Anas Acuta history^

[Anders Lindberg]

Hi,

I´m looking for more information on my Anas Acuta, which is an older model. I´ve found the remains of a decal, hidden beneath paint and fibre glass repairs, and luckily I can see the serial no. which is 3162. See pics below

Valley regrets, but do not keep records that far back. They can only tell me that it is a model from the seventies.

I bought it second hand 7 years ago in Denmark, and the seller could only tell med that it was old, and that he had installed the rear hatch and bulkhead.

So - can any one tell me more about it? Production year? Is the skeg (stainless steel with cut-outs) original?
I also heard that the hull has been modified slightly through the years. Is that correct? And if so - which "version" of the hull is mine?

Anyway - I´m so happy about the Anas Acuta and I get more and more happy for every hour I use it. The yellow one on the picture is a 2007 model belonging to a friend.

Best regards,

Anders Lindberg
Copenhagen, Denmark


IMG_2790 by mondolindberg, on Flickr


IMG_2788 by mondolindberg, on Flickr

[Jim]

If Valley can't put a date to a serial No. then I doubt anyone can tell you much specifically about your kayak, but for the history of the Anas Acuta you have to start further back.

The story starts with a Greenland kayak made for Ken Taylor in the 50's. At some point it was copied and modified slightly by Geoff Blackford to become the Anas Acuta, which I think went into production in fibreglass in the early 70's.
When copying, or perhaps drawing inspiration from the skin on frame hull of Ken's boat it was noted that the keel had a kink towards the stern. Not being sure if this was intended or not, and being a nightmare to reproduce in plywood, this feature was smoothed out of the hull for the Anas Acuta. More recently the purpose of the kink was discovered, and the island kayaks Qarsuut was developed as a more faithful replica of Kens boat including the kink (it helps with tracking). I am not aware of any other hull changes apart from the construction materials - in the 70's all boats were E-glass and polyester, you can now have them made in much more exotic composites.
The Trylon Sea King has around nearly as long as the Anas Acuta, it is a bit bigger and the lines of the deck are totally deck different but I haven't had a chance to compare mine with an Anas Acuta to compare the hulls - with so few boats around at the time it is probably a development from Kens boat but taking a slightly different route than the Anas Acuta.

The Anas Acuta did not originally have a skeg, but I think it has been an option latterly, I don't know much about skegs, these hard chine boats can be paddled without them and I've never really felt it an essential upgrade for the Sea King, or the Anas Acuta I used to borrow from a friend.

Speaking of modifications, my friend had one boat with bulkheads but no hatches (or maybe a front hatch only?) which I fitted an oval VCP rear hatch to for him (I was working as a boatbuilder at the time) in a similar position to yours. This boat had been fitted with an overstern rudder and it's pintail had been chopped off flat to accommodate it, which was a shame. The other boat, which I used to paddle had neither hatches or bulkheads. In truth we spent a fair bit of time on lakes and rivers in them, but the only sea trip we did was in the Bristol Channel (Steep Holm and Flat Holm) for which the boat was full of dry bags :-) We both moved away and lost touch.

In terms of decks, I am pretty sure the deck arrangement changed a few times over the years - different hatches and fittings, oh yes, the boat with bulkheads had some kind of keyhole cockpit, the other an ocean cockpit so at least 2 deck layouts from early on (this was about 17 or 18 years ago, and both boats were old then). I can't actually see from the angle of the photo what cockpit you have, looks a little long for standard ocean but too short for a keyhole - more like my ocean 2 cockpit.

Ah, another thing, the Pintail (English for Anas Acuta) is almost identical to the Anas Acuta except with a round bilge hull - I'm not sure if that counts as a hull variation in some people's books or a separate boat. I also don't know if they shared deck moulds - the ones I saw at a show (a long long time ago) appeared to have identical decks so possibly.

Your boat looks in great condition, the layout looks early, but I think versions without hatches could be special ordered at most times (maybe even now?), and the skeg is may be an aftermarket modification.

Jim

[Anders Lindberg]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your info.

