Well there are eyes to dot and tees to cross but with such good weather the ‘Lockdown Shrike’ is spending some quality time on the water rather than the bench.... That looks like a pristine job you've done there Paul. It's hard to judge with the boat pointing at the camera, but is it a rolling Shri...

...the plans for the hull panels are nested onto a sheet that can be directly glued onto the scarfed ply panels in one piece. I was expecting to have to cut out the templates for each part and glue them on individually which I think would be much more prone to error. How are they normally laid out?...

It's looking remarkable. I've got photos of all my plywood boats at that stage of the build and they all look like wobbly messes by comparison. They all come together in the end when you add shear clamps and bulkheads etc. but if yours is already looking graceful at this stage, it's going to be a re...

"Kayak one" is a popular one and I like to use it as it's easy for the person you're talking to to comprehend. Only a small percentage of paddlers will have taken the trouble to name their kayaks or register the name with the coastguard via a CG66 form, but as you rarely hear kayakers talking to the...

I've only had that problem with the euroblade that I use with my white-water boat, and I have tried putting wax on in the past, as well as putting strategically-placed rubber-solution on my gloves to make them stickier. In my sea kayaks, I use a cedar wood Greenland paddle and I've never had a probl...

She looks pretty enough to me - I'd definitely leave her in wood as that's a lot easier to keep looking good than a painted hull, as scratches disappear into the wood pattern. Also, whatever you think is wrong with your scarf joints will look like a feature once they're covered in gleaming varnish. ...

.. so I am wondering if the combination of Shrike or Vember + club boat as the best of both worlds - I think I'd get much more use out of that combination than having my own composite boat, for about the same price... I think you've nailed it: if you've already got access to robust, sea-worthy club...

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm also curious about the durability of these boats for expeditioning, e.g. landing on rocky shores. Are there any recommendations on what they should and shouldn't be used for, or are they suitable for everything that a composite boat could do? Many thanks Emily As regar...

The only thing I’d add is that if you’re likely to be practicing rolling, the drysuits with neoprene or glideskin neck seals are not as dry as suits with latex seals. I agree about the Peak drysuit neckseal - the one on my Peak cag was also useless for rolling. The culprit here isn't the material u...

I'm pretty sure I've made some comments on here about these things more recently than 2014, but I can summarise what's been said fairly concisely: You will find many devoted Reed users who are very happy with them. Their reports are either that they keep you dry, or that you do get a bit wet, but it...

Just to clarify: the seals which are, rightfully, being panned in this thread are semi-dry seals. In this case, these happen to be made out of something resembling neoprene. However, neoprene dry seals are excellent - as evidenced by the fact that they have become the seal of choice for most divers....

I really like my Peak Adventure drysuit, but as I’m doing more wet work and in more demanding conditions I find the neoprene neck seal doesn’t keep me as dry as I would like. Is it possible to have the suit modified be replacement of the neck seal with a latex version? I've put latex and neoprene s...

Hi, ... Is this a cut the deck off (!) or a fair and fill job? If I were you, I'd definitely want to redo that, rather than try to tart it up. It will be a little bit of a faff, but it will be much easier to deal with it now rather than later when you've done other stuff to it. If you try to fill i...

I find the hard chine under the seat picks up every eddie just below the surface especially close to rocks..clapotis I think. The chines are great for going fast or far or straight though. A confidence thing. Yep, Greenland hulls definitely feel more twitchy when it gets choppy. When you're upright...

You're a legend mate and I've got a lot of tips from you along the way. I think I could probably do that and make long thin 'bumps' above the deck to preserve the sleek lock of the kayak. Ideally. I'd like to round out the hull too just under the cockpit. Full disclosure: it was Nick's idea, althou...

I've thought about making adjustments to give my feet a bit more room but probably just as easy to build another kayak. Has anyone ever taken out the mid section of the hull to make a rounded mid section? If you want a quick and dirty way to modify your shrike to give your feet as much room as you ...

You mention an iron-on patch. Does that mean you've got a hole in it? If so, you can patch it with some similar material - I did mine with patches above and below the holes and that's been bomb-proof. I just used two-part drysuit repair glue, but the other glues mentioned will work. If it's just wea...

The other one has made the entire thing from scratch using hydraulic engineering components etc. The plastic guide/sheath for the skeg wire on my Rockpool kayak is connected to the 'glide box' by a pneumatic union, specifically a Male stud 6mm tube BSPT 1/8” - as sold here . Thanks for that. That l...

The 'glide box' is the thing I've been trying in vain to get from Karitek for well over a year, as previously mentioned on here. I've managed to do a bodge repair on my existing karitek controller, but I'll look to a different supplier for any future purchases. I did a brief search, and found this o...

Just glueing it back together with thickened epoxy won't give it much strength at all - no matter what you've used to thicken it.. You'd be better off getting some 50mm wide fibreglass tape (from eBay) and running it all the way up the central spine of the blade (on both sides) using epoxy resin. It...

I'd seen a recent post on here praising Karitek but chose not to add my experience as it was the opposite of what had been posted so I'd assumed things had changed. My experience of Karitek has always been that they're incredibly difficult to get hold of and I've given up on getting my particular pr...

Where would be the first feasible put in to then kayak to Plymouth Sound? The furthest I've gone down the Tamar into Plymouth is from Calstock - a few times. Those have been there-and-back trips with the tide, and were reasonably easy (in a sea kayak). So if you're doing it one-way, going from Cals...

It looks like I've got it wrong about any prohibition on giving out the deceased's name. The VHF course I did was with my diving club and the need to avoid naming a casualty was emphasised strongly on the basis that anybody with a VHF radio can hear you so there's a risk that the next-of-kin get not...

If you are planning a trip before you're able to do a course, then yes - just buy a VHF and take it with you. You'll need to find a basic guide to the protocols on using marine VHF in the UK, but I'm sure Google will come up with the goods. I don't believe that there is any proactive enforcement on ...

and doesn't harm the paddles. I doubt anyone's going to believe that - your paddle is wood, not diamond - but yes, the point of my post was that wood (probably) beats carbon in terms of staying presentable throughout years of abuse. I've found that, for the blade tips, thickened epoxy copes well wi...

I wonder if the problems some people have had with getting in or out of an ocean cockpit might be to do with the angle it's been set at? Have a look at the first boat on this page and you'll see an extreme example of how you can make it easy on yourself by having the cockpit angling up towards the f...

I've built one boat with an ocean cockpit but knowing what I do now, I'd have built all 3 of my boats with them. The advantages, in order or importance, are: 1. You have really good contact between you and your boat. This also depends on your deck being wrapped around your legs, but if you're buildi...

I am looking to build a cedar strip boat. Does anyone know of a good supplier for the wood? Thanks Dave When I built my strip boat, I took Nick Crowhurst's advice and made it from Paulownia, which is strong, but noticeably lighter than cedar. It was a good choice - I much prefer the lighter colour ...

However, the idea of a two-piece is also very appealing and I haven't see a wooden split yet. An alternative to a 2-piece would be a storm paddle - i.e. a Greenland paddle with little or no 'loom' in the middle, knocking over a foot off the overall length. The advantage to them is you can easily st...

Try dive suppliers, I seem to recall they go for the hard soled neoprene approach more than kayak/canoe suppliers (Lomo was started by divers). Wearing outer shoes over fabric/neoprene/latex socks is a bit of a niche within the diving world - most use suits with in-built rubber boots. The most popu...