...........the Drama Queen was a little on the plain side when she arrived. It was time to get her ship shape and kayak fashion! This page will chart the improvements made to her.
The Drama Queen was purchased without any additional equipment and as I’ve already mentioned in the blog, I needed her to be able to do a number of things – messing about on flat water primarily, but with the capability of carrying camping equipment on longer expeditions (that sounds really adventurous doesn’t it? And who knows where we may end up – I’m already thinking about tackling the Great Glen Canoe Trail – a 65 mile paddle from coast to coast in the Highlands of Scotland taking in the Caledonian Canal as well as 4 lochs, including the length of Loch Ness, as you travel from Inverness in the East to Fort William in the West. Another trip on the radar is, almost inevitably for me given where I grew up, the River Wye). These adventures and others like them will have to wait though – I’m not going to kid myself that I’m a competent enough paddler to stretch myself too quickly. I’m off to Cambridge with Dawn and the caravan for the bank holiday weekend, so the intention is to paddle the Cam whilst we’re there – this will be my first river excursion and I’m really looking forward to it. Before the year’s out my intention is to have a weekend camping trip along the river Nene in Northamptonshire, so it’s a case of building up slowly so that next year, hopefully, the sexier sounding expeditions will follow!
Anyway, back to the matter in hand – the kitting out of the Drama Queen. The Perception Kiwi, as you can see, is a fairly wide Kayak and there is enough storage capacity behind the seat (even with the ethafoam flotation) for about 40 litres of gear. In addition, my plan was to kit the deck out, bow and stern with bungee, and so allow capacity for a 40 litre dry bag behind me as well as allowing for a small deck bag (probably a cheap bum-bag) and map on the bow deck. When I go hiking for a week at a time my rucksack – a Vango Sherpa – has a 65 litre capacity which is perfectly adequate, so 80 litres on the kayak would be more than enough for any adventures I planned to do.
Some of the photos I’ve seen on the internet of modern recreational kayaks show deck rigging which, frankly, looks completely inadequate. Aside from a bottle of water – and that may well be its intended use – it wouldn’t hold anything else of substance. So I decided that I would do the job properly and kit my decks out with rigging which was perfectly capable of doing what I needed it to do.
So, as well as the deck bungee kit, I had to buy some other stuff too. To get me up and running I wanted to buy the following – all of which I’d decided to buy new and had allowed a budget of around £100 –
• Personal flotation device (PFD) – absolutely essential bit of kit as you can imagine. Don’t just go and buy the first one you see either. There’s quite a bit to consider before getting one of these. The first thing to be aware of is that they are not lifejackets. A lifejacket is designed to, not only keep you afloat, but to turn the unconscious person into such a position in the water that their head is above the water line and thus enable the poor soul to continue breathing – the PFD may not do this. The PFD is designed to help you float in the water, but makes the assumption that either rescue is imminent or that you are a competent swimmer and the shoreline is pretty close. I know that doesn’t sound particularly comforting, but it is worth remembering this when deciding what sort of situations you eventually put yourself into whilst kayaking. Personally I’m not a particularly strong swimmer, so won’t be putting myself into open ocean environments – I’ll be sticking to lakes, rivers and canals with a shoreline only a spit away. Another thing to be aware of with regard to PFD’s is their physical design – many you see advertised are for maritime use, but not necessarily paddling use – i.e. it’s really difficult, if not impossible, to paddle whilst wearing one, so make sure yours is designed for paddlers and is cut accordingly (you can’t beat trying one on before you buy it). Also, be aware that they not only come in different sizes, but also to accommodate the weight of the paddler – just make sure you check before buying. Needless to say, I went for an XL capable of encasing a 42 chest as well as keeping afloat a paddler weighing in excess of 70kg (a nice way of saying ‘try this for size you fat ba%£*rd’!!) I settled on a Typhoon Yalu Wave and I’m absolutely delighted with it – it fits perfectly and allows for full movement, especially when paddling. And it’s black which makes me look cool. Or maybe not.
