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Jul. 8th, 2006 10:16 pmI finished Patience about 1:30pm yesterday. I put her in the water for the first time at 7:00pm yesterday night. I only waited so long because I'd promised to let people know when I was launching. Unfortunately, nobody could make it on six hours notice, so it was just me and Kip anyway. But that was okay because I didn't need to worry about keeping people entertained after I put the boat in the water and paddled away.
Lessee--she floats. She seems to be more or less watertight. She goes pretty straight, as far as I can tell, though she doesn't track quite as well as I'd hoped. She's more stable than I feared she might be, given that she's narrower than any canoe I've ever used. She's faster than my old canoes, but maybe not as fast as I hoped.
I tested her stability by tipping her on purpose three times that first evening. There are canoes that stay stable when leaned, to the point that you can dip the bottom edge of the outwale in the water without tipping. Patience is not one of those canoes, probably because of the knuckle. She's stable up to a point, but then she flips right over. To the point that I actually flipped her *by accident* this afternoon, when I took her out the second time. A mis-stroke of the paddle (I was trying to do a kind of J stroke that I can more or less manage on the right side, but I was trying to do it on the left side, where I'm not as proficient) that would normally just have jerked Gussie's gunwale down, and the next thing I knew Patience had bucked me off. I had to swim her to the bank, mop her out and get back in. I was so weirded out I had to turn around a couple of minutes later and go back for my hat, which at least was still floating; let's hear it for Tilley hats. Fortunately my camera was in its dry bag and tied into the hull using the handy tiedowns, and I didn't lose anything (I don't think).
I started to canoe when I was five or six (I was cargo back then, but still). I've been handling the canoe myself since I was ten or so. This is the first time I can remember that I've ever flipped a canoe by accident.
Patience is a friendly canoe--reasonably fast (I think--with the regular paddle I kind of lag behind a tandem (longer boat, two people paddling; tandems are faster) but with the double paddle working only moderately hard I can keep up with the same tandem going flat out), reasonably stable, kitted out for tripping, with tiedowns and thwart bungees and through-holes fore and aft. She's no holds barred the prettiest thing on the water. She's a friendly boat.
But she isn't tame.
Lessee--she floats. She seems to be more or less watertight. She goes pretty straight, as far as I can tell, though she doesn't track quite as well as I'd hoped. She's more stable than I feared she might be, given that she's narrower than any canoe I've ever used. She's faster than my old canoes, but maybe not as fast as I hoped.
I tested her stability by tipping her on purpose three times that first evening. There are canoes that stay stable when leaned, to the point that you can dip the bottom edge of the outwale in the water without tipping. Patience is not one of those canoes, probably because of the knuckle. She's stable up to a point, but then she flips right over. To the point that I actually flipped her *by accident* this afternoon, when I took her out the second time. A mis-stroke of the paddle (I was trying to do a kind of J stroke that I can more or less manage on the right side, but I was trying to do it on the left side, where I'm not as proficient) that would normally just have jerked Gussie's gunwale down, and the next thing I knew Patience had bucked me off. I had to swim her to the bank, mop her out and get back in. I was so weirded out I had to turn around a couple of minutes later and go back for my hat, which at least was still floating; let's hear it for Tilley hats. Fortunately my camera was in its dry bag and tied into the hull using the handy tiedowns, and I didn't lose anything (I don't think).
I started to canoe when I was five or six (I was cargo back then, but still). I've been handling the canoe myself since I was ten or so. This is the first time I can remember that I've ever flipped a canoe by accident.
Patience is a friendly canoe--reasonably fast (I think--with the regular paddle I kind of lag behind a tandem (longer boat, two people paddling; tandems are faster) but with the double paddle working only moderately hard I can keep up with the same tandem going flat out), reasonably stable, kitted out for tripping, with tiedowns and thwart bungees and through-holes fore and aft. She's no holds barred the prettiest thing on the water. She's a friendly boat.
But she isn't tame.
