In part of a 2011 resolution I made for myself, racing was something I wanted to give a try this year.  Of course I picked a super heat wave summer to do it in.

First off, the Blackburn Challenge is a 20 mile open ocean circumnavigation of Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

www.blackburnchallenge.com

Blackburn Challenge Race Course

This year was the 25th year that the race has been run with a record entry of 236 craft ranging from Touring Kayaks, Rowing Shells, Outrigger Canoes, Traditional Dories to Paddleboards.  In short, quite the on-water spectacle.

This is a lot to take in at 6AM as the mandatory Captain’s Meeting at the Gloucester High School is at 7AM.

Each Class of craft got their own separate start times with the fastest going last.

Off go the Paddleboarders

Initially overcast skies and light rain were in order which was a blessing as with no wind or swells to speak of another blast of 100 degree temps would have made the day an endurance march rather than a race.

At about mile 14 my hydration bladder ran dry so I went to my secondary which the P&H Cetus has a handy front deck hatch that if you pop a hole in the hatch cover becomes an integral canteen/bladder holder that works beatifully.  I had ice loaded in with my sports drink but next time will also line the cavity with some 1/4 inch minicell foam so cold condensation doesn’t drip on my legs in the cockpit.

For my first real distance race I finished the day at 3 hours 49 minutes for an average of 10 minute 45 second mile.  Not bad, but I know that the later quarter of the race I let my form go and could feel it in my lats.  Good lesson; Rotate!

Rounding the Dog Bar (breakwater) into Gloucester Harbor NSPN.org cheerleaders were providing encouragement for all the racers.  Very much appreciated as the sun had just come out in full force.

From the confusing shores of the harbor the finish line at the Greasy Pole (there’s more history to this than I’m going to go into) wasn’t hard to pick out.  It was the beach with the party!

The Finish Line

More of the Finish Line

The Prize

Beach fills as the racers come in

And More......

The Cetus MV taking a break

For complete race results for all the classes;

http://blackburnchallenge.com/Downloads/BlackburnChallenge2011PreliminaryResults%20(1).xls

Perhaps next time I’ll bring along more of The River Connection Racers……….    :)

See you on the water,

Marshall – The River Connection, Inc.

www.the-river-connection.com

Still playing catch up from this past weekend 5/14-5/15 so I thought I would take a few moments to give a brief description of all the happenings at this years Symposium.

Friday Night Waterside Workshop of Boat Body & Blade by Brian Day of P&H Kayaks, Ben Lawry and Karen Knight was a fun improv session of teaching that I don’t think enough presenters and instructors get to do. About 20 attendees came out for this sunset workshop and all had fun with the on land and Karens Freestyle Canoe on water portions of the evening.

Saturday was a busy day for Dr. Gel and Mr. Fiberglass (aka Brian Day – intentional play on the Dr. Jeckyl Mr. Hyde bit) as one of Bens students had quite an event happen to his kayak on his drive over to The River Connection Boathouse. Something to do with a flying Cetus which upon landing then was bent 90 degrees at the rear hatch. I’m not exaggerating much as you’ll see in the photos. This provided for a perfect patient for the Dr. and his team to resurrect what I thought was a dead kayak back to a floatable boat.

Towing 101 exposed all the paddlers to gear design, team tows, hooking in and unclipping first on land and then moving out to practice the skills on water.

Forward Stroke Clinic with Ben Lawry was quite full and quite intense but also flat out silly at times. I could hear the on water grunting drill 3/4 of a mile upriver. Cool pic of the crew taking the class out on the water to follow.

Karen Knight had more students in her AM & PM Freestyle Canoe Classes.

3/31. This is a quick update to the post below. The new P&H Cetus HVs are here. From what I’ve been told by P&H HQ is that these three are the first available.

So here’s what came in;
Cetus HV carbon/Kevlar white/black/white with keel strip
Cetus HV carbon/Kevlar canary yellow/black/white with keel strip
Cetus HV fiberglass white/medium green/white with keel strip.

And now on with the rest of the story:

P & H Cetus HV

The newest offshoot of the Cetus has hit US Shores here at The River Connection.

Keeping close to the original design of the Classic Cetus, some subtle changes have been put in place.

• The cockpit has been shifted back two inches rear weighting the kayak making for straighter tracking while keeping much of the original rocker profile.
• One inch of height added to the deck and three quarters of an inch added to the deck height at the thigh braces.
• It appears additional fullness has given to the forward hull ahead of the foot pegs.