The cockpit is an ocean one - about 38 cm wide and 51 cm long.

My gut feeling is that it was originally sold as a raw boat - without hatch, skeg and deck fittings. It has a "raw feeling" to it - with the fibre glass work being rather rough inside.

I was wondering if someone knows the serialnumbers of older boats . i.e. from the seventies. Then I could maybe pinpoint my own from the serial no.

/anders

[MikeB]

Anders, this may be helpful if you've not come across it yet - the history of the Taylor boat, and by definition the development of Anas Acuta, as provided by Duncan Winning, is documented here. The "family tree" is included too.

The Valley catalogue for 1985 certainly showed boats where hatches were an option. Although far from clear, the images seem to show the early "moulded bar" deck fittings in the images of the Nordkapp, although the Anas seems not to have any!

It looks like that boat of yours has bolt in rdf's - are they in recesses moulded into the hull, or just bolted straight to the deck? If they ARE in recesses, that would suggest the boat is certainly post 1985 and possibly post 1990 which is, as far as I can find out, when the early type of "moulded bar" fittings were replaced with the bolt in ones. If of course the fittings are just bolted straight to the deck then the boat could be much older, from early 1970's onwards.

Those early boats often look quite rough, certainly in comparison to today's ones.

Getting an explantion of Valley serial numbering systems has always been a challenge. Valley are quite often able to help with individual enquiries but if they can't help here then, as Jim says, it's going to be difficult. I've contacted them with the specific query asking for details of how their serial numbering worked when I wrote the article on the history of the Nordkapp but never got a reply, so I guess maybe even they don't know? The business changed hands a few years ago of course, so I suppose the "knowlege" may be lost!

Lovely looking boat.

Mike.

[Anders Lindberg]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reply. And thanks for the link to the catalogue - cool hairdos on the models ;-)

All deck fittings are bolted on, and no recesses in the deck. So it could have been a raw boat originally.
The footrests is an aluminium "swing-bar", mounted on some rough fibreglass wings, glued to the sides. I´ve come across a thread on the web, showing exactly this type, and it is related to "early models".

I´ll take a few snapshots of details tomorrow - skeg, cockpit and deck fittings.

/anders

[Ceegee]

Hi Anders, lovely looking boat, congratulations, I never seem to be able to find a nice 2nd hand Anas (grrrr)

1). The rear hatch looks mounteed onto the deck, i.e. without a recess. This has to be a retro-fit (is it oval?) i.e this was probably a "clean" boat without any hatches orginally.

2). As Mike & Jim have said, the deck lines are a give away. Can you post a close-up photo? To me they look like retro-fitted surface mounted fittings on an otherwise "clean" boat (i.e. like KajakSport ones) but I can't really tell from the photo. This would place the boat fairly early (70's).

3). I've heard it said that the very first Anas moulds had a twist in the hull stern, inherited from the plug, which warped. Later moulds corrected this. Maybe this can help in the dating process? IIRC the first Anas came out in 1972, and the Nordkapp in 1975. As a teenager I longed for one in the 1970's.

Regards

Steve

[Mike Marshall]

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your info.
The cockpit is an ocean one - about 38 cm wide and 51 cm long.
My gut feeling is that it was originally sold as a raw boat - without hatch, skeg and deck fittings. It has a "raw feeling" to it - with the fibre glass work being rather rough inside.
I was wondering if someone knows the serialnumbers of older boats . i.e. from the seventies. Then I could maybe pinpoint my own from the serial no.
/anders

Anders,
I bought mine in the early seventies. As far as I can remember skegs were not a commercial option. In fact the first skeg I ever saw was "invented" by Bob England who fitted one to a Swift in our local club (Shrewsbury CC ) at the time, again early seventies.
Interestingly, I paid £74.99 for that boat, in fact we bought two with my paddling colleague at the time. Superb and timeless machine. Also loved the ocean cockpit and its snugness especially in BIG seas :-)

Regards
MikeM

[Anders Lindberg]

Hi again,

I´m going out in the kayak now for a few hours. Rowing round Copenhagen with a friend who has got the coolest job I can imagine. She sits in a helicopter and tracks icebergs in the Greenland fjords! 6 weeks away and 6 weeks home. I could do that for some time too!

