able to function more or less normal again.
Today I felt the urgent need to start kayaking again; in a more serious trip then the one at last sunday. :wink:
Coming at the club everybody was or looking football at television athome or out paddling. So I took the most stable kayak from my collection, an old Fjord from P&H, (just in case; you never know what will happen "backwise") and set out at the Alkmaardermeer.
Is this revalidation or what is it? The wind blows at least with 6Bft. and is pushing me sometimes at great speed along the waves.
Regarding the stability of my kayak this feels very, very relaxed.
What about the returntrip? I was wondering while surfing.
I was happy to have a wingpaddle in my hands as these paddles allow paddling against these winds ""without much effort"".Just trying to keep paddling in a very relaxed and elastic way: imagining that I am not using any power at all against the wind.
Doing so I was very happy all went very well,progressing more than I expected.
For the last 2 km's I found company in 3 clubmembers, just returning from a longer trip. I was even able to increase my speed a little; just feeling some minor muscles twitching a bit.
SO; everything will be allright - I think - I hope ; in some time. 
Details: 7,5 km ; 6+Bft wind
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Reading my posting from yesterday again, it gave me some inspiration for further investigation.
Simply using the keywords “thermoform, kayak, ABS” opened another world of information.
On the contrary with my conclusion yesterday, I can say now that the use of thermoforming for seakayaks might be new. But for canoes and other kayaks or watercraft it is already in use for approx. 10 years.
The ABS-material was first used for canoes; probably the easiest approach because it is not necessary for an open canoe to make a hull-deck-connection.
Quite a lot of names for the material can be found: Royalex and Carbonlite 2000 being well known ones. Airalite is just another name for the same type of material. Probably just with other composition and characteristics.
Apart from the issues I considered to be critical, I found another care-point: the advise to use a UV-protector. To be applied 4 times a year to protect the material from degrading in the sunlight.
About the glue, that I described as essential, I also found out that there are perfect glues for the purpose of gluing deck and hull together.
What to think of : 3M 5200 Sealant/Adhesive
This glue is said to be well known in the marine industry for its adhesive qualities.
“[The 5200 creates a particularly superior bond with ABS plastic. This makes it a good choice for Royalex canoes and thermoform plastic.”]
With this information I feel a little bit more comfortable now.
Although thermoformed boats are produced for years the remark that I found “[However, like all thermoform plastic ABS loses its plasticizers with age and becomes increasingly brittle]” gave me something to think about.
Probably manufacturers solved this and preventing the brittleness must be the secret.
Anyhow keep it in mind.
Finally: at
www.wavelengthmagazine.com/2005/dj05kid.html
I found an interesting article about the production of thermoformed kayaks. It shows also the big machines, necessary to produce them.
{sorry to inform you: okt. 2021 this article does not exsist anymore but you can still find wavenlength magazine at: https://paddlingmag.com/}
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What is Airalite? I came across this name being a new material used for kayaks. In fact (expedition)-seakayaks are made from it.
Is Airalite a tecnique, a material are just a name? The fact is that every inquiry leads back to Perception, who probably adapted a new material in its building proces.
Looking at the details (see below) it is a promising material: strong with good charcteristics, but cheaper than glassfiber kayaks.
Looking at the information I found, I am just wondering how it works: It is described as a thermo-formed material. Being a packaging technologist I am thus forced to believe that the proces starts using a thick sheet of plastic that, after heating up, is sucked&blown into a mould.
That is of course a good idea because the production-time will be much shorter than with an glasfiber kayak; even shorter than a rotomolded kayak.
But thermoforming has also disadvantages: In the deepest parts of the kayak (most abrasive spots) the plastic sheet is stretched most and will also be thinner there. The same with sharp corners. So a kayakdesign demands special attention to the model (round shapes) thus preventing thinner spots. Also the qualitycontrol must focus on wallthicknesses.
Another disadvantage is that it will be deformed by heat (this is the result of a material being able to be formed this way, which means that the modelling-proces can also be reversed); the more heat applied to the kayak the more it is willing to go back to its original shape: the flat sheet of plastic.
And without a possibility of repair. But as the dangerous temperature is around 180°C, most situations in normal life are threatless. What to think of low temperatures? Perception tells us it will be more brittle then, but when not exagerating the use of the kayak, nothing will happen. We will see! What about the impact ice can have while paddling?