Fitting – needless to say my 6′ 185lb frame was easy enough to fit in it and make contact with the interior control surfaces, I could also see it fitting a 6’4″ 220+lb paddler with ease and comfort.

Below are some pictures with the new HV on the Talic stands and the classic Cetus below on blocks. There is some foreshortening in this photo as both kayaks are the same length.

Cetus HV Top / Cetus Classic Bottom

Cetus HV Top / Cetus Classic Bottom

Cetus HV Top / Cetus Classic Bottom

3/28/11

Brian Day of P&H Kayaks took some time to pay a visit today with a production model of the Aries.

Take what’s been established as a new niche of sea kayaking, surf touring, by the P&H Delphin but make the acceleration faster, the fit tighter and with far more agility to the boat from a stiffer composite construction.

I got to take it out for a short spin on the Hudson in some very small 10″ wind driven chop and even on this small stuff I could feel the boat want to accelerate onto the waves. What I didn’t expect was how wind neutral it was crossing abeam to the wind.

Below are some pictures from different angles showing the sharp rails and chines of the hull.

This kayak isn’t stateside yet but here is a profile picture of what’s to come.

The general layout is taken from the Delphin but made sleeker in composite, which according to those have test paddled it in conditions report that the acceleration onto the face of a wave, reaction time and cruising efficiency are all kicked up an order of magnitude from the plastic composition. Keep in mind that for playing amongst rocky features the CoreLite plastic layup is king in it’s forgiveness of bangs and scrapes.

Design similarities are the hard chines in the bow with lots of rocker creating a scalloped hollow between the keel and the chine edges giving wonderful controllability to your drop-in on a wave face, more planing hull-ish under the cockpit with softer edges for forgiveness in a boil and reforming of rails towards the stern. Rear weighting allows for more waterline while cruising and the front deck hatch, like on the Cetus, is extremely handy (I don’t recommend using it while surfing )

All the surf capabilities of this design (and of the Delphin) translate into an extremely capable, friendly performance kayak for the beginner as well as the surf junkie.

For P&H Mfg. Specs and Description:

http://www.phseakayaks.com/kayaks.php?kayak=Aries%20155

More info to come when our Fleet Model comes in. (soon)

See you on the water,
Marshall Seddon
The River Connection, Inc
Hyde Park, NY

P&H Aries

Aspect RM

by North Shore Kayaks

Length = 14’9″ Width =23.5″ Weight = 50 lbs.

Introduction: Throughout 2010 I have been having fun playing with the North Shore composite range of kayaks and just recently took the opportunity to try a North Shore Aspect on for size and for feel on the water. Unlike other reviews I have written with GPS measured speeds and stats this was just an opportunity to play hooky for the day away from The River Connection Showroom and get acquainted with this new model. Later
in March 2011 I will write a followup to this Introduction with more specifics on speeds, turn radii, stability point tilt angles, etc.

Construction: single layer polyethylene roto molded plastic, twin wall poly bulkheads (x2), hull stiffening composite keelson (runs bulkhead to bulkhead) Features: Full perimeter deck lines, fore/aft deck bungees, fore/aft rescue toggles, VCP 10″ Round Front Hatch, VCP Club Oval Hatch Aft, cable push VCP Skeg, cockpit rim mounted thigh braces, Werner Footbraces, independent floating full back band, fore/aft twin wall poly bulkheads, composite keelson.

Fit: Sitting into the kayak on the floor entry in was ample enough for my 33″ inseam legs to not make contact with the front coaming. Side to side fit with the OE seat pads was comfortable enough for my 33″ waist where I did not feel that I would need additional padding to ensure good contact with the sides of the seat. Unbuckling the seat shims would give me an additional .75″ of room side to side. I’m not sure what that would equate to in waist size. The Werner foot pegs are simple enough and a well known rail system which felt right in this kayak. The thigh braces are a molded plastic form on either side of the cockpit rim. A small slot allows for some adjustment (perhaps 1″ fore/aft) of the position of the brace. There appears to be enough plastic to allow for elongation of the slot for greater range of adjustability. For my size I would have brought the thigh braces back closer for comfort where as my 5’2″ wife hopped in and contact was perfect. Everyone’s built different. The North Shore Standard Seat is installed on this with a taller back band on a velcro adjustment strap that is easiest to modify from out of the cockpit. This is simple and effective. One noticeable construction difference is the use of a carbon/fiberglass keelson running form the front bulkhead to the aft bulkhead. I’m familiar with this from a Necky Kevlar Thasis from years ago which was a glassed in wood dowel. Definitely reduces flex in the length of the kayak.

