Ren�s Kajakblog

The NDK Pilgrim Expedition in surf-conditions (test-session 8)

Sun, 12 May 2013 21:13:00 +0200

12 may 2013
Wind: west 5bft, following some days with storm SW

Paddling in surf is, to my opinion, the final proof of a kayaktest because mostly this is the heaviest part of the test. It gives in relative safe-conditions, close to the coast, a feeling how capable a kayak is.

Well, after having paddled the Pilgrim Expedition in 7 sessions before this one, it did not surprise me that I felt completely at home in surf with this kayak.

The stability is very good and, also important, the kayak reacts very natural and predictable on waves: nu unexpected movements or whatsoever that could you make feel uncertain.

To catch a wave you must paddle hard as the kayak is not a sprinter, but when the waves are strong enough this is no problem. Once surfing the Pilgrim goes fast and is reasonably under control. While surfing the kayak responds to edging.

Being caught by a dumping wave and being tossed around "feels natural" in this kayak; I was always an integral part of the boat on these moments. Partly responsible for this is the cockpit-design and the snug fit with excellent grip for knees, hips and feet.
High braces are no problem to perform.

The kayak glides nicely over waves and is only pushed backwards by the heaviest of dumping waves.

The maneuverability is perfect for use under these conditions. Whitewater kayaks are more maneuverable of course, but for a seakayak the Pilgrim is perfect on this aspect.

While surfing a steep wave the Pilgrim does not pearl/ cq. bow diving. I was not surprised here because the bow has enough volume to prevent that. Personally I don't like a pearling kayak for the chance of damaging myself while being smashed forwards. Other paddlers like it for the spectacle, so those paddlers will have to choose another kayak.

To get an impression of the conditions of the day and the behavior of the kayak you can view the 3,5 minute film underneath with shots of the day:

Other remarks:
The compartments are still bone-dry after paddling.

In the first sessions with this kayak I had some remarks on the fact that the kayak has no backband to support your back. In the beginning my lower back was tired after a tour.
But now I appreciate this seat-construction much more because it gives you quite a lot freedom of movement in the seat without hurting your backbone on the cockpit-rim.
The only condition is that your lower-back-muscles must be in shape. Something that is recommended for normal life as well.
Today I realized also something about the cockpit-size: For my length 1,80m it is not possible to sit down in the cockpit putting in both legs/feet afterwards. For persons of approx. 1,75m this seems possible. Not that it is a problem for me; while lifting myself a bit out the seat I can squeeze in my second leg.

Summarizing this last session: The Pilgrim Expedition is a reliable seakayak.

Soon I will write a summary about the Pilgrim Expedition.

Wet exercises with the Pilgrim Expedition - testsession7

Fri, 10 May 2013 20:16:00 +0200

10-05-2013

A lot of wind predicted: 6-8bft. But no good conditions for surfing along the coast due to a strong current along the coast.
BUT: ideal circumstances for wet exercises on the Alkmaarder-lake.
I aimed at a spot in the middle of the lake and paddling that direction was fun, being pushed by the SW-wind.
Although higher waves surf better the conditions were OK and the Pilgrim surfs well on these windwaves.

Arrived at the middle of the lake I handed my camera to Wieger for filming the wet-exercises.
First the rolling. This was very easy. Nothing more to say about that. I also made a few rolls against the wind and this resulted in my skimming paddle-blade staying below the surface of the waves. In spite of the wrong start-position of my paddle it was easy to roll up extending my stroke more backwards laying over the afterdeck. The cockpit is very suitable for this kind of lay-back-roll as there is no backband at the seat and the cockpit-rim is far aft not torturing your backbone. Very comfortable. To illustrate: While paddling it is easy to lay flat on your afterdeck.

Sculling: this is easy as well.

Than the re-entry. The big keyhole-cockpit makes entering easy. Rolling up the waterlogged kayak was as easy as if the kayak was dry and empty. Only the stability with a cockpit halfway filled with water was low especially because I floated parallel to the waves; a less convenient position.