This thermoforming proces is suitable for most kayaks as the shape of a kayak is not very complicated when looking at two shells to be made: the hull and the deck.
But this is at the same moment a weak spot: how are these two shells connected to each other without the risk of separating under load or without the chance of leakage. This must be a very good glue: strong, durable with the characteristic of filling small holes at the spots both shells don´t have 100% contact with each other.
So my conclusion is that this is indeed a good idea to produce kayaks using the thermoform-proces, but I am curious if there are already some experiences with these Airalite-kayaks.
Who knows more about this?
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A few details I found at the WWW:
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As you may have read earlier in my weblog, I saw this winter a tidal creek at the most easterly point of the island of Terschelling. It stimulated my phantasy to paddle once into this at high tide. Not a simple idea because after starting at the main land it is difficult to arrive at the high tide, necessary to enter the creek.
However, I got some comments of people who did not see this creek before or people who investigated Google-earth and did not find any indication of it.
But: in my camera was still a picture and after having it developed I am happy to show a picture here.
It looks that big that I cannot really believe it just was created this winter.
Besides that it was also on this old map:
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Today, early in the morning, I returned the Vestvika to Bram, the proud owner and designer.
I left her at Bram´s With pain in my hart because I enjoined paddling her, especially the speed sensation she gives.
Not that I am ready now: I would like to paddle the Vestvika once more in big following, regular waves to investigate if I will encounter nose-diving or not.
However, at the moment I have a problem with my lower back (hoping it is only the muscles) and I think a few weeks of rest is a wise thing to do. That means: no paddling in the twilight zone of "to paddle or not to paddle". May-be even no paddling at all.
So therefor I returned the kajak, to give Bram the opportunity to paddle his own kajak again.
In the mean time I will start writing, which is quit a time-consuming activity as I will read all my notes and compose the testreport
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If I look back in my weblog, I see that I have done quite a lot of kayaking for the last 2 months.
The test of the Vestvika is most responsible for that, together with the weather, offering me good testconditions. Besides that I didn´t want keep Bram´s testkayak for too long and return it within an acceptable period of time.
So tonight: kayaking again!
Now on the Alkmaardermeer with Annet and Wietse. Our mission was to perform the X-rescue with the Vestvika and shoot pictures of it.
As I was the victum, I dressed in my steamer for long periods of immersion in the water.
The middle of the lake was a realistic spot to perform our exercise; also the best place with some waves to make the decor.
We practised the X-rescue in 3 different ways: the normal way with the reentry between the kayaks, the version with the reentry from beside the kayaks And Wietse´s version (the kiwi-X-rescue) entering from the aft deck lying on your belly.
After finishing we concluded we should practise this kind of thing much more often. For now we could´t stop playing and we rolled, re-entried and so on...!
And if all this was not enough for one evening, we finished with a small tour in which Annet and I also exchanged our kayaks: the Vestvika and Sirius HF.
This gave me also the opportunity the compare both kayaks.
All together a very informative evening.
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As I am currently testing the Vestvika from MSC, I needed also some heavy sea to test the kayak in. Part of my test-protocol is paddling and surfing in breaking waves because I need to know what a seakayaker can face when he or she has to navigate in breaking waves or surf when the weather has turned bad. Just to let them know on forehand how the kayak will behave in a situation like that in case they have ever to face these conditions themselves.
Sometimes I have to wait some time for heavy weather. However this time I was lucky. I followed the wind-forecasts on www.windfinder.com/forecast/ijmuiden and already a week on forehand, the expectations were windforces of 8 Bft on thursday till saterday. Honestly I thougth this was too heavy for a test. But here I was lucky again, for during the week the expectations changed in my favour: the whole week there was quite a lot of wind with the climax on friday with 8Bft. But saterday, testing-day, a windforce of 5-6 Bft was expected. Perfect, because "the wind is still in the water" and quite a lot of surf can be there.
Saterdaymorning 9.00h: Wietse and I were standing on the beach of Bakkum and Castricum. The surf looked impressive. May be it is because of this that I dressed myself in my steamer backwards: with the back on my breast. At the moment I wanted to close the zipper I just wondered: was the zipper always on my breast?? Last time I remember it to be on my back. Joking: I only have this steamer for at least 10 years already.
There is no other way then to undress again and go through the heavy cycle of undress and dress again. Don´t laugh, you there!!
First I paddled alone while Wietse shot pictures of me in the surf.