I´ll take some more pictures of the details on the kayak and post them later.

See ya´ll

/anders

[rockhopper]

Hi Anders,

I recently took my Anas up to Valleys to have some work done on it. I suspected that mine was around 30 years old but had no more details however, as soon as I pulled up in their yard a couple of their employees strolled over and were immediately able to narrow down when it was built just with a cursory glance. Apparently mine was from mold No. 2 which was around 1975-76. It seems that the first mold had the seam line running down the middle of the boat. On the second mold this was changed to the normal configuration where the seam separated the top and bottom halves as this made the boat much stronger.
It would appear that mold 2 boats were very fine (sharp) at the bow and stern and you can also just about make out a slight change of angle on the sides where the plywood that created the original mold was joined. I think that there is also a very slight bump (only discernibly by running your hand over it) on the deck a couple of feet from the bow (can't give you exact details as I have not picked the boat back up from Valley yet so it's not to hand).
I would imagine, if you were to take some pictures of the boat and E-Mail them to Valley they may well be able to narrow it down for you.

Rog.

[PeteW]

Hi Anders,

A friend of mine, Ken Tulley, had (may still have but I've not seen him for a while) one of the early Mould 2 boats (horizontal seam), in fact I did my sea proficency in it way way back in the mid 70s. It had a difference in the deck ahead of the cockpit - recess directly ahead of you I think giving some knee grip compared with later boats, as Rog said very fine bow and stern and - if you look along it from the stern - the 'tail' is slightly kicked to one side - well it was on Ken's boat. Trying to think of dates for that one - I first met Ken and Kraken (the boat) in 1973 or 4 I think and he has had it a year or so then. Ken later bought one of the first Nordkapp HMs which had the aluminium hatches (TCL3) in 1978 which I bought from him a few years later - 1980? - when he got a new Anas which had the current ocean cockpit and a hatchless deck but at that point deck fittings and hatches were sill an option - I saw my first hatched Anus at Calshot round 1979 I think. I've still got the Nordkapp now with the current Valley hatches and many battle scars.

OK, anorak back in the closet and back to work - I hope the dates may help someone :-)

Pete

[renezee]

Hi Anders,

Having such an old AnasAcuta myself, I wrote also about the history.

You can find it at the link:

http://www.zeekajaks.info/blog/anas.php?do=cat11

René

[Anders Lindberg]

Thank you all for comments and info.

I´ve added a few details to this photoset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23777645@N ... 446203579/

The hatch is definately retrofitted.
Deckfasteners are bolted on and propably also retrofitted.
The skeg is stainless steel with holes and could be retrofitted. There is new paint over the mouting inside.
The hull has a slight twist, or wobble on the stern.
There are small bumps in the deck and hull finish, about 11 inches from the bow.

The twist on the stern is quite significant so maybe it´s as old as Kens boat?

... - if you look along it from the stern - the 'tail' is slightly kicked to one side - well it was on Ken's boat. Trying to think of dates for that one - I first met Ken and Kraken (the boat) in 1973 or 4 I think and he has had it a year or so then.

Anybody seeing anything familiar on the photos?

Enjoy your weekend!

/anders

[Anders Lindberg]

...
3). I've heard it said that the very first Anas moulds had a twist in the hull stern, inherited from the plug, which warped. Later moulds corrected this. Maybe this can help in the dating process? ...

Mine´s definately got a twist in the bottom stern. Se pic:


IMG_2856 by mondolindberg, on Flickr

Is that conclusive? The very first mould?

/anders

[PeteW]

Hi Anders,

Its certainly certainly from the first plug, I'm trying to remember details of the cockpit on Ken's - it was slightly squarer than the Nordkapp - yours looks more std Ocean as was Ken's second Anas and does not have the recess just ahead of the cockpit I remember , but as I said it is a number of years since I saw the boat, I try and get in touch with Ken and find out/get a picture.

