I have done the EC now twice. Finished the first year. Crashed and burned the 2nd. For those first two years I went with foul weather gear, two piece dry pants & jacket, and even fishing waders. Both years I started the race by wading into the water. The waders worked for keeping me dry but didn’t breath well. I quickly sweated them up. On the 2nd start the dry pants turned out to be worthless and I was immediately wet. Starting the EC wet is never fun so I have been on the hunt for a quality drysuit. I have done some research, read old WaterTribe forum posts, & monitored ebay. I finally got serious about a month ago and bought a Kokatat T3 large semi-dry suit new. The material reminded me of the waders. The fit was just a hair too big as well. The most annoying part being a loose neoprene neck gasket. I probably could have lived with the T3 material but the size wasn’t going to work. I returned the drysuit and since they didn’t have a medium I went back on the search. About a week later this Kokatat military issue drysuit went up for sale on ebay. It was a medium which was a slight gamble because I didn’t know if it really fit. I made my first bid with 15 sec left and won.

The big features for me are the color and the six cargo pockets. Olive green makes it good for many outdoor activities. Especially duck hunting. The pockets are awesome.There are one on each upper arm and two on each leg. In my opinion a feature lacking in the retail Kokatat drysuit line. I am also very happy with the quality and condition of the suit. I had time to try it on today but not wet test it. The gaskets seem to be ok but I may send it out to have everything checked by a shop or the manufacture. Time will tell. As far as the fit goes…….. Once its on, it seems perfect. Getting it on is a little bit of work. I can now tell you that 5’11” is the top of the range for a Kokatat medium. Don’t want to be over 175 either. lol

UPDATE: After watching this video, http://www.drysuit-repair.com/wp/how-to-inspect-gaskets/, I have mailed mine to Amigos for inspection and possibly repair. I have a feeling that after the repair bill the savings on a used drysuit is not that great. (Still very happy with the color and cargo pockets)

Happy New Year Everyone

Went to a local lake with the family for a little paddling and sailing. The paddling craft were on the water within minutes but I struggled for what seemed like hours setting up the sailing rig on the Kruger Cruiser. I broke a part on the BSD BOSS outrigger but luckily I had spare parts. (Thanks Dave). For some reason I couldn’t get the akas to go together. With frustration high I set out sailing only to have the port side cable for the rudder’s foot controlled steering break. Luckily the previous owner Greybeard had also installed a rope system for hand steering.

I was able to sail for the better part of the afternoon in a 8 – 12 knot breeze using the main and mizzen BSD sails. I took turns taking out my wife, son & daughter. We all had a great time. I learned a few things about the boat. It tracks amazingly strait going to weather. The helm is perfectly neutral and it allowed me to sail for short periods without no hands touching it. It does well on a close reach but not so great close hauled. I also learned that the boat sails and tacks well with a single lee board on the front aka. Tacking was extremely slow with both leeboards in the water but put up the aft leeboard and the boat picked up about half a knot. Top sustained speed was 6.6 knots. I have to learn a more about the sail plan to figure out what its going to take to get good performance close hauled. I need to test more with the jib but I want to be out with another sailor before raising the 3rd sail.

Here is a little video from today.

Chilling in Light Winds. 6 – 8 Knots

Hiked Out a Bit in Moderate Winds. 10 – 12 Knots

I have been meaning to do this one for a long time. I couldn’t decide what would be the best option for racks. I looked long and hard at the Talic commercial racks. But at the price of another boat I considered building it myself. Somewhere in the process I started to consider bent metal racks screwed to the studs in the wall. $35 dollars later I had three 10′ sections of 1″ electical conduit, foam insulation, and a couple of screws. I also bought a 1″ pipe bender to get the shape I wanted but it will find its way back to the store tomorrow.

Man are all those Kruger designed boats pretty…… Wife’s kayak on top isn’t too shaby either. Just hope I don’t find another canoe and kick it out. lol

Took the family to Grant, FL for a little paddling and a test sail on Sunday. Couldn’t have asked for better weather or a better day on the water with family.