• Paddle – another essential, unless you’ve fitted an outboard motor to your kayak! Titter ye not – I saw one of these jet kayak’s for sale on eBay! What will they think of next? Anyway, as you can imagine there’s loads of different paddles for loads of different situations. Some are suitable for white-water, some are not, some come in 2, 3 or 4 pieces, some manufacturers seem to be more highly regarded than others etc etc. I guess at the end of the day, you get what you pay for. Nevertheless, my research showed that for somewhere between £20 and £30 you could get a one piece paddle which was adequate for recreational paddling (not white-water) and manufactured by a reputable company. I settled for a RUK aluminium shafted one piece day tripper paddle. I’ve used it a few times now and I love it – it’s fairly light, it feels like a quality paddle to me, it feels very sturdy and strong as I paddle and I love the shaped shaft for my right hand, which ensures that when I plunge the blade into the water the angle is just about perfect. It’s also got drip rings, which – yeah you’ve guessed it – stop water dripping off the ends of the paddles and running down your sleeves! Brilliant! Now you will see lots of photos of kayakers with spare paddles lashed to their boats and I guess this is fine if you really are going on an expedition or something, but I can’t see me ever wanting to go this far to be honest. I did have a conversation with someone on this very subject –
“You’re not going to get a spare paddle?”
“Well, no – why would I need one?”
“In case you lose yours or it breaks.”
“Lose my paddle – are you kidding me – it’s about 8 foot long and shiny – believe me, I a’int going to lose it – I know I wear glasses, but I’m not that blind!”
“Yeah, but what if yours breaks?”
“Oh come on – what if I lose the spare paddle – if I’m such a complete dork that I could lose one 8 foot shiny paddle, I’m sure I’m dumb enough to lose a second – and what if my second paddle breaks – it’s endless - I’m going to have to tow a rowing boat behind me full of spare paddles! And what if the tow rope snaps???”
You get my point here?
• Spray deck – not essential, but does stop the inevitable splashed water from your paddling (and rain of course) getting into your boat. Not that these are likely to amount to such quantities that you would sink (unless you’re a white-water paddler or a paddler in Great Britain where it hasn’t stopped raining for 6 months! What I’m thinking of getting is a kayak big enough to accommodate 2 of every type of creature on the planet – that’s how much it’s rained this year!), but it is nice to stay dry when you’re paddling. There’s also the bonus of keeping warmer on a cold day too. So, all in all a nice bit of kit to have. Spray decks come in different materials and price ranges. The neoprene ones seem to be more for the white-water/playboat paddler whereas I plumbed for the more economical waterproof nylon type. Now, these come in different sizes too – first size to consider is the size of your cockpit (the hole you climb into) and the second is the size of your waist (the bit round your middle that in some cases prevents you from seeing your feet….or worse! :-) The cockpit on the Kiwi is huge – about 105cm by 48cm from memory – a big cockpit, which needs a big spray deck. My waist is 34 inches so I ended up buying a RUK ‘big deck’ spray deck which not only was adjustable and easily accommodated my cockpit size, but also came with the added bonus of having a neoprene waistband which adjusted by means of a Velcro strap. This is extremely comfortable to put on (you always put your spray deck on before climbing into your boat – you pull it on like a skirt – not that I’ve ever worn a skirt you understand – you certainly won’t find me down the docks waiting for a sailor! But that’s what you do, you pull it on like a skirt and then adjust the waist to fit – then, you climb in your boat making sure you don’t sit on your spray deck, and pull the spray deck around the lip of the cockpit to seal yourself in – starting with the bit behind you, then the front bit and finish by hooking the sides over the lip of the cockpit). Some cheaper spray decks have an elasticated waistline, a bit like a bungee, which you tighten – but apparently these aren’t as comfortable as the neoprene waist ones – like mine. But, to be honest, you get what you can afford and as long as it does the job and you’re happy…….
You can see my spray deck in the photos below.
• Deck Bungee Kits – as I mentioned earlier, I had decided to kit out both bow and stern decks with bungee which could carry camping equipment, so I bought 2 of the kits – these come with everything you need – 4 metres of black 6mm bungee (shock) cord, 6 nylon pad eyes, mounting hardware – 12 marine grade stainless nuts, bolts and washers and 2 nylon shock-cord end hooks.