So to get the water out of the cockpit on the middle of the lake Anoushka performed an X-rescue. Or in fact a T-rescue because the kayak is empty already if you only lift the bow.
Because the wind blew the emptied kayak in the wrong direction I had to enter the cockpit from aside in the so-called Kiwi-entry. Easy. Big cockpit and no backband blocking while sliding into the seat.
Along the kayak are enough perimeter-lines to get hold on the kayak while swimming along it. Only aside of the day-hatch is no line. Rescuer and/or the swimmer should be aware of that.

So this was it. The only thing left is to battle our way back against the wind. Hard work but no remarks about leecocking that can occur under these conditions. The kayak is very maneuverable and can be corrected before leecocking occurs.

Below you can watch a 4-minute film about the exercises and the conditions of the day:

The Pilgrim Expedition on flat water - testsession 6

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:14:00 +0200

08-05-2013

Until now all paddling opportunities sent me to the sea. The place to be for the Pilgrim Exp. However, I want to paddle her on flat water as well. This Wednesday-evening the wind was SW 3-4bft and I set out to paddle to the club in Uitgeest and back. In total approx. 19 km.
My purpose was to get an impression about the speed this kayak is able to reach. Until now I experienced that I could reach normal paddling speed unless I had to paddle against short steep waves. Under those circumstances she sprays a lot and is slowed down by every wave. Of course this is part of the compromise in a kayak-design. This kayak is designed for rough water and has, for that purpose, a lot of volume in the bow causing the "slowing down" as described.
This means that the Pilgrim Exp. is on her best on the open sea and rough water.

For tonight I brought with me a GPS to measure my speed.

At first I noticed that a natural pace, for me, in the Pilgrim Exp. is about 8-8,5 km/h (without significant wind-influence). Paddling against the wind slowed me down to approx. 7-7,5km/h.

While slowing down to a very relaxed paddle-pace I reached approx. 7-7,5km/h (without wind) and this pace gave me the feeling that I could go "for ever".

If you want to paddle at a work-out-pace, you can reach something like 9-9,5km/h. The bow starts splashing a bit when paddling like that. Perhaps this is the maximum hull-speed of this kayak-design.
It must be, because when speeding up to the "maximum", I ended up at 10,5km/h. The bow spraying a lot and I had to paddle very hard spilling far too much energy for the result.

So, I concluded that the Pilgrim Exp. can be paddled at normal paddle-cruising speeds. But it is not a kayak to pull an easy sprint to reach the front-paddler in your group for instance.
She is more like a steady-"go-er", keeping her speed for hours.

Other notes of tonight:

Today I concluded again that this kayak is a very willing kayak: she listens very good to your steering strokes especially when you edge to support your steering.
And also important: edging does not mean that you enter an unstable "area". On the contrary: the secondary stability while edging gives a very secure feeling.

Last winter was not very good for exercising due to the strong, cold easterly winds. As you probably read in this blog I went on a few tours, but going to the coast for playing surf was not possible. Anyway there are no waves in easterly winds over here.
So now the waiting is for an opportunity AND company to go into surf.
Finding an opportunity for the wet exercises is a bit easier.
When these sessions are finished I shall write a summary of the individual reports about sessions with the Pilgrim expedition.

The Pilgrim in arctic circumstances. - testsession 5

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:46:00 +0100

8 march 2013, wind E 6-7 bft, temp 2˚C, distance 22km.

Although the conditions were cold today because of the icy wind, we decided to paddle as planned. We started in Holwerd with destination Nes on the Island Ameland.

With wind and current pushing us the way out was not heavy. Because of the easterly wind the tide was very low: although we departed shortly after the high tide it seemed if we were paddling at the lowest tide already. Due to the low tide the waves were not higher than 40 cm. Keeping course in the strong wind without using the extractable skeg was heavy work. But with the retractable skeg the Pilgrim could be trimmed well. It turned out that the Pilgrim was depending much on the adjustment of the skeg and I had to re-adjust frequently. Partly this is because of the combination strong wind and low waves. In higher waves it is expected to be easier to maintain course.

