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Moxie's Launch Day With Pictures!
Alice and Constance waited patiently at the put-in point (2 convenient blocks from my house; how lucky am I?)
While I took a quick first picture of Moxie all loaded up and ready to be carried down to the water.
The view from Moxie was good--but then the view from a wood strip canoe is always good.
And Alice was having fun in Constance.
The weather looks gloomy in a lot of these photos, but I think that's just because I got too much sky in them; it didn't seem gloomy at the time. Of course my mood may have affected my perceptions, and I was pretty happy.
Partway up the west side of the lake (my clever plan was to stop at the park at the base of the dam to use the bathroom, because I figured by the time we got there, we would want them. We rose pretty early and had a lot of tea before we set out) but anyway, we stopped on a handy island to stretch our legs. And discovered that a couple of mimmoths had stowed away in the dry bags. I think they figured the only thing that would get anyone so excited would be a major shopping expedition involving credit cards. Hah--they learned differently! But they were so obnoxious we ended up tying them to Constance to keep them under control until it was time to stuff them back in the dry bags and paddle some more.
The wind was picking up as we paddled north along the western shore of Cherokee. I was glad we were in Moxie / Constance, which handle wind well, owing to their low sheer and v-shaped hulls (low sheer (top edge) catches less wind, v-shaped hull is harder to push off the desired course). I could have done it in Patience, but it would have been harder, especially if she wasn't heavily loaded.
The waves came up to be about a foot high--high enough that they occasionally picked up the bow and dropped it again with a slap. Moxie and Constance both cut through the waves instead of going over, making for a smoother, more comfortable ride in these small waves. It could be a problem in bigger waves, though. Hopefully I will spend some time canoeing this summer and get a chance to see.
We stopped for bathrooms and lunch at the Cherokee Lake Dam Park (or whatever they call it.)
There were flowers growing at the retaining wall meant to separate the grassy part of the park from the lake at "highest water." I have no idea what they are. Do you?
After lunch we swapped boats. I will have months to play in Moxie so I bravely let Alice try her out for a while. The wind and waves were about like before, but the boats had been handling well, the water was quite warm, and I knew Alice is a strong swimmer, so I proposed we cross the lake. Yes, and take the waves broadside. So we did.
Constance was sitting properly in the water with 2 two-liter bottles of water as far back in the stern as they would go. This was nice at the time--a properly trimmed boat doesn't veer either into or away from the wind, which makes paddling cross-wind easier--but is also important for the calculations that told me how far to move Constance's seat back to get proper trim. I'll go into that in a later post.
We didn't take any pictures during the crossing. It's not that it was so wild it was impossible--I was just busy enough that it didn't occur to me. Plus waves taken broadside have a tendency to make the canoe sort of corkscrew--if the crest of the wave isn't precisely parallel to the keel, anyway, and that's the kind of motion that tends to make me seasick if I'm not really watching my surroundings, so it's probably fine that I didn't put my head down and mess with a camera. It means no exciting pictures for you, though. Sorry.
Alice took pictures too. I don't have copies yet. But maybe in a few days.
She seemed to be having a good time.
She didn't turn a hair at the wind and waves, where some people might have gotten worried. She knew the four of us had it under control.
We went out again this morning. Because, well, new canoe, weather okay--have you seen Panther Creek State Park yet? No? Oh, you'll like this.
The water was much calmer this morning, both because the wind was generally much less and because Panther Creek makes a lovely protected cove in Cherokee Lake that often has much less wind than the rest of the lake.
We spotted some birds and Alice was going for her camera.
I think I did get the seat placement right in Moxie. I was a little worried, even after the float test, because of what happened with Constance, but she looks trim to me. Don't you think?
And in some places the water was like glass.
Must catch up; she's getting away....
Actually I still think that Constance is a touch faster than Moxie and I'm sure now Moxie turns a bit faster--at one point during our perigrinations Alice turned the boat in place (forward paddle on the right, back paddle on the left, repeat) and I tried to copy her in Constance but ended a quarter turn behind, in spite of knowing how to handle a paddle and being willing to put a certain amount of strength into it.
Again, it looks gloomy here because I got too much sky in the picture. I was mostly waving the camera in the right general direction and pressing the button, rather than being careful. I can't see the camera's LCD very well in daylight anyway, and there's the whole being in a canoe, don't want to leave the paddle rolling on the gunwales too long thing going on. I just burn a lot of "film" and hope something comes out. The delete button is easy to press.
The wind was starting to come up a bit, and Alice wanted a rest, so rather than risking being blown, however gently, onto the rocks, we crossed the bay and hid out in a protected "sub-cove" and even found a place to get out (getting onto the shore in the park is ... well, you have to pick your spot, is all.) And while we were standing having a drink of water and thinking about the sandwiches in the dry bag, along comes this odd motorboat with kind of an old-fashioned profile, and it turns out it's a Tennessee Fish And Wildlife guy, and he wants to admire my boats.
