Yesterday, on Wednesday-evening, I paddled the Greenlander from home to the club in a 5 Bft wind including a longer course on the Alkmaardermeer.

Until now I paddled her in less or no wind. But now it was becoming more serious and I think it gave me much more confidence for using her at sea later.

Until now I did not yet work on the customising of the cockpit, except that I removed the knee-tube which did not fit me at all and also made entering the cockpit a dangerous exercise for my knees.
Customising will be very important as the deck is quite high and gives no grip for my knees at all at the moment.
So, I was paddling in 5Bft with no hip-contact and no knee-contact with my knee-position in the middle of the cockpit.

Nevertheless I was very happy as the Greenlander could be steered perfectly with hip-movements. Stability was also good under the conditions with waves up to 40cm. Which is quite good, taking into account that I had no contact in the cockpit at all.
The only moment a missed knee-contact was when steering around a little headland away from the wind, where edging was necessary to turn the kayak more professionally.

While running for the wind and waves, with the skeg down , the Greenlander behaved quite course-stable.

The Greenlander weathercocks a little bit, but this was perfectly trimmed with the variable skeg.

Paddling against the waves made a wet ride is the bow splices the waves. Comparing with the Explorer, paddling next to me, learned me that the Explorer had a complete dry ride under these conditions.

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Last week I paddled the Greenlander in my weekly trip to the club on wednesday-evening.

I was a bit surprised on that occasion because I got the impression she was fast and effortless paddled.
Ofcourse, after a holiday of 2 weeks paddling at sea, it could be that I was in good shape. But as our holiday-paddling-pace was rather relaxed, it could well be that it is not in my shape but all in the Greenlander herself.

So yesterday I took the Greenlader again with me, but now I was accompanied by a GPS for measuring speed.
There was almost no wind, no waves and I started with about 8,5 km/h on shallow water.
Entering deeper water, while reaching the Zaan, this increased a bit and I ended up paddling between 9,0-9,5 km/h.

Quite fast to my opinion because the Greenlander has a hard-chine hull-shape. This type of hull has a greater wet-surface than a more rounded one and therefor I don't (excuse me: didn't) expect a hardchine hull to be fast. Certainly not because the AnasAcuta, also hardchine, is not fast at all.

Anyhow I could paddle effortless at this speed during the first 5 km of the trip to the club.

Than something strange happens. With another 4 kilometer to go I was experimenting a bit with my paddlestrokes and thanI discovered something that suddenly speeds up the kayak to 10km/h. Amazing!

The stroke felt a bit awkward because I pushed the blades at the end of a stroke a bit down and outwards. This results in a very silent stroke being a bit shorter, without any tjoemp-tjoemp-noises and giving the illusion of a big spring between the blade and the water while the blade exits the water.
Because I could not relax my fingers while doing this, I tried to reproduce this for the next kilometers trying to integrate it fluently into my paddlingstyle.
I succeeded more or less in this and now my speed varied between 9,5-10,0km/h. Amazing: again.

And the paddle? It gave me the feeling that it was dancing in my hands, making no noise any more.

And the Greenlander? This being all about her: she did not give any sign that she was near to her maximum hull-speed.

Later, when I am fresh again, I will do some sprinting to get an impression where the maximum is.

After socializing at the club I started my return-trip and during the first half of the distance I could reproduce a 9,5-9.8 km/h; now having to work harder being a bit tired.
Later, when a ligth head-wind started, my speed dropped a bit to 8,9-9,2 km/h, rapidly increasing again when sheltered for the wind.

So at the end of the day I concluded that the Greenlander is fast, making an average speed of 9,5km/h possible.

During this trip, under calm conditions, I didn't pay any attention to any other characteristics of the Greenlander than speed. Later more on this.
Only one thing attracted my attention: while edging the Greenlander under these "very-flatwater-conditions" made her react very responsive in making turns.

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Last night I had to paddle away some frustrations and I took the Greenlander for my weekly visit at the kayakclub; a 20km paddle vv.
It was very quiet weather with a mirror-like water surface.

