Valley Nordkapp Sectional Looks Good In Livingroom

It's very hard for me to see if this is Marcus's lovely new Valley Nordkapp, fresh from Nottingham, U.K. in 2009.  It is a stunner.  A three-piece kayak is pretty--particularly the Nordkapp--even if it is dry and on wooden floor.  The storage capabilities of a sectional boat cannot be underscopred adequately.  This image was take from the http://www.blog.kokatat.com/ website.  This kayak, stickers and all, looks expedition ready. I dig those foam ends that protect the bulkheads and bolts.  Ingenuity at its finest.

Gorgeous Sectional Nordy Ready For A Spin, Lake Tahoe

Cockle MK7 Canoe

COCKLE MK 7 CANOE

This is a genuine and very rare World War II British Military sailing canoe. It was designed and built by Warwick Aviation in late 1944/ early 1945. Constructed in Aluminium to aircraft specifications.

It measures 18ft long, 8ft main section, 5ft bow and stern. 26 inch wide, 4ft 7inches with outriggers extended

The canoe comes in five main sections so that it could be transported in submarines or seaplanes. Each section is watertight. Front and rear sections have round hatches so can be used as storage areas, handy for limpet mines etc. The center section has two seats, compass (or machine gun?) mount, anchor mount and mast fitting. There was a steering wheel fitted but I have removed this as it is not origional and was an obstruction. Two outriggers are attached to the center section via an sliding mount which allows them to be locked in an outer position for sailing or an inner position for paddling. They can also be folded over for storage or removed completely. The outriggers are filled with "ping pong" balls so still float when holed (handy for when the bullets start to fly). A folding rudder clips onto the rear section (the rudder has been restored).

Designated "MOST SECRET" it was designed to be used by sections of the "Small Operations Group" such as the "Combined Operations Pilotage Parties" and " Detachment 385 " in the far east in Commando style raids. They were tested in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) by Blondie Hasler who was one of the two survivors from the Famous "Cockleshell Heros" raid. The canoe will come with a copy of the book "Cockleshell Canoes" which details the design, construction and use of these small boats. The front cover of the book shows a MK 7 with its sail up.

The canoe is in relatively good condition for its age having spent most of its time in a garage. There are a few small dents and the paint is rough. I have been using it on my local river, sometimes with an electric outboard strapped to the side. I guess it travels at 7mph, it cuts through the water and makes a lovely sound as the bow wave interacts with the outriggers. I have recieved lots of interest on the river as it is the most unusual thing on the water! I find it very easy to put together and carry but it is good to have two people to lift the main section if the outriggers are attached. There are a few loose rivets in the front and rear section so there are very slow leaks which have never been a problem on any of my trips. The main section is watertight as are the outriggers.

There are a few of these canoes in museums and a couple in private hands.

Halloween Display Featuring A Rockpool Sectional

This inspiring seasonal photo is from Derrick's well-read website--he has plenty of photos and more on-water experience than anyone on sectional kayaks. His kayak has clips. Something to think about as a contrast to nuts and bolts. Check out his website and contact him online for any sectional kayak questions.

www.kayakquixotica.com

Waters Dancing In Calgary: Sectional Wooden Kit

http://www.watersdancing.com/

These photos exemplify some of the advantages of the sectional kayak. Upright storage. Small "footprint" when stored. Easy carrying. Lightweight sections. Watertight sections. Assembled, functions just like a hardshell kayak. Add transportation inside your vehicle (no ropes, straps, theft, exposure to weather and wind chafing and rocks, et cetera). It's a winner.

Marcus' Brand New Valley Nordkapp 2009

Expedition paddler Marcus has written a wonderful synopsis of his 2009 Valley Nordkapp sectional, and included photos of the upswept beauty of the NOrdkapp design. Thank you, Marcus, for your very respected input and early experience with the Valley. I agree, Valley is a sports-car of a kayak with regard to craftsmanship. It is apparent from first gaze. I look forward to your expedition paddles in this ocean-going vessel. Thank you, friend.







Marcus writes: I am now the proud owner of a sectional Valley Nordkapp! Hurray!!

I picked up the kayak last week from the Kayak Center in R.I. and it is better than I could possibly hope for.

My thanks go to Peter Orton & Andy at Valley Kayaks, and the actual craftsman at Valley who built the kayak ... and then had the nerves to cut this beauty in 3 pieces after he or she built it. Looking at the kayak it becomes obvious that the person who built this kayak, looked (and successfully found!) lots of little creative solutions which seem to arise when building a 3 piece kayak.