I've never seen a skwg like that and would guess it is a retrofit like the deck fittings and hatch etc.

Recessed deck fittings came to Valley with the Nordkapp 1975ish, you chose how many you wanted and where to put them when you ordered the boat, initially there were at least 4 types, my nordkapp has the 'normal' bridge type at the front but a pair with jamb cleats in either side behind the cockpit, then ones with side hooks down near the back hatch and an end hook at the stern so the rear deck lines could be used as a tow line... nice idea but not that good in practice :-) yours not having any recessed fittings suggests an earlier boat but the original purchaser may have just decided not to pay the extra and take the extra weight.

Cheers

Pete

[Owen]

URL=http://img87.imageshack.us/I/img0710copy.jpg/][/URL]

This is my Anas Acuta, it's one of the very early one's. No Bulkheads, hatches or skeg and no real deck fittings. The ones on it were B&Q cable clips I think.

In the very old models, I think, the cockpit and seat were set a little further back than on later ones. Moving the seat a few inches forward made it a better balanced boat and less prone to weathercocking.

[rockhopper]

Don't think it's from the first mould because the seam does not run down the middle of the boat. Think that the skeg, deck fittings and hatch are definitely after market fitted.
Some of the early ones from the second mould were made quite light on the lay-up. The rear deck just behind the cockpit on my one flexes quite alarmingly (especially as there is no bulkhead for extra strength). The front deck just in front of the cockpit is also fairly 'boingy' and this does seem to have produced problems with the seams to each side of those areas especially as the seam was a just a thin pencil line where the two halves have been stuck together (no 1" wide band originally fitted to these babies !!).

Like Owen pointed out, they also seem a bit front heavy. Can't pick mine up by the cockpit area without having to stick a supporting hand further along to avoid the front end gouging the ground.

What else..... oh! mine also has two holes at each end... one for the end toggles and the other is.....no idea!!! don't even know if it was originally made with them or drilled through afterwards although they do look kind of original. Maybe they were for deck lines... answers on a postcard please!!

Valley recently found one of the original moulds buried in debris next to their warehouse as per the following link:
http://www.valleyseakayaks.com/content/ ... alley-news



I believe that they are looking at making a kayak from this mould, finishing the blank with the seam line changed to run horizontally rather than vertically, then making a new mould from that so that they would have the original shape (with the slightly concave hull panels) but with a modern lay-up.. Quite tempting if they decided to start selling them like this..

Rog.

[Anders Lindberg]

This is my Anas Acuta, it's one of the very early one's. No Bulkheads, hatches or skeg and no real deck fittings. The ones on it were B&Q cable clips I think.

In the very old models, I think, the cockpit and seat were set a little further back than on later ones. Moving the seat a few inches forward made it a better balanced boat and less prone to weathercocking.

Owen - great looking boat. The colour has even turned a full time-circle and become trendy again ;-)
Do you happen to know the serial no. of it?

/anders

[Jim]

What else..... oh! mine also has two holes at each end... one for the end toggles and the other is.....no idea!!! don't even know if it was originally made with them or drilled through afterwards although they do look kind of original. Maybe they were for deck lines... answers on a postcard please!!

I was just thinking I have seen boats in the past (maybe my mate's Anas Acuta's , maybe Nordkapps) where the deck lines run from a fitting on one side to the opposite side of the bow/stern, through a hole (may sometimes be an oversized end toggle hole) to the first side and then back over the top to a fitting on the opposite side again, so the line crosses itself on the deck.

Then I noticed that the bow of Owen's boat is still rigged in a similar fashion, except the white line through the bow appears to attach to a krab or shackle and then the yellow line is run through that avoiding a cross over and lines rubbing. Owen is the yellow line a deck line or a towline or a combination of both? Other peoples rigging always interests me!