View Larger Map

Shellie paddled her Seda Glider. Erika was in the Sawyer Loon. Tommy Jr and I took out the Kruger Cruiser. We launched from Jorgensen’s Landing across to the spoil island north of Grant Island. It doesn’t have a name but is designated BC45 on Google. Once over there I took out the BSD sailing rig for the Kruger Cruiser only to notice I didn’t bring the amas! No big deal. The winds were light. Anywhere from 3 – 7 knots. I put up one of the two sails and made my way around for a little bit. Then I took each family member for a ride.

After an hour or so of playing on the island we paddled and sailed over to Honest John’s. On the way Tommy Jr caught and landed a sea trout on his own. Both of us were very proud. We had a great visit with Johnathan who I have sailed with in the past.

Then we sailed back to Jorgensen’s landing and headed to Old Florida Bar and Grill only a few buildings to the south for a late lunch before driving home. The fish of the day was some outstanding blackened sheepshead. The local band was a lot of fun too.

Pics from the trip.

Erika with our dog Lucile waiting for me to launch.

Tommy Jr catching a nice trout on his own.

Sailing into Honest Johns Fish Camp

Family photo at Honest John’s Fish Camp

Erika and Shellie on the way back.

Quick video of Per and I sailing in the Indian River near Sebastian on 12/3. The Lightning needs a few shake down cruises before we will be ready for the EC again.

Another decked canoe that may be a good expidition craft. The Clipper Canoe – Sea 1. Found it on a paddler’s blog here: http://www.joeopaddles.com/clippersea1.htm

http://www.clippercanoes.com/boat_specs.php?model_id=126

I bought another Kruger. This time a Kruger Cruiser. Its the two seat model expidition boat. I am incredibly excited because this is the boat that holds the top two times in the Everglades Challenge Class 3. The records were set by GreyBeard and Ridgerunner. Much of the rigging is still there and some additional stuff from the last owner, Drinion. I did some test rigging in the driveway this week and found a couple things that I want to take care of before she goes sailing again. Also need to restore the orginal name, “Light Chaser”

Here is a link to GreyBeard and Ridgerunners 2006 log book which is the EC Class 3 Doubles record of 3 days 1 hour 14 minutes.

http://www.watertribe.com/Events/LogBook.aspx?RosterID=356&RaceID=EC2006

Its rare that my wife Shellie has a Saturday morning off. She is usually working and that makes weekends difficult. This Saturday was a welcome day off and we decided to go paddling. She had heard my stories from last weekend about manatees swimming up to my feet as I wade fished in shallow water and it was too much to resist. I cautioned her that it was an 1 1/2 drive from our home in Orlando and we would need to leave at 5 AM to have a decent day but she was still up to it.

We arrived at 6:30 AM and paddled into a head wind. A little bird watching and fishing was soon followed by a manatee sighting. The one in the pic was fairly big and seemed like he was curious about my camo canoe. It would come up close enough to scratch his head and wouldn’t leave me alone until we paddled off at a fairly quick rate. We went out to the spot where I had manatees come up to my feet the week before and sure enough one came and visited Shellie. Soon after that a second huge one passed by seemingly following the path of the first one. A successful trip! We only stayed till around 11 AM when a the afternoon storms decided to arrive early and in force. Still a great day on the water.

Quick Summary: I bought a Mad River Monarch. Its CAMO! For me the perfect color choice. It was a long distance purchase from the original owner of Mad River Canoes in Vermont. Great experience. I am very happy with the boat and opportunity to meet Jim. Long version is below.

Last week I did one of my usual craigslist searches. I am always looking for deals but recently I have been in the market for a few more nice paddling craft because my wife and two kid are joining me. I use searchtempest.com to search larger areas for specialty items like Kruger Canoes. There are usually no more than one or two for sale in the country at any one time and are usually Sawyer Loons or Mad River Monarchs. I usually do a national serch just to see whats out there. But last week I did something different. I also searched for Mad River Monarch. I was suprised to find a unique boat listed with out any Kruger reference. And that is where the story starts…..

(Most of you reading this already know that the Monarch is an earlier version of the Kruger Sea Wind. There are not a lot of differences. Its more similar to the lower volume Sea Wind and obviously build by Mad River instead of Verlen Kruger. Read Verlen Kruger’s biography to get the full story).