The kayak features a wire skeg, with the skeg control placed in the stern section of the kayak. The skeg control looks somewhere between hard to impossible to reach from the comfort of the cockpit, but one has not even to lean back to reach the skeg control placed in the trim on the left side of the kayak. After operating the skeg a few times, it becomes as second nature as if operating a skeg control in any other kayak.

The kayak has a customized bulkhead position which eliminates the need for foot pegs, provides a larger surface to push with you feet against, and provides a larger storage space in the front hatch.

The kayak is appr. 73 pds., a little heavier than my previous 3 piece, but I was looking for a sturdier kayak which will last a little longer. Thus, I am very happy with the way it is built and I do not mind the extra few pounds.

All 3 hatches are bone dry. As Sven (the man behid this blog) noted in an earlier blog entry, water is not even allowed to penetrate inbetween the bulkheads thanks to the tight fit of the sections and to an appr. 1" wide strip of window sealant which is applied to one only one side of each connection.

I am a strong believer that the aquisition of objects will not make people a happier self since happiness comes always from within. However, this boat is an exception to this belief.

Marcus

http://marcusdemuth.com/default.aspx

www.kayak.im

Gorgeous Rockpool sectional sea kayak at ocean's edge.

3 Piece Kayak Assembly at Water's Edge

bits and pieces from Kayak Quixotica, Derrick

Derrick Mayoleth in Wisconsin has a very long-running and interesting website. He also owns a very nice sparkle purple Rockpool Alaw Bach sectional sea kayak, which he used to circumnavigate Puerto Rico in 2008. It's similar to the white Rockpool pictured above. He is an accomplished paddler and roller, and an instructor. Derrick ran an eductional piece, titled "bits and pieces", answering my query about sectional take-apart sea kayaks. Here is a link to his site, and the many comments that followed his well-experienced observations. Be certain to peruse his entire website; it's full of information and entertaining insights on life.

www.kayakquixotica.com/2007/12/10/bits-and-pieces/

3-piece Kayak Chop Shop in Livingroom

No, this is not a kayak chop shop for stolen parts to be reformed into a Frankenstein boat. One major advantage of sectional sea kayaks is the ability to easily take the kayak inside for repairs and modifications. The middle cockpit section tends to be where the most mods come into play. Here I am adding a minicell backband to my Aquanuat LV, and I am vacuuming out and adding new rubber washers to the Nordkapp. They will then both be polished. All in the livingroom.

Tale of Two Sections: Bolt Placement

Here are the front of the cockpit section (the part that interfaces with the bow segment) for two Valley sea kayaks: the uppermost photo is a 2008 Valley Aquanaut LV and the bottom photo is a 2005 Valley Nordkapp. Both feature male interlocking pieces and rubber gaskets around the edge. What is different about the two kayaks is the bolt placement. The Aquanuat LV (top) has the two lower bolts placed to the sides, and not directly midline. The Nordkapp (bottom) has the bottom bolt placed right in the midline, at the v-bottom of the kayak. When I test paddled the Nordkapp, the lower bolt area allowed water to leak into the boat; the outside waterline was above the level of the lowest bolt. This would be less likely with the Aquanuat LV configuration.

I replaced the rubber washer (see prior post about rubber washers) in the lower bolt to see if this will provide for dryness. If not, then I will consider some form of modification to the outer rubber gasket. Should that also fail, leaving the lower bolt out (i.e. connecting with only three bolts instead of four) and filling the hole with removeable silicone would be mandatory.

Clip hull 3-piece kayaks, of course, have watertight sections as the clips are on the outside of the hull. Examples would be Rockpool and NDK boats. More on those later.

Compact Kayak Trolley

Mandatory gear for sectional boaters.

http://www.expeditionkayaks.com/2009/03/kayak-trolley-for-your-day-hatch.html

Oh, and you could say the kayak trolley is mandatory, too, I suppose.

Tipping The Scales: One Way to View Kayak Weight

My brother is an engineer. Like my father, he has an engineer's mind. I called him concerned about the weight of my sectional kayak. At 84 lbs, my Argonaut is heavy. A traditional fiberglass boat is typically about 56 lbs. The sectional is 50% heavier, and thus must be greatly less efficient in the water. All told, when I paddle with my friends, I am doing 50% more work than they are to push the kayak in the water.

No. If we both weight 190 lbs, and if we have 10 lbs of gear, water, etcetera, then my total on-water package weighs 284 lbs, and my paddling friend's weighs 256 lbs. I am only 11% more weight through the water than he.