Adjusting the skeg is not very pleasant for my hands and fingers. Firstly because the adjustment knob is positioned in the seam from deck to hull on the side of the kayak. Cold water is splashing at your hands there. Secondly the knob is flush with the deck, which is nice, but with the skeg drawn in it is so much to the front that you cannot get your fingers behind it to pullback, So I had to use my nails to move the knob backwards. A bit painful with cold fingers.
In the "Zuiderspruit" the water is deeper and we paddle through a field with waves of about 70cm height; a short track even with Clapotis-waves. It is clear that the Pilgrim feels much at home in these conditions. She runs nicely over the waves, is maneuverable and not so depending on the adjustment of the skeg anymore.

The return trip was not so easy as we have to paddle against the wind, not being helped much by the current yet. When the waves were low the Pilgrim achieve nice speed, but as soon as there were short waves, the kayak was slowed down by every wave. This is clearly a kayak for bigger ocean waves. These short waves lift the bow a bit allowing the wind to grip the bow. The leecocking which is caused by this, is however easy to correct by a combination of (pre)-edging and sweepstrokes. The kayak responds very well to edging and is maneuverable enough to stay under control now. However, if a smaller. lighter person than me paddles this Pilgrim Exp I wonder if the influence of the wind will be bigger. Probably such a paddler has to load this expedition kayak not to become a toy for the wind.

Back in the harbor I noted that my back was not as tired as after other trips in the Pilgrim due to the backband-less seat. Today I had to work harder, probable taking a more active sit-position resulting in less tension in the back.

And as written before: I felt too big for this kayak with shoe-size 44 on. But also with my length of 1,80m I had to wiggle a bit to get in and out the cockpit. I still think I am the maximum for this kayak.

Compartments are bone-dry at the end of the trip.

The Pilgrim Exp. in winter on a summer-sea ;-) - testsession 4

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:45:00 +0100

5 march 2013 ; wind SE 3 bft ; temp 20˚C ; distance approx. 18km.

Today was very pleasant with plenty of sunshine and a nice temperature. A day to go kayaking. Not a day with demanding conditions for testing. This did not hold us back to go kayaking.

As you can imagine I didn't find new issues about the qualities of the Pilgrim in this quiet weather only consolidation of earlier conclusions.

Two observations:
- The Pilgrim tracked nice in a following sea with 40cm waves. No problem to maintain your course.
- The Pilgrim is really a boat for smaller persons. In winter I use neoprene shoes size 44; a bit bigger than normal to fit over an extra pair of socks in my drysuit. In the Pilgrim this shoe-size is not very comfortable because it forces me in a fixed position: the deck is too low forcing your feet in a unnatural position. Not using the footrests, but the bulkhead to put my feet against helps, but not enough. The lesson learnt is that the Pilgrim indeed fits smaller persons. I think persons width shoe-size 42 as maximum.

The NDK Pilgrim Exp. in a weatherwindow - testsession 3

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:04:00 +0100

06.12.2012
Yesterday it was terrible weather: windy and snow. Tomorrow it will be even worse with 8bft winds and 15 cm snow predicted.
BUT today it was a quiet, sunny day. Ideal to go paddling.
For testing I like wind and at least some waves and therefor paddling at sea in the Voordelta-area would have been perfect as the swell from yesterday could arrange interesting conditions over there.
Due to the predicted traffic-infarct, caused by the snow of last night, we changed plans and went to Lemmer, a lot more to the north.

Today's weather was pleasant because it was not so very cold. But I also thought that this weather and place were a pity for testing. But I was wrong: also today I collected useful information about the Pilgrim.

Let's follow our tour. The first leg followed the coast till Oudemirdum against a 1-2 bft NW-wind. I was a bit surprised to see that the Pilgrim produced quit a lot a spray at the spot next to the front-hatch. So it is clearly not a boat to cut the waves because she has a lot of volume in the bow; necessary for the heavy waters she is designed for. Of course you can paddle her on flat water but this kayak loves more rough conditions. I can add to this that the spray as produced could be less (I expect) when loaded. In the unloaded kayak I paddled today, the bow floats high and when the kayak is loaded the sharpest end of the bow in more submerged in de water which could improve. I will try to simulate this later.

