Into the Unknown

For the most part all my paddling has been confined to my own k1 kayak, the Laance. I’ve always played the safe game keeping to the devil I know rather than exploring the vagaries of the less stable, but usually faster racing thoroughbreds. My old bus with its stability factor of 9 has always served its purpose well. It’s kept me out of the water on many occasions when my own shortcomings in the ‘balancing’ department would have meant an unintended swim. Both of the club’s that I’ve belonged to have provided more exotic vehicles in their fleet, so satiating any curiosity I may have had has always been easily possible. Nevertheless, I’ve never felt the need to progress beyond the balance factor 8 of a Hobby, which is almost indistinguishable stability wise from my own boat.

My performance in the recent Hasler races and the club’s Hare & Hounds has not been outstanding by any means. Dragging in at the end of the finishers list and until recently being the club’s resident ‘Hare’ has been unsatisfactory in the ego development department to say the least. Having been given the job of helping to develop the current club’s Division 8 and 9 performances by organising the regular training sessions as helped to some extent. Doing two sessions of intervals each week has seemed to help as seen with the recent personal bests on the H&H’s. But it also does now seems to have plateaued out. It just seems that I’m into the realms of diminishing returns and cannot drive my old bus any faster without a considerable effort on either improving strength or getting technique honed to perfection.

One other course remains, which is to get a faster boat. Last year I finished off the last couple of H&H’s using the club’s carbon/Kevlar Laances and Hobbys. It seemed then to make a bit of difference as both were much lighter and easier to push along, but both were still approximately the same design and had very little advantage of speed. With these thoughts in mind I’ve borrowed my son’s Kirton Tor. It’s a much sleeker and lighter boat than mine and has a wobble factor of 6 which is about mid way in the stability range. But, and here’s the rub, it’s about the lowest wobble factor boat that I’m likely to be able to learn to use.

I took the Tor out for a test run yesterday. Setting it up to my dimensions was easy enough and so took it to NewHaw for the first run. Initially I simply sat it in the water, got in, wiggled about a bit, lost my handhold on the bank and fell out. There was obviously no quarter to be given here. Whereas my Laance would have accommodated shifting about to get comfy, the resistance just wasn’t there to any kind of heeling over to one side or the other. Having retrieved and drained the boat and collected my thoughts, I tried again. This time with a tighter grasp on the bank I progressed to balancing with the paddle, then without the paddle! Then using the paddle as a support in the water. 

Eventually I summoned enough confidence to push off and start moving forward. What this looked like from the bank I cannot say, but from my end it seemed like a skater on thin ice as I progressed slowly up the canal meandering from side to side depending where the last support stroke left me pointing. For a while it seemed like a hopeless task. A reduction of three points on the stability scale had reduced me to a rank beginner again. At last I blundered up to the M25 bridge and stopped under its arches which at least has a reasonable concrete bank as a get out.

After a breather and thought collecting session I turned the boat around on the bank. Not on the water as there was no way I was going to complete a 180 deg turn while staying in the boat. On the way back it went rather better. I picked up a bit of speed easily. The boat felt as if it just ran with hardly any effort on my part, but unless I kept perfect balance I kept losing it and needed a support stroke. At least there was fewer of them on the way back. That return run did provide a bit of hope that I can manage it with a bit more practice, but it was time to quit while I was ahead. I hadn’t actually fallen out while I was paddling.

Really the reality of the situation is that relying on the super stability of the Laance hasn’t done me any favours. I hope that I’m going to get to grips with this new situation, but to do so will probably take a fair bit of practice and an improvement in technique that the Laance let me off doing. The next session will have to be a bit longer and it looks as if I’m going to get wet.