hello world – 3, part 21, mise à l’eau

roudly present the new – kid – on – the – block, the flagship to join my armada 😬! The first image below: the boat and her quite – satisfied builder / owner! 😀 Today is launch day (the French phase mise à l’eau simply means: put to water), I tested the kayak for a short trip of about 15 km. The first thing to notice when sit in and start some paddling strokes is that the boat has extremely good primary and secondary stabilities, unlike my previous HW – 2.

All boating measures is relative, and you trial to find out what works for you. HW – 3 has very good stabilities, or at least I’ve get used to those not – as – good of HW – 2. The boat tracks very well, I could have the skeg completed retracted on somewhat calm water. The turning radius is still large, not something abnormal for kayak of this length, the boat behaves nicely and responses well to my edged turning actions. I have nothing to complain about its tracking and turning capabilities.

Speed sees a good improve, I can easily average out at 7.5 kmph (flat water, measured in 2 hours), about 1/4 better compared to that of HW – 2, well for sure HW – 2 is only a 14 footer. Actually, I was expecting a greater improve in speed (about 1/3, not 1/4). Anyhow, I need to get familiarized with the new boat, and to figure out the exact measuring numbers. Also I noticed that the boat is a bit heavier at stern, the lowest point of the bow sometimes pops out above the waterline.

That suggests me to shift the weight balance toward the bow a bit (e.g: arranging the carrying load), to gain the waterline length a little longer, to improve speed further. Well, the next couples of weeks is just paddling and paddling, to improve my endurance (I’ve been having little practices for the last two months). I would need to make some longer trips (about 20 ~ 25 km each) to get known to her, the new boat, and to see how she would behave in rougher water and weather conditions.