[Quirine Schuyff]

Hello kayak hive mind:

I have some questions:

1. I have a new (to me) boat which is (amazingly) wider than my Delta 17. I find I am hitting the boat with my paddle every few strokes, at the front reach of my stroke. Do I need a longer paddle? Will that make it more difficult to paddle? I worry about damaging the coat if I go on like this for a long time. Should I put protective tape there?

2. Kevlar Repair Kit – Is there such a thing as a portable kit that one can bring on trips? I don’t see many options online. I know someone talked about a special tape. Perhaps that is my “away from home” repair kit?

Topic

[Quirine Schuyff]

I am paddling with a 220cm.

[Nick Heath]

If you like a lower angle for your paddling, then a longer shaft might help. I have a wide boat but I use a higher paddle angle and I get no hull banging although my paddle is only 210 cm . Another thing to consider is seat height. Nimbus boats don’t lend themselves to adjustment in the area but it can be done with foam. 2 cm could make a big difference. There is likely lots of knee room left under the deck, so it might be worth trying.

You can’t safely carry repair resin for composite boats on a trip without polluting everything in the boat with the smell although the vinylester resins used for Kevlar are not as smelly as the polyester resins. However, both are nasty. Also the vinylester resin has a short shelf life. Hence carry some sticky tape for that unlikely puncture or leaky crack. It is also fairly safe to carry tiny tubes of 5 minute epoxy (packaged in a sealed jar) for field repairs that will later be ground out and repaired properly. If you decide to carry spare Kevlar cloth patch material, consider how you will cut it to shape because, unlike glass fibre cloth, it requires special shears.

[Quirine Schuyff]

I think my paddle is 220 but that’s a wild guess!  I’ll measure this eve.
thanks for the thoughts on the tape too.
q

 

[Don Froese]

Hi Quirine. How short is your paddle?

We are both using 220cm paddles with the Telkwas, and that seems to work well.  As Katya said it’s probably more a issue of getting used to paddling the wider boat though.

 

Regarding repairs, I just use standard fiberglass and epoxy resin on Kevlar, which seems to work fine. For emergencies I use this waterproof gorilla tape. It’s amazing stuff and even sticks under water but is almost impossible to remove.

 

Emergency Kayak repair tape

 

 

 

[Maureen Benzon]

Perfect answer. Try out a longer paddle before you make any other decisions. I might be able to borrow one for you next time we paddle. 🙂

[Quirine Schuyff]

Yes, a Telkwa Sport. And yes, I’d love to try the longer paddle just for the feel. If we ever see each other!

[Yekaterina Yushmanova]

Quirine, now we all want to know what kind of boat you got :))))! A kevlar telkwa sport? Just being nosy, lol.

We do use a longer paddle for our wider boat (double), but you might want to play with your stroke and wait to see if you muscle memory re-adjusts to the new dimensions. Let me know if you want to borrow a longer paddle to test, we have one that we rarely use.

[Author]

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