Yep, build a boat and you draw attention. I built a kayak at a friend's workshop. As a furniture maker he has all the machines. He got jealous that passers by and neighbours had never stopped to see what he was building but set up a couple of trestles and start building a kayak and you attract inter...

What do you think about adding a good looking tail? :) #anasacuta

Had a quick read through and noone seems to have mentioned the square hatch Capella weathercocks significantly. ? My club has 4 and they are not the first choice for most. As a beginner I remember thinking how rubbish I was while trying to keep it on line in a cross wind. Even with the skeg down the...

Innovation is unstoppable. |LINK|

Ah but the glass fibre and resin will not disappear in half a dozen lifetimes. I was enthused to make a SOF after trying one at the Skye Symposium. You can make them light. Brian Schultz at Cape Falcon Kayaks has just put up a couple of new videos about the materials he uses. Making much of the stru...

I love those videos where they just wrap the frame in clingfilm and paddle off to the horizon. These skin on frame are mostly heavier than the plywood boats so what’s the advantage? If you hunt for your own seal skins it's completely recycleable? sustainable? bio-degradeable? :) https://media.ukriv...

You lucky people with access to the coast. I'd have to drive 20 miles and then it would either be mud or half a mile to the waterline and waves the colour of milky tea. Never bothered paddling my bit of coastline. 20 miles seems a bit far under travel restrictions, but the mud and distance issue is...

Vallerbelly I am guessing that's a Fenland shot great to see a gp powering the action. The photographer got a level horizon. Near Friday Bridge? Nope. This was a dyke feeding into the Witham. Called a 'Delph'. Not sure why. I'm guessing something to do with the Dutch engineers who helped with the d...

Things a tad dull in Tier 3 land. . . .. Ben

If I was capable of paddling around South Island NZ I'd have a Taran.

To paraphrase Lance Armstrong tho' "Its not about the boat". After all Anders Thygesen paddled the whole coast of Norway in a kayak made of wood, string and canvas.

. . .. Ben

Another sad thought occurred to me. The people who are doing expeditions and multi-day trips are not posting here. One too many post about how to repair a skeg and MarkR has defected to FB. :) And maybe it is less popular overall. I know my club no longer does multi-day sea kayaking trips. The exper...

Why does the Anus Acuta and the Norkapp get all the marbles? This understated boat just did stuff like going round the South Island of New Zealand. And it’s been around forever...? When did you last hanker after the 1300 Ford Escort you used to own over . . . i don't know, a Triumph Spitfire? An ol...

My AA has the hint of a flatter section in the panel between the gunwale and the chine. Unless you've sanded the whole hull over you'd not notice it. I'm guessing this is because the mould came from the Blackford plywood 'expanded' Ken Taylor SOF. Having made a Shrike, Beryl will understand that the...

The person on the right in that photo looks remarkable like me, I think. Don't worry. Not a stalker. I know this character as Trevor and the venue, Rutland Canoe Club Sunday paddle (including inflatables). Photo shows how low volume an old AA is compared to a modern expedition kayak. https://media....

Hey Stuart, I'm 6'2" and 108kg. My AA is small for me but I enjoy using it. I have only used it on inland lakes and rivers for 2-3 hours at a time and it's fine. I've changed the seat. Enough room for my size 10s. The ocean cockpit would be a pain to get in and out of in waves, on a beach. You'd hav...

Hey Chris, Answering your enquiries here. May be useful for others. The kayak is 5210mm (17' 1") in length. I'm 6'2" and the distance of the front bulkhead to your sit-bones is around 1100mm. See photo, sorry out of focus. https://media.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/uploads/4343/1588854796364-5454.png The...

The Quaanaaq got sold to a girl in Dunoon/Bute a while back (they are a bit on the small side, 19" wide and around 250 litres). She had a really nice blog about greenland rolling etc. but seems to have disappeared of late. I have sat in one briefly. My first go at greenland rolling with Freya Hoffm...

If you think about it every bit of glassfibre and polyethylene you have ever paddled still exists somewhere in the environment. Too true, mostly at the bottom of the garden or back of the garage in my case Hang on. You were advising me on how to fix the nose of the AA a while back. I think you know...

The layup is very solid and the gelcoat quite thick. Even with all the chipping out of the old mods there was no damage to the original structure. I think they used quality materials back then. I got a very good colour match to BS Golden Yellow from East Coast Glassfibre . Maybe VCP used BS pigments...

Before refurb. The worst damage was the deck part of the nose was almost hanging off when I drilled out the Plastic Padding repair (see link above). Think the resin pour into the end in the factory should have spread up into the deck but failed. There was one hole in the chines which had been repair...

Fixing the nose.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=128565

Can do. Must have chosen the worst time possible to actually sell it! Most of the advice on how to sand back and repolish glassfibre was gleaned from Mr. Crowshurst's Nordkapp refurb, elsewhere on this forum, though there are pages of entries to sift through. Leave it with me. . . . . Ben https://me...

If you were closer I'd have it. Don't drop your price. It's cheap enough!

Anyone else have similar?

.. . .. . Ben

Jon, Just had a look at your Flickr album. Worth more than the 44 views IMHO. What a beautiful boat! Been tempted by the AA if I wasn’t building the Shrike. Beryl, your Shrike would benefit from a good looking tail. . . . . . Ben :¬) https://media.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/uploads/4343/1584182727122-...

No worries, Jon. I think anyone who gets down this far will realise the AA owners are a bunch of enthusiastic geeks. (and being a geek is cool these days, apparently) And they will also see the next 2 photos of the 1970s/80s Gul spraydeck that comes with it and what the footwell looks like. Foam mas...

:) Feel like my thread has been hijacked :) We are trying to sell my yellow Anas Acuta here. Not Jon's brown one, Not Adam's blue one, and not Pete's orange one (that undercuts mine by £100s but is at least on another thread). And we are not selling Cindy Doll seal hunters! Go start your own "I love...

Jon,
Yours has no pigment in the gelcoat. Was this a more expensive light weight option?

The main thing is you use it. I'd like to think someone would take mine back to the west side of Jura. Glengarrisdale Bay.

This is my early/mid '70s boat https://i.ibb.co/HrX1L70/P7160001-2016-08-07-09-30-07-UTC.jpg It's great how original your kayak is. I felt I didn't have the option to keep the old decals once I started the repairs in bright new gelcoat. The black gelcoat seam on yours even looks complete. I think m...

I said above that all the stuff I took out comes with it but the old 'thigh braces' went on the fire! Brutal!!

These are the decals I removed from the back deck. The "Anas Acuta" label was completely bleached out. I'd definitely buy one of the replacements if I was keeping it. I can't remember what the original owner said about when he bought it. I could be from the 70s. I wonder whether it was a second as t...