Of course crossing the deck lines over like this at the ends works great if the ends turn up sharply, I suspect it never really worked on the sea king which might be why mine has a moulded RDF at each end, or it might just be from so much later that it had become the normal way of doing it. Interestingly if I pick the sea king up at the seat, or evenly around the cockpit the bow wants to stay on the ground, if I grab just the front of the cockpit I can just about balance it but it's better to get a hand under the hull too. The seat is definitely aft of the middle.

[Owen]

Then I noticed that the bow of Owen's boat is still rigged in a similar fashion, except the white line through the bow appears to attach to a krab or shackle and then the yellow line is run through that avoiding a cross over and lines rubbing. Owen is the yellow line a deck line or a towline or a combination of both? Other peoples rigging always interests me!

I put the deck lines on, the white one going through the bow is just some old para cord, the only thing that I had handy that would fit. The yellow one going from the bow back to the cockpit on either side is a bit of old tow line. The other yellow line running down the deck is another bit of old tow line. When I first got it this line was all that was fitted to the kayak, I just replaced the old rotten line. This was just a jury rig so I could have something to get hold of in the event of a swim. The kayak now has bulkheads, hatches and proper deck lines. When it gets warm enough for fibre glass to set I'll be fitting a skeg to her. As for numbers, there was 316 printed on a label but that was all I could read. Don't know what that relates to and it's now got a bulkhead glassed over it.

[Ceegee]

Mine´s definately got a twist in the bottom stern. Se pic:

Is that conclusive? The very first mould?

Well the plug, anyhow, as PeteW and rockhopper say. As per the recent valley discovery, the first moulds had a vertical seam - something to do with taking it off the plug in the cockpit area IIRC - the original wood boat (stitch & ply) served as the plug I remember reading.

I'm only guessing, but I'd put your boat definitely mid 70's, not the very first runs, but before stern correction and before hatches/RDFs became common place, which they were post the Nordkapp (~'76-on) (the aluminium cam-latch, then the screw-down, finally the current type) and when the McNulty Baidarka set the standard.

Owens' boat looks of the same generation - Owen, does yours have the stern twist too?

Steve

[Owen]

Owens' boat looks of the same generation - Owen, does yours have the stern twist too?
Steve

Yes it does.

[Jim]

In the very old models, I think, the cockpit and seat were set a little further back than on later ones. Moving the seat a few inches forward made it a better balanced boat and less prone to weathercocking.

I was thinking about this on the crossing to Arran today, I think the reason the cockpit is so far aft in the sea king is to stop it weather cocking (did you perhaps mean leecocking?) By the time I'd fitted my trolley in the rear hatch (low weight, loads of space) I ended up putting some clothes and stuff in the front hatch that normally go in the back. With no wind at all to Little Cumbrae everything seemed fine, With a light breeze getting up there was a slight tendancy to weather cock crossing to Bute but I didn't even need to edge to compensate so I thought nothing of it. Crossing from Bute to Arran the wind steadily increased, at first it wasn't noticable, then for a while I could hold it by edging. After a bit I went into zig zags but by the time we arrived I was doing all sorts of corrective stuff, stern rudders , surfing for a bit in almost completely the wrong direction and so on.

The issue with the sea king (and Anas Acuta drivers will need to check out for themselves how relevant this is to them) is that the stern is very shallow compared to the bow so if you are even slightly too far down by the bow, the pivot point goes way forward and the stern is blown downwind. As soon as we landed on Arran I moved the (small amount of) stuff from the front to the back, and the boat then behaved impeccably all the way to the ferry (the angle of the wind was different but was still diagonally across). I have experienced this before, and today was just a reminder (although as the wind increased and the effect became stronger I was starting to get concerned that I may be leaking in the bow - I wasn't) but I did think of one possible clue....

To us as recreational sea kayakers, we usually like the rear deck to be out of the water, but actually when my boast is trimmed right the water washes over fairly frequently (almost continuously when fully loaded). So why would the Greenlanders have come up with a design that is wet aft and presumably prone to lee cocking? Well I believe the link may be to do with what they do (or did) with kayaks, which is hunt. It seems that when they made a kill they would lash it to the rear deck and paddle home - no problem if the kill was a Hare, but what about a Caribou or Seal or something big? I wonder if the rear deck was designed to be low to make it easier to pull a carcass up on deck for the trip home, and the rest of the ergonomics are based around this requirement?