Additionally, there are factors that come into play that might even make the difference closer. The sectional kayak is heavier, and acts like more of a laden, or gear-packed, kayak. Many know that a gear-packed kayak has a different trim and water line than an empty kayak. Some models, such as a Nordkapp, are better performers, more stable, require less directional control and may even paddle more efficiently (more straighforward paddling and less corrective strokes) when laden. This may be an additional enhancing factor to the extra weight of the sectional.

I feel better now.

Tip: Packing the Sectional Kayak During Transport

Here is European paddler Paul Murray giving a simple example of all the gear that can go into a kayak for a trip. Some expedition kayakers, out on the water for a week or more, pack well over 100lbs of gear. One small but tangible benefit of a sectional takeapart sea kayak is that one could pack the kayak segments at home, carefully and thoughtfully in the comfort of your garage. Whereas you are unlikely to pack a full size kayak with gear and then cartop it (hernia-inducing), one could pack each individual segment of a takepart boat and then stow each piece in the transport vehicle (usually a van or truck). When you get to the launch site, instead of a disheveled mess of gear that now needs to be stowed, you already have the bow and stern segments fully packed. Instead of empty weight of 20 lbs per segment, they might weigh 30-40 lbs per segment packed, but still full manageable to carry down to the waterside to make the kayak.

.

Even for day trips, keeping the basic gear (e.g. PFD, paddle float, pump, et cetera) in the middle cockpit segement at all times means that essential gear is less likely to get forgotten at home. And the boat is always carried inside the vehicle, so theft and wind are non-issues for your gear.

Body Bags in the Sunroom

Sunroom looks like the morgue on CSI Miami. But alas, I am not covertly running a suburban slaughterhouse. The giveaway is the nose of a snuggly kayak segment peering out from the nylon sleeping bags. One huge advantage to the sectional 3-piece kayak is the ability to store it in places where an 18 foot single-piece simply will not fit. I have a standard screen door to enter the sunroom, and the length of a single piece would prohibit it from entering the room easily. Catching wind and banging around would harm the boat; leaving it stretched across the entire sunroom would interfere with margarita-themed summer cocktail parties. Solution: sectional three piece sea kayak, stacked sweetly to one side of the sunroom. Protected from the elements and out of the way for safe keeping. Let the party begin!

17 mm Ratchet Wrench

Although I generally use a socket set to tighten my bolts, I have lately tried a 17 mm ratchet wrench. It works well (the one pictured is 5/8 US; Valley sea kayaks use 17mm metric). One end ratchet, for easy nut turning, and the other is a non-ratcheting 17mm for holding the bolt if I need to while I use a socket wrench on the nut. This wrench is particularly nice for easily stowing in the dry hatch for any beach landings and repairs or tightening that may come up. It's flatness makes for stowing convenience, and no chance or popping off a socket and losing it in the sand.

Sea Kayaker Magazine: DIY Article 1991

In 1991, "Sea Kayaker" Magazine run a DIY workshop portraying the efforts of a handy kayaker from New Jersey who converted his Valley Nordkapp HM into a 3 piece kayak by the means of a band saw, and then put it back together with amazing results by using the described Valley method.

The extremely handy and ingenious kayaker and author is Steven J. Szarawarski, who wrote the article "You can take it with you: Making your own kayak a take-apart", as published in Sea Kayaker Magazine issue 29, Summer 1991, starting on page 56.

--this informative description is courtesy of Marcus Demuth.

Sea Kayaker Feb 2009: Take-Apart Stitch-Glue Kayak

http://www.seakayakermag.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SKMOS&Product_Code=128&Category_Code=2009

Highly recommended article is in Sea Kayaker Magazine (back issues $4.95 plus shipping) entitled: Divide and Conquer - A Take-Apart Stitch and Glue Kayak, by Mark D. Johnson.

"A kayak you'd like to paddle isn't always one that you can store or transport easily. Building a take-apart from a kayak kit made a 22-foot double a good fit for a condo dweller."--Mark Johnson.

Great pictures, neat article of the complete build of this tandem kayak. Even a photo of it on his Murano roof. Note that he takes a regular non-sectional kit and makes it into a two-piece (not three piece) kayak.

Pete Roszyk

Only one of his very innovative projects - a 3 piece Pygmy take apart.

http://www.redfishkayak.com/peteroszyk.htm

Yahoo! 3 piece kayak, sectional kayak

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Sorry, had to add that so the search engine at yahoo finds this blog. Thanks.