An interesting trick with the bow rudder

Over the last two weekends I was coaching at the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium (DCSKS) in Rowleys Bay, Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium (GLSKS) in Grand Marais, Michigan.

When we were paddling out from the beach for a class at DCSKS I did a little maneuver with linked strokes that I guess I often do to turn, especially when I am paddling close along cliffs and/or rock gardening.  One of the students made a comment how it was a cool maneuver (thanks, Mike) and he wanted to emulate it. 

Basically it works like this.  I have some speed and start with a stern rudder (pry) and then slice the blade forward with a neutral angle into a bow rudder position to continue with a stronger/faster turn.

Mike's interest in the maneuver got me thinking more about it.  When I teach the bow rudder, I emphasize how you need to initiate the turn with a sweep stroke on the opposite side.  It occurred to me later that what I was doing was initiating the turn by using a stern rudder on the same side instead.  If you don't initiate the turn in some manner the bow rudder isn't nearly as effective. 

By initiating the bow rudder with a stern rudder I don't need the same amount of space as I would need if I used a forward sweep stroke to initiate the turn and this makes the bow rudder stroke pretty effective and keeps the paddle close to the kayak.

Then at GLSKS during our rock gardening class I present this and some other linked strokes that I have naturally developed and use quite a bit in tight places.  With my better understanding of the stroke, I was able to present it as a useful stroke to the students.  I saw the other instructor as well as the students try out this combination in some tight locations with good results.

Something to try when you are out playing around in your kayak.

Some delayed posts on risk assessment and paddling in ice.

These are posts copied from Facebook where I talked about the risk assessments and planning on going out paddling among the icebergs on Lake Superior in April and May.  All of these trips wound up being solo trips, on Lake Superior, with cold water and ice.  Probably not the best choices, but worth it and I do my best to keep it safe!

April 28:
I eventually got out for a paddle today. We looked at Sand Point. It looked good on Thursday with a bunch of icebergs spaced out and no real wind to worry about.

Friday and Saturday we had gales with NW winds. That smashed all the ice against the Pictured Rocks cliffs and moved it towards Sand Point. Today there was ice all along the Pictured Rocks cliffs and Sand Point and the ice was moving towards Sand Point so there was no launching there.

We looked at Powell's Point (the ferry landing). Not too bad there, but going along the west side of Grand Island was going to get us into wind that was above the forecast and NO real ice to see there. 

We looked at Scott Falls and the wind there was significantly above the forecast. The other two paddlers bailed because the weather wasn't cooperating with the forecast or their personal limits.

I headed back to Powell's Point and paddled over to the East Channel of Munising Bay. I knew I was going to see heavy drifting ice, but I also knew I could escape back the way I came from.

Paddling in the ice bergs is like an obstacle course. You get to practice all your different turning strokes and making some tight turns, sometimes with the ice closing the gap as you approach.  Sometimes closing the gap as you pass.

 Fresh skim ice that I had to paddle through for 1/2 miles to open water.

 This was the place to turn around.  The ice was drifting towards me and getting too dense for comfort.

April 30:
Yeah, you are tired of seeing ice from a kayak. Sorry! This is what I get to paddle in this time of year and I actually find it cool. For the rest of the year I won't be able to paddle with the icebergs...they are disappearing pretty fast.

Today I started from Sand Point. It didn't look like I would be able to get very far. All I could see towards Pictured Rocks was ice and towards Grand Island was sparser ice, but Munising Bay was mostly open. Sunday it was almost completely open, but ice had been drifting south back into and west across the bay.

I scoped out my launch and everything looked good so I got my kayak off the car and put it on the beach. Somewhere between those two the current started moving ice along the shore. It made me wonder if this was the place to launch or not. But I know that this current won't go around the corner so I can most likely land at the picnic area of Sand Point if I can't get back to the tip. Also, this area is mostly clear of ice because it is so shallow out a ways that the ice can't get here. Worst case, I land where I paddled from the other day (the Ferry Landing).

I was able to go around the ice which was stuck on the sand bar off Sand Point and then it was pretty clear until I got to Miner's Beach where there is still lots of ice on the beach. Lots of intermittent waterfalls flowing down from the cliffs too.

The ice was drifting along the cliffs. Since Miner's Castle sticks out from the main line of the cliffs, it shot the stream of ice towards Grand Island. As I was paddling along I could see ice all across the horizon. As I got closer I realized it was a narrow stream of ice.

 Icebergs continue quite a ways under the surface.

 All this loose ice had me a bit worried.  It turned out to mostly be stuck on a sandbar, so I became less worried.

 Some reasons for paddling this time of year.

Miners Castle was kicking out a stream of drifting ice about 20 ft thick which continued to Grand Island.  That made an interesting obstacle course.

Ice along Miners Beach was quite tall.  Some bergs standing 15-20 ft above the water.