Listed with pictures was a Mad River Monarch unlike any I had seen before. The pictures were very intriuging. What was show was the camo boat above. Old school camo at that. In my opinion, very cool. The ad on craigslist also said this was Jim Henry‘s personal Monarch. I didn’t understand what that meant at the time but the boat was so cool and that price was under $1000. I was also not detered by the fact that it was in Vermont, 1340 miles away…..

I sent an email saying that I was interested and a serious buyer. I recieved a call back from a nice lady named Nancy. She didin’t know a lot about the boat so she said talk to her husband Jim. I asked, “Jim Henry”. She said yes and I was still confused. I knew there was something I was missing. Jim came on the phone and explained he was the original owner of Mad River Canoe company and still did design work for them to this day. The boat he was selling was one of the Monarch’s he build for his personal use. Recently he was using it mostly as for fly fishing for stripers but as he has gotten older he is moving to a wider beam boat that in the shop now and continues to refine. It was time to move the Monarch out. Upon finding out that this was the peronal boat of the owner of Mad River Canoe I made a quick inquiry about the condition. It was in good shape for a 20+ year old boat and based upon who the seller was I had no concerns about a long distance transaction. I made arrangements to send payment immediately and pick the boat up as soon as I could get there.

It took about two weeks for everything to happen. I had to find a flight that fit with my work schedule. I would fly out on Thursday afternoon. Get to Burlington Vermont around 1 AM. Pick up a one way rental car early Friday morning. Visit with Jim and load the boat on the rental car. And finally make the long drive home. If things went well I would be back Saturday night. If I had issues I had Sunday to fall back on.

I used Sky Miles from Delta to fly and connected in Detriot. Because of Facebook I learned my friend Jan from microskiff.com was also there. Having some time to kill between flights I ran over to his gate to say hello. We both had a chuckle that we met up so far away from home.

Friday morning I drove over to Jim Henry’s place. Vermont is beautiful. I had to cross a mountain range to get from Burlington to the Mad River valley near Waitsfield. Absolutely beautiful part of the country. Almost all of the houses and farms have character to them. Covered bridges. Dirt roads into the neighborhoods. I didn’t see any fast food chains. I was enjoying all of it.

The boat was as described. Older but in good working order. some minor gelcoat issues. This was the only camo Monarch produced. Jim built it for himself out of left over material used in one of his canoe models he produced with that pattern. There is one small section on the port bow that isn’t camo because they were a bit short. It wouldn’t go over well as a retail boat but just more character to it as far as I am concerned. The original Verlen Kruger rudder had been replaced with one from Wilderness Systems that was more substantial. I took it to mean that Jim had a different use case for the boat and as a designer went a different direction on the rudder. The boat had modifications to hold a fly rod on the deck. Perfect for me! It also had a foam block mounted in the center for resting a camera when Jim was photographing threatened and endagered species as part of his other business Mad River Decoys which are used in bird colony restoration and other projects.

Jim’s place was neat. I met him at his barn/workshop. It was a personal museum to Mad River Canoes. Canoes hanging from the ceiling and the walls. Absolutely incredible place that would be appreciated by anyone who paddles or is into boat building. We spent some time talking about fly fishing and duck hunting out of the Kruger design. Sailing in small boats. All subject we mutually enjoy. We also chatted about how Jim hooked up with Verlen and built boats for him. He shared some stories about Verlen’s trips. The design of the boats. Steve Landick’s set up for rolling. There was lots to talk about but unfortunately I only had about an hour and I had to be back on the road. Truth be told we probably could have talked for hours and I may have ended up helping Jim around the shop if he gave me the chance! Great guy.

With the boat strapped to the rental car I stopped on the mountain top outside Waitsfield for this picture. From there I drove non-stop to the Virginia – North Carolina boarder. Almost 800 miles away. I took a quick nap in the rest stop and was back on the road a 5 AM and drove another 650 miles to Orlando by 3:30 PM Saturday. A successful trip.

Paddling seems to be taking hold as our family pass time. Erika is enjoying the Loon. Shellie enjoys here Seda Glider. Tommy who has been them most difficult to motivate even said today, “As long as I have a fishing pole and mask this is fun”.

Pics are from last weekend and this weekend. Today we were rained on while paddling back. No one was too upset. Who knows we might have future WaterTribers in the making.