Larsboat swimming report
Seeing that the weather is quickly getting colder
here in Oklahoma at the end of September, and not wanting to finish my new boat
just in time for it to be to cold to take it out, I lauched my unpaited Michalak
designed Larsboat today.
The boat is covered with epoxy, but needs quite a
few hours of sanding before it will be ready for paint. The only modification to
the design was to seal off the bow compartment for forward floatation. Also, I
was prototypeing a seat for the boat, sitting on the bottom not being very
comfortable for me.
My new lightweight aluminum kayak paddle is still
in the mail, so I took the 8 1/2 foot double bladed paddle from one of the
pirogues. In addition, took with me a jug of water for drinking.
It's in the 80's here, with the south wind
blowing quite well. Force four at least, lots of whitecaps, waves building up to
over a foot in the short distance to the southern shore of the
lake.
In the water, the seat was very comfortable, and I
figured that raising the center of gravity four inches couldn't be too bad...
WRONG.
I'm doing ok, bow into the waves, slicing thought,
when I decide I need to turn and head for shore. This, of course, puts the waves
off the beam... small, 16" wave comes over and I mutter the imortal words "OH
SHIT".
I come up, and everything is in the water, paddle,
cooler, seat, cushion that has come off the seat, boat, and me...
I swim franticaly after the boat which is quickly
blowing away, grab the bow line, tie it around my wrist, then swim for the
paddle. After getting the paddle in the boat, I go after the two parts of the
seat, and put them in the boat. The cooler has drifted to far away, so I
say forget it.
I spend the next five minutes trying to get my PFD
to F. The loosly attached straps keep it on me, but it floats somewhere just
under my chin.
I try swimming for the nearest shore. No joy. Never
was much of a swimmer, and pulling the boat doesn't help much.
The designer says you can't get back in a boat
like this. I was about to attempt to prove him wrong. Tipping the boat up on
it's side, I attemp to role in. All is fine, except the blasted seat keeps me
from getting in. Toss seat, try again. This time I make it. With me lying
in the cockpit, there is about 8 inche of water in the boat, but the wave's
arn't breaking over the sides!
Oh. Guess I should have brought something to bail
with... Could use the cooler, but it's several hundred feet downwind by
now.
Laying in the 8 inches of water, I'm able
to paddle the boat after a fashion. I turn the stern to the waves, and
head after my seat. Snag both pieces with the paddle, and head for the
cooler. Cooler is getting away from me, and almost capsize the boat trying to
reach for it, so I just head for shore.
On shore, dump water out of boat. Boat
is very heavy with all the water in it. Reboard, sitting on the FLOOR this
time, leaning against the aft bulkhead, and head for the cooler.
After this though, was a very nice outing.
Discovered I could sit comfortably by slouching down, and only sitting upright
when in big waves. Fish were jumping, one almost jumped into the boat. Boat
performed very well, slicing through the waves.
To top it all off, was idly picking at the porch
paint that got dribbled on the poly finish on the pirogue paddle. It wouldn't
come off no matter how hard I picked at it! The porch paint being harder than
the primer on Entropy, it comes off in small flakes if you scratch
it.
Will have to do some testing, but poly sticks very
well to epoxy, and is quite hard. Maybe use it for primer for Larsboat? We'll
see.