May 3:
I was hoping to paddle along the Pictured Rocks cliffs today from Miner's Beach. I chickened out...

It looked safe(ish); it was calm but there was 50 yards of drifting ice which was somewhat packed together. I can make a path through that ice easy enough. The question is what happens during the couple hours that I am paddling along the cliffs? The forecast is for 6-8 kt winds from the NE. Lately the afternoon breezes have been stronger than the forecast (except when we had the gale warning). If they are more N than NE, then the wind will pack the ice into the bay tighter than it already is. These are probably tall chunks of ice so they are heavy. The nearest alternate landing would be 5 miles (by kayak) away in Munising.

I had paddled here from Sand Point on Tuesday and the Miner's River had pushed an opening in the ice pack. Today there was only an opening near shore and no open path to the lake.

  The most worrisome ice drifting close along shore.

 Pancake ice viewed from the top of the cliffs.

May 4:
Today I was able to launch from Miner's Beach. The wind was from the south and all the loose ice was out on the horizon drifting on the open lake. It was also 30 degrees warmer than yesterday (bonus!). The wind reversed itself during my paddle, but the loose ice was too far away to be effected.

The ice on Miner's Beach is nothing compared to the ice at Mosquito Beach. Ice at Mosquito had vertical faces over 20 ft tall. I saw several ice faces calve into the lake as I was paddling. One was 40 ft along an ice face 10 ft tall and it broke off about 10 ft from the face. That sent a wave about 1.5 - 2 ft tall. I also saw and heard some rock falls.

And what else did I see on the lake? Two inflatable recreational kayaks. No immersion protection, but they were wearing PFDs. I have some scars on my hands from seal launching last year from Miner's Beach. That sand embedded in ice can really cut. I wonder what it might do to an inflatable kayak.

 Ice at Mosquito Beach.

 Ice at Miners Beach.

 Interesting ice erosion due to waves.

May 6:
Kayaking is risky. Paddling on Lake Superior is risky. Paddling in cold water is risky. Paddling alone is risky. I do all these at once. Just because I set a bad example and you like my pictures doesn't mean you should follow my example! Make your own HONEST risk assessment!

I make an effort to do it as safely as possible. I look at the weather forecast. Know the wind direction and strength. I guess how this will affect drifting ice. I plan alternate landing options in case my desired landing gets iced in by drifting ice. I have decent skills in a kayak. I can perform about 10 rolls on both sides (only 3ish of those are useful if I get knocked over in waves but the others make those reliable). I dress to spend a bit of time swimming in the lake and hope I don't need to. I only go out in conditions well within my skills due to the above mentioned risk factors. Sometimes I explore several options and decide that it isn't a safe paddling day and the kayak doesn't leave the roof of the car.

Today I was out in 1-3 ft waves and stayed pretty far from the ice due to the potential of the waves causing the ice faces to calve, and being under that didn't seem safe. I paddled from Miner's Beach to Chapel Beach for a 16 mile round trip.

There are impressive ice cliffs at Mosquito and Chapel Beaches. The ice at Miner's Beach is disappearing fast. There are also ice cliffs between Shipwreck Point and Mosquito Beach and between Rainbow Cave and Grand Portal Point.

 Icebergs at Chapel Beach.  Note how they try to hide Chapel Rock.  Also see the line of sand in the ice from drifting sand.

 Grand Portal Point.

 Icebergs at Mosquito Beach.

 This was once a waterfall which froze.  The bottom remains and it caught a piece of rock that fell from the cliff.

 Some waves were seen that day as well as ice.  Staying clear of the ice when the waves are eating it away from the bottom seems prudent.

Quick update on Keeleazy keel strips

I have been using Keeleazy keel strips on my three main kayaks.  The Romany that I use for guiding day trips along the Pictured Rocks (Article on repairs to my Romany due to trailering), my Anas Acuta which I use for playing around and my Explorer which I use for tripping.

The Romany gets the most use and abuse getting dragged through sand a bit.  The Keeleazy keel strip on this kayak has failed around the skeg and that is causing it to peel off from that point forwards and backwards.  Other than that there are no compromises.

The Explorer had a tear in the Keeleazy keel strip from last year's trip on Isle Royale.  This year I used it to explore the islands in northern Lake Michigan and then to paddle around the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's UP.  The sand of the Lake Michigan islands had little effect on the keel strip.  Paddling solo around the Keweenaw was another story.  The keel strip has many places where it is shredded and has many holes in it.  While it may have protected the gelcoat, it is no longer doing that and I am not sure that the gelcoat would have taken much damage on this trip, but there is no way to know.

In the future, I will replace the Keeleazy keel strip on the Romany and Explorer with gelcoat keel strips which I hope will work better and be more resilient to the type of use/abuse that I give my kayaks.

