| |
Main
Date: 23 Jun 2005 11:18:22
From: riverman
Subject: TR in my new Folbot: Carriage Pond
|
One of the advantages of flying from the European or African continents
to the US is that the jetlag works in your favor. All week, I've been
waking up at the crack of dawn, sometime between 4 and 5am, and feeling
totally refreshed and ready for the day. Additionally, the days here in
Maine have been indescribably beautiful, with crystal clear skies,
beautiful cool temps, and very few mosquitoes. Its been a real slice of
heaven.
So, this morning, after making a daily task list which included taking
my new Folbot Aleut (which was a gift from Galen) out to my storage
area, I reconsidered and decided that I really needed to take some time
to learn how to set it up, and see how it fit my body.
I opened the cardboard box that it arrived in, and pulled out the
duffel bag which houses the boat and frame. Sometime over the past year
or so, my back has become embarassingly weak and strained, and often
the smallest innocent motion lays me up for days. So I cautiously
tested the weight of the boat in it's pack...not bad...not too bad. I
figured that, if I was careful not to twist while I carried it, I
should be able to manage it just fine.
I gently trudged it over to a sunny patch of grass in the front yard,
and unpacked the pieces. Out came a host of aluminum tubes, some black
plastic parts, a couple of big nylon things that looked like spray
skirts, some gunnel-looking thingamajigs, a few odd screws and nuts,
and a big piece of heavy nylon fabric. The whole pile looked like a big
jigsaw puzzle, and I was instantly hooked. Quickly glancing through the
instructions, I started fitting parts together, puzzling out the logic
of the assembly, and tweaking things here and there. After about a half
hour (with manufacturer's promises that it goes faster after a little
practice), I had a beautiful little kayak sitting in my yard. The frame
was tight, the parts were all there, and the lines were sleek and
perfect. A thing of beauty.
Wilko, being the only rbper who has seen me in a kayak, can attest that
I am definately not comfortable sitting in butt boats. Most of that is
attributed to an inflexible lower back, as well as a middle-aged
deteriorating physique, but I figured that I certainly had to see if I
could sit comfortably in this boat, so I gingerly stepped in, slid my
legs down the cockpit, and lowered myself into the seat. Not bad...my
legs seemed a bit long, and I couldn't entirely straighten them as the
front frame mount sits right against my ankles, but if I kept my knees
up a tiny bit, I could use the frame mount as a footbrace, and it felt
pretty good. And there's the additional benefit that keeping my knees
bent makes my back pretty comfortable. Hmm, this is quite nice,
actually. Cozy, even.
After a moment of pretending to be paddling, I knew what had to happen
next. I had to get in the water with this boat. I stood up, got out,
and considered my options. Just a few hundred feet down the driveway is
a body of water called 'the carriage pond'. No current, no other
boaters in it, not so big that I could get into great trouble...okay,
I'll go put the boat in that and see how it handles.
I considered just dragging the kayak down the grass along the driveway
to the pond, but I figured that sooner or later, I would have to learn
to portage it. So, with a few cautious thoughts about my back, I tilted
the boat on its rail, reached over and grabbed the lower gunnel, took a
deep breath, and heaved it up onto my shoulders. Whew, how did I ever
go so fat and out of shape?? Nonetheless, I got it perched on my
shoulders and head, and carefully trudged down the dirt drive to the
pond, boat balanced overhead. And no protests from my back.
When I got to the pond, I lowered the boat and nudged it into the
water. Grabbing the bow loop, I worked it around sideways, and looked
at it floating. Very nice...a picture of solitude. Remembering my first
lesson with a kayak, I kicked off my shoes, laid the kayak paddle
across the back of the cockpit, and gently stepped in amidships. I had
every expectation that the boat would scoot out from under me and I
would cartwheel into the pond, but no, it squatted down under my weight
and waited for me. Gingerly, I haunched down until I was sitting with
much of my weight on the paddle shaft, and carefully slipped my legs
down the cockpit. The boat did not tilt or wobble at all...excellent
primary stability. Once I was sitting in and my pulse slowed down
(which I know sounds ludicrous to all you kayakers), I gently brought
the paddle around to my hands, took a few deep breaths, and pushed off
from the shore.