On Water Feel: Wonderful! Ok more detail; For a compact sea kayak this did not feel like a balloon around me like some popular 14′ day tourers which is why I’m applying the term Compact Sea Kayak. The stability range felt much more like the longer fiberglass North Shore Atlantic. Predictably forgiving high up on edge. From the amount of rocker in the bow/stern profile heeling the kayak over resulted in effortless skidding turns to the point of where a bow rudder seemed unnecessary to get a sharper turn. My wife commented that on a skidding turn the kayak would turn 180 degrees within it’s length. On an even heel tracking was straight ahead and at quite good speed and glide for a relatively short kayak. Terms to describe the onwater character of this kayak would be well mannered, playful, comfortable, rugged and above all Fun!

Pricing: $1350 skeg version standard. Stern fittings for rudder installed but no rudder option is available at this time. If you are looking into the typical Day Touring length kayak you need to put the North Shore Aspect on your Must Paddle list before buying and consider stepping up what to expect in performance from a 14’9″ kayak.

Nice start to the new year! 45 degrees, sunny, only half iced on the Hudson. What better excuse than to take a kayak out on the water to go play. Being that the ice packs prohibit going any distance in a straight line I’ll take out the P&H Delphin rather than a North Shore Polar or a P&H Cetus MV. Considering the moving ice the three layer plastic will put up with me playing ice tug.

Short paddle. Quite a labyrinth at times. Sometimes the most direct route is over the ice.

Click the following link to see a map of the path through this afternoons ice.

http://share.gps.motionxlive.com/shr/x/kmz/8fe880f21b5dc044a9de8b5ffa04a975

Distance: 2.50 miles
Elapsed Time: 43:23.8
Avg Speed: 3.5 mph
Max Speed: 5.8 mph
Avg Pace: 17′ 22″ per mile
Min Altitude: 0 ft
Max Altitude: 0 ft
Start Time: 2011-01-01T17:22:13Z
Start Location:
Latitude: 41.788672º N
Longitude: 73.947293º W
End Location:
Latitude: 41.788818º N
Longitude: 73.947033º W

Equipment for the day;
P&H Delphin 155
Mitchell Black Magic
Stohlquist Body Pod Dry Suit
Immersion Research Shockwave Sprayskirt.

See you at the next pool session where it’ll be warmer.

See you on the water,
Marshall
The River Connection, Inc
Hyde Park, NY
www.the-river-connection.com

Decided to get up early today and get in 2 hours of paddling before opening the Showroom.  Low Tide was at 06:34 this morning so when I put on the tide was just starting to push against me flowing northward.  I crossed over to the West side of the Hudson for a change but on the return leg I made more or less of a bee line back.  Interesting to compare the effect of the current.

1st Leg GPS Track

2nd Leg GPS Track

Had the rare chance to catch a release date on the Esopus Creek.  ‘Course not much of a release was needed when 2 days before the run the Creek was up to 45,000 cfs when a release gives us a great summertime level of 1000cfs.  At the time that Derek and I put on it was at @2400cfs which provided plenty of push, lots of play spots and a great day for the slalom racers at Railroad Rapids.  It also provided Derek with a bit more than he anticipated for a first full run of whitewater.  Derek, you did awesome!

We ran into a small group from the Philly Canoe Club and made a pod of 6 kayaks on the river.  That was it, no one else about on the upper stretches.

Tohickon Next?  We’ll see.

Derek on Upper Esopus Creek

PCC Bob crossing over the pile

Derek entering the wave train

PCC Paddler X on a drop

KCCNY K2 Racers

Philly Canoe Club - Bob

Very cool new kayak from P&H Sea Kayaks that creates a whole new family of kayak to their Cetus and Capella lines.

I just unwrapped this so I have not had a time to do a thorough review of it but from the bit of time I spent on a lake last week with one it has a suprising amount of speed for a 15.5′ kayak, a very predicatable and reliable secondary stability and turns with just the slightest initiation but tracks in a very well mannered behavior when on an even keel.

There are some innovative changes with the channelized hard chines on the bow and the sharp rails toward the stern.  With the kayak weighted toward the rear the highly rockered stern stays in the water when paddling but on edge the stems break free for easy carving or skidding turns.

Delphin 155 Profile

Delphin 155 Bow

Delphin 155 Bow Hull Detail

Delphin 155 Stern Profile

Delphin 155 Stern Hull Detail

Delphin 155 Cockpit Detail

Delphin 155 Seat Detail