I had allocated a Saturday morning to do the job and it probably took about two and a half hours, but I did take my time and was really careful about every step. Aside from the kit itself, I also needed a felt-tip marker pen, a tape measure, a cordless drill, a 5mm drill bit, a Phillips screwdriver bit and a pair of long nosed pliers. Also, before getting stuck into the job, give some thought to the type of rigging pattern you want on your boat – there are 6 pad eyes in each kit and I was content to simply have 3 on each side and then have a criss-cross pattern of bungee, enough to hold down a 40 litre dry bag stuffed with camping equipment. This was great for the stern deck, but I reduced the pad eyes to 4 on the bow deck because I only want to secure a bum bag and a map, so don’t need as much bungee - but you may want it to do a different job – to stow a paddle for example – whatever – just take a look at images of the decks of different types of touring kayaks on the internet and you’ll see what I mean. So anyway, this is what I did:-
1. Measure and mark where you are going to drill holes for the bolts. It probably goes without saying really, but you need to get this right because you are going to drill holes in your boat and if you get it wrong you will sink or, at best, your boat will look like a colander – if you’re not a confident DIYer, I suggest you get someone who is to do the job or pay a competent tradesman to do it. But anyway – I marked the positions for where I was going to drill the holes for the bolts to attach the pad eyes – the little plastic retaining guides for the bungee cord.
2. Drill the holes. But don’t get it wrong. No-one likes a kayak that looks like this:
So, no pressure :-) Drill those holes!
3. Using the bolts, nuts and washers, fix the pad eyes to the deck. The bolt goes through the pad eye which pushes up to the deck. On the under side of the deck, push the washer onto the protruding bolt followed by the nut – then tighten. I found that using the cordless drill with a Phillips screwdriver bit on the bolt combined with holding the nut securely with the long nosed pliers worked a treat. Tightened properly, you shouldn’t get any water leaking through these holes – I shouldn’t because my holes are well above the water line and I’ve no intention of doing any white-water or sea stuff, but to make absolutely sure you can either use neoprene washers under the head of the bolt (between the bolt head and the deck) or you can apply a small amount of silicone sealant to the bolt before you push it into the hole. If you don’t bother like me and they do let in water, you can always add sealant at a later date.
4. Fix a shock cord end hook to one end of the bungee cord (Don’t cut the bungee cord at this stage!) and attach it to one of the pad eyes. This is simple to do – the end hooks are made up of 2 bits – the collar and the hook itself. First pop the collar over the end of the bungee, then push the end of the bungee all the way home into the housing on the hook piece, then push the collar all the way home to secure the bungee. Then feed the other end of the bungee (the end with no hook) through all of the other pad eyes in a pattern which you (hopefully) will already have planned. Now, before you do anything else (namely cut your bungee and add the other hook) think about what you are going to stow under this bungee – how bulky is it? Because the shock cord will only give so much. What I did was simply take up the slack through all the pad eyes, but then I extended the cord through another guide to give me an extra 12 inches of bungee should I need it for my 40 litre dry bag, in which case I would hook the bungee onto the pad eye it was originally intended to give me more slack. Only then did I cut the bungee and fix the end hook. I hope this makes sense, if not I hope the photos demonstrate what I mean.
5. That’s it! Bob’s your Uncle, Fanny’s your Aunt! This is what the finished job looked like. I’m sure you’ll agree a huge improvement from the photo at the top.
• Dry Bag – essential if you plan on taking your kayak away on camping trips – you’ll need some sort of container in which to keep your gear dry. There are various types – barrels and dry bags being the principal two. Both come in an array of sizes, but I would suggest that barrels are more suited to an open canoe than a kayak. But it’s up to you. I bought this dry bag new off eBay and it is perfect for me. It’s 100% waterproof and will bungee to my stern deck. I bought a land rover one because I have a land rover – for no other reason – but I am delighted with it.
So, this is the kit list and cost up to now:
• Kayak £132
• Paddle £24
• Spray Deck £24
• PFD £25
• Deck Rigging Kits x2 £20
• 40 litre Dry Bag £20
• Shipping costs £5
Total………………………………………………………..£250 *
* That’s $392 US as of 14th August 2012 (1USD=0.63655GBP)
Not bad considering a new kayak would set you back in the region of £500 - £600 ($785 - $942 US) before you even think about buying any of the other essentials!
I know there’s a lot more equipment I could get, and may get in the future, such as a helmet for example – this will probably be my next purchase - and of course I will put these items on the blog as and when I get them.