What I noticed first was that the speed of this kayak is much better than the AnasAcuta; also a hard-chine kayak. Arriving at the club 65minutes later means an average speed of 8,7-9,0 km/h, which is not too bad for a seakayak.
My way back was somewhat troublesome as the water was beginning to freeze, creating large icefields. Astonishing that after 1,5 hours the ice was thick enough to require piercing the paddleblade very deliberate into it. Of course the ice dropped the speed a bit.

Other notes I made are that I discovered what is the matter with the stability: Fumbling around with my headlamp made me edging uncontrollably which gave an unstable feeling. Further investigations showed that this is only about the primary stability. After having edged over about 10°, the kayak feels stable again in its secondary stability.
Actually this is the same characteristic of the NDK Explorer.
It has also something to do with my bodyweight. A heavier person of approx. 80-90kg will not notice this and feel stable in the primary stability.
Not that I felt uneasy in the Greenlander. It’s just that you notice this more on flat water. I assume that in rough water it will feel different.
I will find out later while paddling at sea.

Another note is that the Greenlander reacts very direct on edging and sweepstrokes when you want to change direction in this mirror-like water. Very good!

Finally I concluded it is very necessary to find a backband-solution that suits me because I was sitting to far backwards at first which caused sleepy legs. Some filling in the seat solved this for tonight.

About the kneetube my thoughts are a bit mixed: One thought is that you have enormous grip on the kayak supporting edging and sweepstrokes.
The other thought is that it interferes with my legs when I want to paddle fast with my knees in the middle of the cockpit. Beside this the kneetube makes entering and exiting the cockpit not easier.

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To repair or not to repair



You noticed perhaps that I did not write very much during the last two months.
Yes, that's right but there was a reason. Being a bit impulsive, I bought this NDK Greenlander which was punctured during a surf session and declared total loss. A nice project to improve on repairing kayaks; that's what I thought.



Not wanting to make the repair-project last for years, I started immediately. As this kind of damage was new for me, the reparing took quite a lot of mental energy. I think that's the reason that I did not find inspiration for writing. Just a matter of mental overflow.







But yet I am finished.
Here is the Greenlander,stronger than before:

Of course I can show you the places where the repair is slightly visible, but at a first glance you don't notice.

Last night I took her to the swimmingpool for some rolling exercises.

As reviewing has become part of me, I could not resist examining the kayak.

The kayak rolled reasonably well, but I noticed that Hans' AnasAcuta was easier to roll. Maybe this is partly caused by the fact that I did not fit yet well in the cockpit.
Some works has to be done there: making better knee- and hipcontact.

Edging the kayak is easy and you can easily hold her on edge. Doing so, she is easily turned, although I do not believe yet she is very manouevrable in waves. But I will learn more on this in a later stage.

As I did nog have a proper fitting sprayskirt yet I used another, allowing some water to enter in the cockpit. After a while the kayak, having water aboard, felt a bit instable in the primary stability. I was a bit surprised as this amount of water normally doesn't matter very much. A positive fact is that the Greenlander has a secundary stability making her more stable on edge. So I guess hat this kind of behaviour is something to get used to.
Comparing the stability of the Greenlander with a AnasAcuta it seemed that the seat in the Greenlander is mounted higher. But we thought also that the Greenlander itself floats higher. She has more volume; something that could mean that a heavier person should paddle her. Although: the small cockpitsize does not ask for bigger people.

The cockpitsize is another issue. I am a fan of a small cockpitsize and I like the Greenlander for this. But in this kayak a kneetube was added. Entering the cockpit was not made easier with this tube. In fact you could hurt a knee on the edge. And I doubt if you can easily exit the cockpit in surf. It's not as bad that I will remove the tube immediately, but I will keep it in mind. Maybe replacing the backband by a foamblock will help. Yet another issue to investigate.

Such a block will also improve a layback on the aftdeck. This was already very good, but I was not able to perform a balancebrace yet; making better contact in the cockpit wil help a bit but improving my technique will help more I guess.
On the other hand: Sculling was very easy in this kayak. Also doing a slowmotion roll coming up while sculling.

This was a first glance at the characteristics of the Greenlander.

To be continued.

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