So. if you have a Caribou lashed to your rear deck, does the extra trim by the stern give you vicious lee cocking, or does the extra windage of it give you weather cocking? I reckon lee cocking, if only because successful hunting involves approaching from downwind of the prey, so you would set out paddling upwind, meaning it would be downwind all the way home so lee cocking would be fine :-)

Anyway, those were some of my thoughts, I had 10km of weather cocking to think them up, but they may be wrong, and even if right may not apply to the Anas Acuta.

Jim

[Incayak]

I too have a Sea King which paddled best in the wind with a trolley mounted on the deck aft of the rear hatch. Despite the extra windage caused by the bulk of the trolley, the stern was so much better planted in the water that she ran straight as a dye even in strong crosswinds. Despite this and the fact that messing around with trim provokes worthy appliance of science, after 5 years of dogged experimentation/frustration/shoulder ache I fitted a skeg this year and life has never been better!

David

[renezee]

Hi
I paddled for at least 15 years with my AnasAcuta; in the weathercocking-version.

Not a real problem as she listens good to sweepstrokes and edging.
However: with my buddies and their adjustable skegs life was not easy as they just strode on while I had to put energy in steering: thus being slower having to work hard.

So after years I now have a retractable skeg in my AnasAcuta and I am very, very happy with it.
René

[PeterG]

I don't think that a clean boat without deck fittings or hatches is necessarily as old as you think, certainly in 1985, this was still the norm http://www.ukseakayakguidebook.co.uk/almanac_history.htm. Although hatches are offered as an extra on the A. acuta and deck fittings an optional extra on the Nordkapp.

My first A. acuta, of this sort of age, had retrofitted hatches and bulkheads, but had the recessed deck fittings even on the bits of the deck which were original; i.e. around the front and back of the cockpit. There was no trace of foam or of the fail-safe bar footrest, so the hatches might even have been put in new by converting a standard A. acuta to the 'H' version before it was sent out.

I guess each one was a custom boat at that time.

[lordy]

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Geoff Blackford at Calshot beach. At that time I did'nt know who he was. The conversation began with him telling me off for removing the "tail" on my boat & asked me if I knew what its purpose was. Apparently its so the boat can reverse up onto ice flows. As you can imagine we got talking & ended up visiting his house. Here he has he has the original ply boat (with bent tail) that the first mould was taken from & the first GRP boat taken from that mould. By his own addmission any imperfections like the bent tail & unfair chine & keel lines are down to his workmanship skills & nothing to do with traking. I think he said tht only a few boats were taken from the mould with the centre seam before one of these products was filled & faired to make the second mould. But they kept the bent tail for some reason. He has sent me some paper work also. I also have access to what I belive to be a 70s boat. This has a full width foot plate mounted on a central bar. This sits in the keel & & slides to adjust the length. I am quite confident that it is original to the boat. It has no bulkheads, hatches or moulded deck line fittings either.

[Owen]

Mine came with these polystyrene blocks fitted front and back.
URL=http://img6.imageshack.us/I/img0680copyd.jpg/][/URL]
The seat was ajustable.

URL=http://img844.imageshack.us/I/img0694copy.jpg/][/URL]
URL=http://img413.imageshack.us/I/img0695copyi.jpg/][/URL]

[Owen]

Jim,
I don't know the sea king but it is clearly a different kayak to the Anas Acuta. I really don't understand why you think the two should handle the same.

[Jim]

Jim,
I don't know the sea king but it is clearly a different kayak to the Anas Acuta. I really don't understand why you think the two should handle the same.

Who said I thought that?

Sorry if I dragged some generic 'chined greenland boat' discussion into the thread, I thought it might be useful.
From memory they handle more similarly to each other than they do to most other boats but not the same. I think they are divergent developments from the same form.