Besides this I noticed on this first leg that the Pilgrim is very maneuverable.

Another issue was the foot-pegs: In contrary to the two earlier test-sessions I did not use them and put my feet against the bulkhead on a plate of foam. This was much better because my feet were now NOT cramped in one position anymore. Using the foot-pegs before I could not move my feet for 1 mm.

After a break we started our second leg: a crossing of 6km to the "Rotterdamse hoek". I was happy to see that the wind increased to 3 bft. and created at this spot a lively sea. The Pilgrim awoke and she almost danced over the waves. Very nice, I came in a flow and we paddled almost 8 km/h. It was also interesting to see that this kayak, having a rather flat bottom, more or less followed the waves coming from aside. Not a bad characteristic but one you have to get familiar with.
The Pilgrim weathercocks slightly which I could control without using the retractable skeg. Being lazy today I trimmed the kayak with the skeg and could keep course easily. Now and than, when a wave pushed me in another direction, it was easy to come back on the original course because the kayak responds very well to edging, leaning and sweepstrokes.

Arriving a bit north from Rotterdamse Hoek, we turned north following the dike. In this third leg we had a following sea and wind building up surfable waves at this spot.
On a nice wave I could bring the Pilgrim with a few power strokes to surf the wave. On some waves more paddling was required, but this kayak likes surfing and kept course rather good (retractable skeg dropped maximal).
This kayak does not surf spontaneously on these waves today and so I could choose not to surf, just paddling and being pushed by a wave now and than. I could keep course well doing so.

Almost at the end of this leg, at "Friese hoek", we took a little break and I was surprised that I was much more stable, while eating something, than in the second test-session. Even when floating parallel to the waves while the waves were at least as high now. At first I could not understand this, but it is quite logical: the testsession before I sat in the cockpit with my feet completely fixed on the small footpegs with my knees and legs in a strange twist to get the knees in the correct position. This was a totally cramped position. But today, with my feet and knees having much more freedom, I was sitting very relaxed in the cockpit. Thus I was able to use my hips for keeping balance. Before the hips were blocked by the wrong position in the cockpit. So the lesson for potential future Pilgrim-paddlers is to judge if their feet fit in the cockpit.

Another advantage of my more relaxed leg-position was that my knees were not so stiff anymore at the end of our 26km trip. So I learned another lesson today: my knees being stiff after a kayak-trip in whatever kayak, are an indication to look at the sit-position and to try to improve that.

Pilgrim Exp. NDK - on a mythical sea - testsession2

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 22:57:00 +0100

19-11-2012

Although 4-5 bft wind was predicted for today, the reality was thick fog and S-SE 3-4 bft wind blowing offshore. This means a rather calm sea.
But a trip was planned and so we started in the fog at Bakkum to paddle along the coast; hoping for nice waves somewhere to surf or playing along.

In a headwind and a rather lively sea it was very pleasant to paddle the Pilgrim. I could, without using the retractable skeg, easily keep course with only minor corrections.

After paddling 1,5 hours we reached our turning point (having 3 hours available for paddling) and paused to eat something while floating in the sea. While floating I noticed that the Pilgrim is not a very stable platform because I had to make a lot of stability corrections with my hips while eating; in spite of the rather calm sea.
With a paddle in my hands I did not even notice this stability-issue while paddling , so it is not very negative but making photo's is less easy. May be this is logical because the kayak has a width of only 50 cm. And the fact that the stability is good while paddling, might be the credits of the superb fit in the cockpit for hips and knees. This contributes enormous to the way a kayak performs.
It would be interesting to know if shorter people than me, have the same experience because I fit very well in the kayak, but with my 1,80m length I am may be on the upper-limit of what the kayak is meant for. I will try to find out later.

During our break we were blown in the direction of the open sea meeting there a bit more swell. Not a big as my trip last week, but nice to paddle because the swell mixes with the wand-waves coming from shore.

