Little Bastard a Greenland SOF Kayak

T H E G R E E N L A K E P A D D L E R
LITTLE BASTARD, A GREAT SMALL KAYAK

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Part 3

FORWARD SLIDE

SAFETY MEASURE , JUST IN CASE

During the first few short runs I noticed that this little kayak is hardly affected by a beam
wind. The kayak does not turn down or upwind noticeably, which is good, and bad too.
I decided to relocate the seating position a few cm in the forward direction in order
to move my weight a little more towards the midship too, this to bias the boat to
turn upwind. I had to relocate the coaming ring and replace the foot rest and
back support beams for different ones. No problem, hurrah for the screws!

Masik and back beam placed a few cm futher up front. Note: filled up screw holes.

Improvement: a piece of wood supporting the deck stringers and coaming ring.

The arched masik ( pvc tubes ) turned out to be located too high to be of any help in
keeping the kayak " knee grabbed " but I need the space to enter this boat. I have
added a small board up front, now I do have good knee contact and full control.

Grrr, the spray skirt fumble #$%?!, still have to reshape ( taper ) the coaming upper lip.
I can think of only one spray skirt manufacturer in the universe who integrates a
preshaped '' coaming ring grabber " I do not own such a spray skirt, sigh...

Done, and off I was to see how this thing behaves now.

The boat feels longer than it actually is, tracking is pretty good as the plastic skin bulges
inwards a little in between of the gunnels, stringers and keel. The black duct tape
endures better than I thought it would ... so now a longer try-out run
can be undertaken. My first 20k in a SOF, will I survive ?

Yes, I did. Now what about the skin? A length of Ballistic Nylon is waiting to
be sewn on, but first there is some more experimenting to do.

Little Bastard is waiting ... apart from experimenting there are a lot of other things
to do first and time just seems to fly by. I will pick up working on this small boat
somewhere in the near future. Hopefully Winter 2016, I will keep you posted.

Yes progress ... I have Linseed oiled the frame ... Wow!
Or shall I say: Not so wow, read on.