A short collection of sea kayak sailing best moments.
From expedition distance paddling to fast afternoon outings Flat Earth Sails have been a trusted companion on my rudderless kayaks.
After years of using Flat Earth Sails these days I welcome windy conditions when sea kayaking.
Every kayak that I have fitted a sail to has delivered great fun, but some kayaks sail better than others.
Video produced for a sea kayak gathering in Austria. View it in full screen if not using a mobile device.
If the winds are blowing above 20 knots I prefer a smaller sail of 0.8m² since most kayaks I own have a relatively low hull speed; a bigger sail does not equate to higher speed. However, with lighter breezes I often can sail slightly faster with a 1.0m² as I usually don't reach the kayak's hull speed.
I prefer masts in carbon fibre with only two side/backstays instead of the often recommended 3 stays.
On my sail set ups the boom swing is limited to 180°
and I now firmly believe that this configuration is safer than the full 360° swing of a 3 stays set up.
After recently sailing for a month and 500 Km (in borrowed kayaks) I have concluded that limiting the boom swing prevents dangerous situation when sailing in higher winds.
More details on my findings in this post here
.
06 November 2013
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I haven't seen anyone that gets the video angles you get. Excellent work and entertaining to watch.
ReplyDeleteThank you. My paddling and sailing is nothing out of the ordinary but I do spend a bit more time setting up my camera to get a better view of what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see how you get some of those amazing camara angles - but I can't find a blog post on it, can you give any information?
ReplyDeleteThe camera angles are achieved by thinking outside the box, tinkering for hours to create new concepts and then fabricating the mounts. All that to maybe capture a few seconds of usable footage. Most of the camera mounts are specifically designed for each individual kayak and occasionally I modify the deck of a kayak to fit them. I rarely use off-the-shelf offerings as they usually are no sturdy enough or don't offer the angle I want to get. Of course there are occasional failures and the odd lost camera :-(
DeleteYou all seem to have a black case on your left shoulder. What is that?
ReplyDeleteVery entertaining video.
Best wishes Lars
the little black box on the left shoulder is Personal Locating Beacon (PLB) that I want to keep on me (not somewhere below deck) but out of the way. I tent to use it when I am paddling alone.
DeleteDamiano, you just ROCK, that's all there is to it! What a great little video! And just about the time I was wondering ... "Yeah, OK, but how do you roll with that thing," ... you answered my question with an elegant sculling roll. I just love it, love it, love it!
ReplyDeletethank you Moulton
Delete