Recap on NDK Romany hatch repairs

Last year I performed a few repairs on my Romany that I use for guiding.  I paddled some 450 miles guiding and my kayak probably road on the trailer 2-3 times that distance.  This past year I made sure that it only rode on the good trailer and that the people loading trailers knew not to tighten it with all their strength.  So, all my repairs from last year (hatch rim re-attachment, bulkhead patch, and keel strip) held fine for over a year now.

The KeelEazy keel strip is not staying on around the skeg, but is working great in other places.

Neoprene gloves in frigid water, air and wind.

This is another post I had made to the Facebook group Inland Seas, Paddling the Great Lakes:


As a bit of a follow-up to yesterday's post on wetsuits in cold water...

The guides are finding that their hands are the hardest thing to keep warm. Their hands are always getting wet due to strokes, spray and the exercises we are performing. Wet hands get colder when the wind causes evaporative cooling to act on them. They and I are finding that neoprene gloves can often be worse than no gloves at all in those conditions, especially when the sun is out. On the days when the high gets into the 50's it isn't so bad. On days when the highs are in the low 40's or high 30's the only real solution is to keep your hands dry, except that we are kayaking...

I have neoprene gloves which don't have an outer nylon layer so they are smooth and they shed water quickly and it doesn't get to evaproate off. I have several pair and have been loaning them out. The company has neoprene gloves with an outer woven nylon layer which holds water. Yesterday about half of the students were paddling without gloves and tucking their hands into their PFDs to warm them during breaks even though they had gloves available. There is just no way to warm your hands when they are in cold wet gloves in the wind!

Some observations using wetsuits in frigid water, air and wind.

This is a post I originally posted on the Facebook group Inland Seas, Kayaking the Great Lakes:

Hopefully this information is interesting and useful. Keep in mind that everyone's thermostat is different and what works for one person in a certain temperature environment may not work well for the person next to them.

As you have seen from my recent post(s) I am currently training guides for the summer season of guiding on Lake Superior. We have had a cold spring and the lake is still quite cold. We have seen some form of ice each day on the beach we are launching from. In fact we had fresh ice this morning. The guides in training and I have done assisted and self rescues Tues, Wed and Friday this week. I do more swimming/demonstration than they do (by design) since they are in wet suits and I have a dry suit.

They are doing quite well with wet suits with poly base layers underneath and a fleece over the wet suit and a spray jacket over that. The big complaints are hands and feet and ice cream headaches on those occasions where their heads (or mine) get underwater. We try not to get our heads wet except the first day when a wet exit was required.

I am wearing a dry suit with a light wool/synthetic blend top and bottom as insulation and a fleece shirt and heavy wool socks. Surprisingly even being in the water to demonstrate all the rescues before they got to pick one to try (maybe about 20 minutes) I was ok, with my feet and hands getting coldest. I would have thought that the light base layer on the bottom would be way insufficient. I think that the feet getting cold is a combination of two things. They are in water in the bottom of the kayak after self rescues and the neoprene booties over the dry suit are probably compressing the wool socks too much.

For those of you who say a wetsuit is inappropriate for this environment, yes, it probably is, by itself, but it can be augmented to work. Would they want to be in the water for more than about 5 minutes or so? No! But that is why I damper down other risks (waves and such) on cold water/weather days. The cold in itself adds the risk back.

Trailering can be hard on a kayak

 As a guide for an outfitter, you have to get your kayak to the beach along with all the customer kayaks.  At our company that means that my personal kayak rides on the trailer with the tandems that we use for the customers.

It seems that when you transport your kayak on a trailer which is loaded by non-kayakers, some tend to over tighten things way too much.  This results in problems like cracked gelcoat, a cracked fiberglass bulkhead and a hatch rim which separates from the hull.

Last April, I replaced the hatch rims on my 2001 Romany.  This year I am reattaching the rear hatch rim.  Last year two new hatch rims were attached to the hull using Sikaflex 221.  The front hatch rim is still solidly attached and watertight.  The rear hatch rim gradually wound up partially separating from the hull during the summer.  It started out as watertight but gradually I would get more and more water on each trip.  It was obvious that the hatch rim was no longer fully attached to the hull and I was also able to pull it off the hull.

For what it's worth Gorilla Tape made a great patch for the crack in he bulkhead.  The day hatch was dry after I figured out that there was a crack in the bulkhead and taped over it.

To get my Romany ready for the summer, I am going to:

1. Do a little fiberglass repair to the bulkhead between the cockpit and the day hatch
2. Replace missing gelcoat on the deck seam
3. Reattach the back hatch rim
4. Apply a KeelEazy keel strip (nothing to do with trailering)

Now I am wondering if 3M 4200 is the better choice or Sikaflex 221 for reattaching the hatch rim.  I reattached a hatch rim on my 1996 Explorer with 3M 4200 in 2014 and haven't had problems since.  I am thinking that it will be sufficient to use Sikaflex 221 and not let my kayak ride on the outfitter's trailer any more.  Unfortunately neither adhesive is locally available, so off to the internet...