The end-stability is fine for me now because making sweepstrokes supported by leaning feels natural in this sea-state.
Returning now I paddled without using the retractable skeg because it was easier that way to keep course in the situation with the swell wanting me to steer me to the left and the windwaves trying to push me to the right. The Pilgrim is maneuverable enough to handle this by paddle-corrections alone.

I tried the skeg of course and noticed again that my hand went under water because of the waves; a bit cold for my hands in the middle of November.

The last part of the trip the wind died away and so I started paddling directly along the shore where I could find cresting waves. The Pilgrim behaved well. I noticed that a wave slams against the side of the bow instead of flowing underneath. I remembered that last week the same thing happened. Not really an issue, but may be it causes along the coast that the kayak turned 90 degrees instantly when a cresting wave took me along. Stability was fine while playing like this.

Finally I can mention that my back was tired again at the end the trip. May be I belong to the group of people needing a back-rest-band. The other group of people just likes this seat without backband.

Pilgrim expedition-NDK on fast currents - testsession 1

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:26:00 +0100

13-11-2012

Today I paddled the Pilgrim for the first time at sea. But the short time I paddled her at the Grevelingen, a month ago, gave me confidence to take her for this first test-session to the Texelstroom; starting the trip in Den Oever. The wind was average SW-4 bft with some periods SW-5bft. Such a wind against a current of 2,3 knots gives an interesting sea.

The seat is rather comfortable with my knees fitting exactly in 2 bubbles in the deck on both sides of the cockpit.
The deck is rather low because my feet were almost locked between deck and bottom. Maybe because I wear shoes of size 44 (for fitting over my drysuit socks)

At first I wondered if I was too big for this kayak because she felt if I was "top-heavy". Probably I had to get used to this kayak and her stability. I think that the initial stability is good, but not a very stable platform. The secondary stability is not bad but the end of the stability curve is a bit abrupt, meaning the stability, when edged, changes quickly in zero. But at the end of the day I had no problems with this any more. But it is a different behavior compared to other kayaks. The bottom is very pronounced; almost hardchined in the midsection. I can imagine this the explanation for this behavior. But on the other hand; these hardchines makes her very obedient in following your paddle-corrections. However, other test-sessions will follow and probably give more information on this.

On our first leg of the trip we had a following sea, while the current came from our right-side. We did have fun in surfing the waves. The Pilgrim surfed well and did not need very much power to get her on surfing-speed. I surfed her with the retractable skeg completely down. It was not easy in the waves of today to surf her straight on the wave. Mostly I surfed diagonally on a wave moving to left or right.

The Pilgrim only slightly weathercocks on the following 4bft.-wind and I could easily trim the kayak with the retractable skeg.

Entering the Texelstroom we traversed on the strong current to the other side. In the middle we met high, irregular waves, sometimes cresting a bit. Veru good circumstances for testing a seakayak!
The Pilgrim behaved very well in his soup keeping her bow almost dry. The bow has rather much volume; I guess designed for waves like this. It was easy to keep her on course.

On the other side of the Texelstroom the waves were lower and shorter. On these waves and against the wind, the Pilgrim was slowed down by each wave giving also more spray than my companions' kayaks. The advantage of the voluminous bow in big water was a disadvantage here in shorter waves. So here is the old story true again: that everything in life is a compromise.
At first I had to apply a lot of energy preventing the Pilgrim to leecock. I had pushed the lever, for controlling the retractable skeg , forwards to pull up the skeg. As I could not see the lever I had pushed against the wrong spot leaving the skeg a bit down.
Because I could manage, keeping the Pilgrim on course with this handicap, this is good news because this means that when the Pilgrim really leecocks you are not in problems.

After retracting the skeg completely it was a delight to paddle the Pilgrim and keeping her in course in this wind of approx. 5 bft. In these headwinds almost every kayak leecocks a bit but the Pilgrim is maneuverable enough to keep her on course so easily.
Normally I can speed up a bit to come closer to my companion: but not with the Pilgrim now in these sticky waves who were holding me back. I just managed to keep enough speed to keep up with my friends.

