Glass vs. Tupperware

This should spark off a brawl in the NSW Seakayaking Club also known as the Mirage Appreciation Society! I am going to assert here that plastic tupperware boats are better than glass. Actually, I'm not, as I will be buying a glass boat next. What I am going to contend is that glass boats do not have an automatic assumption of superiority. Glass, rather composite, boat afficianados believe their boats are faster, stiffer, lighter and more "serious" a boat. There is an underlying belief that plastic boats are toylike and for beginners. There maybe some elements of truth in these but let's look at this in reality. They are not faster! In fact without a paddler they are completely motionless. The assumption of higher speed is virtually unprovable. I am 110kg, an ex weight lifter and competitive swimmer. Though 44 years old and in poor shape I am physically powerful and over a short distance can out paddle most. In my Ecobezhig I could easily outpace most club paddlers over say 500m.

My boat is 5.4m and goes like a rocket when I'm in a good cadence. Let's say I go up against a similar person in a Mirage 580. Now the Miraganista could argue a strong case for better hydrodynamic design and a host of other technical advantages. I would even believe it. But the only way to determine which boat has intrinsic speed advantages would be to test each boat with the same paddler in the the same completely still stretch of water with no wind and over many repeated runs with the paddler rested and in the same energy state each time. Pretty bloody impossible I'd say. The reality is that even taking the boat off the roof of the car creates a real-world variation that affects speed. Each wave, each swell, each gust and miss-stroke, each look to the left and right, a bad night's sleep, breakfast, all add up to paddler variables that completely swamp any technical edge in the boat. If the Mirage has a 10% technical edge over my Eco and I have a 12% edge over the Mirage paddler, I'm faster.

This also relates to stiffness. Big deal. So my boat bends a bit and warps. I've read enough hydrodynamic review to know that stiff is not a real advantage. It's a point of view. You can take 10 boat designers and get 10 different ideas about designing speed. Whichever one you take is just an opinion.

The better built argument is the easiest to debunk. Rock launching and landing is a no brainer win to plastic. Though I have been paddling for years, relative to my club I'm a noobie. I am more likely to screw up, smash the boat up, drop it or whatever. Do this on composite and spend the night patching it up. I wash mine down and put it away. Of course, it's easier to repair composite but this just confirms my point. You have to. Arguing that a good paddler shouldn't bust their boat is a non-argument. Of course, they shouldn't but that's got nothing to do with the boat. Paddler superiority is another argument.

Composite boats are not lighter either. The Ecobezhig is 24kg. The same as a Mirage. End of argument. You see most of the arguments stem from a confusion with kayaks versus the kayak/paddler combination. At the moment, for all the reasons above, plastics boats for me are superior. The advantages they offer are being deployed, now. My EcoBezhig is fantastic because it's light, reliable, fast and very comfortable. That said my next boat will be either a Mirage 580 or a Nadgee, depending on the best fit, best service and best deal.

Crossing the Ditch

Hooray for Justin and James in finally setting out on their heroic attempt to cross the ditch in a completely inappropriate vessel. It's no different from flying to the moon in a tiny tin can. Except of course the astronauts had no choice of better gear. The ditch crossers could take any number of safe options to get to NZ. It's not the destination that's important, it's surviving the journey. It's doing the incredible that's important. To be Paul Caffyn requires more than doing the odd club paddle or to beat around the bays and rivers (which is where I am about now). You need to be incredible.
To GO, DO & BE.
I still think about Andrew McAuley fairly regularly. I didn't know him but I wanted him to make it. Dying hasn't diminished him and I think about the impact on his family. But there's a part of me that still hopes that he survived and that he will reappear having drifted the last 80ks to Fjordland and after being stranded finally gets home. Like Tom Hanks. It's a fantasy but Andrew is now legendary for the vastness of the endeavour. It was a standard Mirage 580! The mystery shrouds him and mythologizes him. In the seakayaking community his name will loom large. I know it's no consoloation to the surviving McAuleys but it's better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Better to die at sea in a heroic adventure than rot away a lifetime in safety and mediocrity wondering about what you might have done.
I doubt I will have the capacity for such vast boldness, at least not at sea. I think I have some of those qualities in business but each trip in my yak I make I get a feel for the spirit of the Andrew McAuleys and Paul Caffyns.

At last back in the water

It's been months and at last I have been out in Eco. The flood in June which wrote off my car, no winter paddling kit and a multitude of other issues prevented any maritime activity. And now that I've been sacked from Wineselectors I can't justify the expense of replacement roof racks on my Volvo until I find a new place to work.

However, my old school mate and rival Steve has reappeared in my life. He is reasonably wealthy (I suspect), has taken up kayaking and has a Lexus 4wd with roofracks and is is keen to paddle with me. So today we hit the water at Newcastle harbour and paddled out the heads and south to Merewether beach. We attempted a beach landing with hilarious results and rested for a bit before carrying out a surf re-entry. Fortunately, my entry was clean and I got out OK. Steve got smashed by shore-dumping waves and was frustrated every time. Eventually, he just pushed his Touryak out and swam after it. Both of us were competitive swimmers when young and he is still very strong so it was the easiest option for him. I helped him with an assisted recovery and pumped out his cockpit and we were away. Looks like we need some serious practice here. I looked pretty good on my re-entry but was also lucky with the sets. Steve wasn't.

The paddle back was good until the wind changed and a North easter pushed us into the swell and some choppy water. When we got into the harbour we were totally knackered but also very happy with our day.