The boat floated like a dream! In addition to having excellent primary
stability, I found that it was almost impossible to tilt it enough to
feel like I needed to brace to hold it up. The secondary stability felt
like an aircraft carrier! I took some forward strokes until I drifted
into the shade of a tree, and then just relaxed, feeling the stress
from the past few days of travelling drain off of me. A tadpole
surfaced next to me, a few tiny bubbles rising from his gills, and he
turned and dove back into the brown deeps. A big dragonfly landed on
the bow of the kayak, twitching her wings, jerkily looking about. The
boat drifted up next to a clump of pussywillows, and another dragonfly
zoomed over to the first, and the two of them dashed off together,
playing tag and making electric fence sounds. Dreamily I drifted,
taking a stroke occasionally to keep from feeling too guilty, and
watched the pond life around me. A woodduck came out of the rushes
where it had been hiding, grubbed around the shore for a moment, then
with a loud quack, flapped its wings and ran across the pond until it
was airborne, climbing into the blue sky. Some frogs, startled by the
duck's launch, leaped into the water from the lilypads they were
stakeholding.
After a few minutes, I made a once-around the pond, paddled up next to
shore, and stepped out. Again, the boat sat still and waited until I
was firmly on shore. I easily grabbed the bow loop, dragged it up on to
the bank, and hoisted it over my head. A few moments later, it was
drying in the sun.
I know I'm going to really like this little boat. Its stable,
comfortable and easy to handle, both in and out of the water. I hope
that using it will help me start the long road of getting back into
shape, and tomorrow, I think I'll put in a body of water larger than 10
feet across.
--riverman
|
|
| |
Date: 23 Jun 2005 18:31:32
From: riverman
Subject: Re: TR in my new Folbot: Carriage Pond
|
Galen Hekhuis wrote:
> Glad to hear it didn't sink. Thanks for the report.
>
> Galen Hekhuis NpD, JFR, GWA ghekhuis@earthlink.net
> Illiterate? Write for FREE help
And thank YOU for the boat, Galen! Its a very well built, stable craft.
I'm honored to recieve it, and its definately got a spot on the plane
to Hong Kong. I told SWMBO about it tonight, and she's anxious to try
it out, if I let her. :-)
--riverman
|
| | |
Date: 24 Jun 2005 09:55:57
From: Galen Hekhuis
Subject: Re: TR in my new Folbot: Carriage Pond
|
On 23 Jun 2005 18:31:32 -0700, "riverman" <myronbuck@yahoo.com > wrote:
>And thank YOU for the boat, Galen! Its a very well built, stable craft.
>I'm honored to recieve it, and its definately got a spot on the plane
>to Hong Kong. I told SWMBO about it tonight, and she's anxious to try
>it out, if I let her. :-)
I don't think you would have said the same types of things if I had sent
you the Incredible Sinking Kayak. I've done something like that before.
In a previous life, I used to live on a sailboat and bought an inflatable
dingy for it. The dingy was heavy duty rubber material and came in a
rugged bag. Once inflated it looked sort of like a really small Zodiac
boat (it claimed to hold 3 adults) and did rather well. Eventually (it's a
story for another time) I moved to dry land and stored the dingy in its bag
in my brother's barn. Several months later I took it out and inflated it
and if I had put it in the water it surely would have sunk. A mouse or
something had gnawed a hole in it which luckily became evident upon
inflation. The kayak is not an inflatable boat. If it had a small hole in
it that would have allowed you to get pretty far from shore before sinking
the boat I tend to think your report might have been phrased a bit
differently. Like I say, I'm glad it didn't sink. And I'm glad it is
getting a bit of use. I have a 13 foot tupperware boat that lives in my
van that I use. I think the Folbot is an elegant looking boat, but I am
far too hard on boats to use one like that. I'm a gimp, and don't walk
well at all. I tend to stand in one place and either drag or throw boats
from there. While I wouldn't exactly call the Folbot "delicate," in my
hands it would shortly become a crumpled mass of aluminum poles that used
to be a frame, surrounded by a torn and battered rag that used to be the
fabric of a boat. I figure it deserves a better fate than that, and thank
*you* for providing it a good home.
Galen Hekhuis NpD, JFR, GWA ghekhuis@earthlink.net
Illiterate? Write for FREE help
|
| |
Date: 23 Jun 2005 15:18:42
From: Galen Hekhuis
Subject: Re: TR in my new Folbot: Carriage Pond
|
Glad to hear it didn't sink. Thanks for the report.
Galen Hekhuis NpD, JFR, GWA ghekhuis@earthlink.net
Illiterate? Write for FREE help
|
|