The lever for controlling the retractable skeg is built in on the side of the kayak; exactly on the seam from deck to hull. Besides being not visible for visually checking position of the skeg as mentioned above, I repeatedly moved with my hand in the cold water when controlling the skeg, which is a disadvantage in the time of the year.

After a break we crossed the Texelstroom again on a deeper part now crossing for a while on high waves ; a bit like clapotis. There was a small tendency to wander a bit of course. To the left, you could call this leecocking, but I saw my friends doing the same thing. And I could still make not much speed in the Pilgrim.

The last leg of our trip was easy without much waves. We only had to deal with the current to navigate to Den Oever again. Now the waves almost were gone, it was much easier to speed up the Pilgrim as she was not teased by sticky waves.

At the end of the trip my lower back was rather stiff. May be this is the result of the NDK-seat having no back-rest-band. Instead there is a conical piece of foam pushing low in your back. This is a personal issue because you hear people being happy to paddle without a back-band and also other people not getting used to this seat without a backrest-band. Every back is different I guess. But I have seen NDK-kayaks in which such a back-rest was fitted by the owner afterwards. So, don't worry about this.

The Etain 17-5LV in bad weather - testsession 8

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:12:00 +0100

29 October 2012

Thinking about a summary of the test-sessions, I concluded I needed more information about changing course in windy weather; especially because I improved the grip on thighs and knees.
Today it was bad, rainy weather with 6-7 bft. at sea and approx. 4-5 bft. on the Alkmaardermeer.
So I paddled for an hour in the rain looking for the windiest places on the lake.
When changing course into the wind this is very easy as the kayak wants to weathercock a bit sending you automatically in the desired direction.
When you want to turn downwind it is a bit different: first you proceed every stroke a bit to the desired course but when you are almost parallel to the waves it is less easy to turn further. At that moment the improvement of the contact for knees, hips and thighs in the cockpit is an enormous improvement. You can edge now much better when parallel to the waves; always a bit tricky position when you want to edge. Not that the turning goes very fast; every stroke a bit. I can imagine that less experienced paddlers cannot perform this yet in that position. For them there is the solution to drop the skeg completely to get the kayak leecocking for a moment: that helps.
About this subject it is not necessary to worry about the Etain because a lot of seakayaks are difficult to turn downwind in waves.

Furthermore I can repeat that, in de conditions of today, the Etain could be trimmed easily with the retractable skeg.

The Etain 17-5LV on flat water - testsession 7

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 22:59:00 +0200

19.10.2012

The predicted winds were S2-5bft. To find reasonable waves we to paddle the Hoornse Hop, just south of Hoorn. A spot were waves build up quite fast in southerly winds.

But unfortunately: the wind was only 1-2 bft and the IJsselmeer like a mirror.
Beautiful yes, but not to gather much information about the Etain after improving knee- and thigh-grip contact in the cockpit.

Today we started in Edam and on the first 14km-leg the wind came from aside causing our kayaks to weathercock very slightly. Jos and Henk dropped their retractable skegs slightly to compensate for this.

I didn't follow their example because I wanted to test the improved knee- and thigh-grip contact; just to be forced to keep course by using edging/leaning/sweepstrokes.
And yes, it was easy to keep course on a very relaxed, natural way without much force: only by leaning and using sweepstrokes almost every stroke.

Because there was almost no wind this was also a fine occasion to find out something about how fast the Etain is. Starting with a full sprint it turned out that the absolute maximum speed (paddled by me ) is 11-11,2 km/h.
We varied also our paddling-pace and I classified the result as follows:
- relaxed touring: 7-8,5 km/h
- workout paddling: 8,5-9,5 km/h (for approx. 1 hour of paddling)
- spoiling energy: 9,5-11km/h. May be 10km/h can be paddled during a short distance.
Looking at these figures I think that the Etain fits in the average field of seakayaks. Meaning that she certainly is not slow but either not extremely fast. But she is easily driven and in combination with the way she handles waves, as described in earlier sessions, you can eat miles with here.