A Different Kind of Race

With such dangerous wintry weather around the country, I really can't complain about the little bit of much needed rain we've had this weekend. The balmy temperatures we had last week are also now gone. I even managed to paddle Friday night without having to wear gloves, a big deal in winter with a Greenland paddle.

I had been looking forward to a long paddle in the rougher lake waters that the predicted winds were going to bring Sunday. But I seemed to have forgotten how uncomfortable the wind and rain would be in the cold. We are expecting winds 25 mph (gusts 35 mph) and temps in the low 40's. I bailed before even putting the boat on the car.

Alan faired a bit better on Saturday, at least he and friends made a good attempt at their big bike ride to Virginia, and got 1/2 way and back. Two more final exams left for Alan this week. Tana (and Rooster her pet guinea pig) is now home for the holidays, her semester finished with much excitement as Appalachian State University won their NCAA Div I finals on Friday night (3 in a row).

So, with some extra free time this weekend, I worked on my skin-on-frame kayak. I've finally decided on, and am happy with my seam and stitching. Tightening the skin, and the sweing process is actually a bit painful on the hands and fingers, and so it's been slow going for me, but I'm finally making some good progress. Actually this SOF may go down in history as the slowest built SOF ever. Paul reminds me how embarrassing it would be if he and Alan finished building the sailboat before I finish the SOF. Hmm, I guess that's another race on my calendar.

The picture below was Paul's idea, it helps me pull the skin tight so I can adjust the tension on the lacings which keeps the canvas nice and tight while I do the actual stitching.

I've been reading all I can about painting and finishing the skin. Some use Thompson's water seal as their first coat, and I'll probably do that as well, hoping it will help against our humid conditions here. Still needing to decide on latex or oil based paint. I'm going to start experimenting with paint/color with some leftover canvas. My current plan is to paint the kayak a dark brown, then add a final glaze of translucent black so it'll have less of a "paint job" look.

I've also been playing around with some ideas of painting decoration, but nothing brilliant has come to mind, and I'm not really very artistic. I'll see if I can get a decal to stick, I recall an earlier posting of Canadian Ckayaker with a link to a translation site, I think it was for Inuktitut. Maybe some personal or meaningful phrase or words (or imagery) in a language such as Inuktitut would be fitting, either as a decal or stencilled on.