Well... of course that's the way to a builder's heart so we chatted for a while. He has a website: Gary's Outdoor Wanderings2 and he likes canoes--and mentioned rocker! Like, he knew about canoe design! That's kind of rare to meet on Cherokee Lake. So now I'm prepared to talk shop for a while and I give him the short version of the canoe story, and we get to talking and he wants to know what the trim is and such, on Moxie and Constance, and he takes a couple of pictures, and presently he lets on that he wants such a canoe himself and I mention that I would be willing to make one, but they're about four or five thousand dollars because of all the labor involved, and instead of turning pale, he laughs and says well of course, a good factory made canoe is about three and a half thousand. And he sounded serious about having one made... on the other hand he just had to move, and I know that can involve unexpected expenses... so we'll see. I would love to build him a canoe, but I will understand if it doesn't happen. I gave him my phone numbers.
And then he had to go, being on the job in spite of it being Sunday but I suppose Sunday is a big day for the fisheries folks. And Alice and I had our sandwiches and agreed how nice it had been to talk to him, and we swapped boats and paddled back to the put-in. Where there were jet-skis, drat them. If you think mimmoths are obnoxious, they don't hold a candle to jet-skis.
And then we had the event I'd meant to do on launching day and then forgot about. It's important to know what your boat can take, so I always tip them first thing--except not first thing because paddling in wet clothes is sometimes unpleasant, so I tip them last thing. Usually the first day but this time it was the second on account of us being tired yesterday and I forgot.
I am happy to report that Moxie is stable (automatically returns upright when you stop forcing her over) with her gunwale an inch under the water. I had to move my center of gravity out over the water to make her go.
So, all in all, a lovely lovely weekend. In spite of the fact that I forgot to give my wallet to Alice before I tipped the boat. I caught it before it floated away or sank, anyway. And looking back on it it would have been smart if I had brought a big fluffy towel to put on the seat before I drove home. But still, lovely weekend.
Moxie's Launch Day With Pictures!
Alice and Constance waited patiently at the put-in point (2 convenient blocks from my house; how lucky am I?)
While I took a quick first picture of Moxie all loaded up and ready to be carried down to the water.
The view from Moxie was good--but then the view from a wood strip canoe is always good.
And Alice was having fun in Constance.
The weather looks gloomy in a lot of these photos, but I think that's just because I got too much sky in them; it didn't seem gloomy at the time. Of course my mood may have affected my perceptions, and I was pretty happy.
Partway up the west side of the lake (my clever plan was to stop at the park at the base of the dam to use the bathroom, because I figured by the time we got there, we would want them. We rose pretty early and had a lot of tea before we set out) but anyway, we stopped on a handy island to stretch our legs. And discovered that a couple of mimmoths had stowed away in the dry bags. I think they figured the only thing that would get anyone so excited would be a major shopping expedition involving credit cards. Hah--they learned differently! But they were so obnoxious we ended up tying them to Constance to keep them under control until it was time to stuff them back in the dry bags and paddle some more.
The wind was picking up as we paddled north along the western shore of Cherokee. I was glad we were in Moxie / Constance, which handle wind well, owing to their low sheer and v-shaped hulls (low sheer (top edge) catches less wind, v-shaped hull is harder to push off the desired course). I could have done it in Patience, but it would have been harder, especially if she wasn't heavily loaded.
The waves came up to be about a foot high--high enough that they occasionally picked up the bow and dropped it again with a slap. Moxie and Constance both cut through the waves instead of going over, making for a smoother, more comfortable ride in these small waves. It could be a problem in bigger waves, though. Hopefully I will spend some time canoeing this summer and get a chance to see.
We stopped for bathrooms and lunch at the Cherokee Lake Dam Park (or whatever they call it.)
There were flowers growing at the retaining wall meant to separate the grassy part of the park from the lake at "highest water." I have no idea what they are. Do you?
After lunch we swapped boats. I will have months to play in Moxie so I bravely let Alice try her out for a while. The wind and waves were about like before, but the boats had been handling well, the water was quite warm, and I knew Alice is a strong swimmer, so I proposed we cross the lake. Yes, and take the waves broadside. So we did.
Constance was sitting properly in the water with 2 two-liter bottles of water as far back in the stern as they would go. This was nice at the time--a properly trimmed boat doesn't veer either into or away from the wind, which makes paddling cross-wind easier--but is also important for the calculations that told me how far to move Constance's seat back to get proper trim. I'll go into that in a later post.
We didn't take any pictures during the crossing. It's not that it was so wild it was impossible--I was just busy enough that it didn't occur to me. Plus waves taken broadside have a tendency to make the canoe sort of corkscrew--if the crest of the wave isn't precisely parallel to the keel, anyway, and that's the kind of motion that tends to make me seasick if I'm not really watching my surroundings, so it's probably fine that I didn't put my head down and mess with a camera. It means no exciting pictures for you, though. Sorry.
Alice took pictures too. I don't have copies yet. But maybe in a few days.
She seemed to be having a good time.
She didn't turn a hair at the wind and waves, where some people might have gotten worried. She knew the four of us had it under control.
We went out again this morning. Because, well, new canoe, weather okay--have you seen Panther Creek State Park yet? No? Oh, you'll like this.
The water was much calmer this morning, both because the wind was generally much less and because Panther Creek makes a lovely protected cove in Cherokee Lake that often has much less wind than the rest of the lake.
We spotted some birds and Alice was going for her camera.
I think I did get the seat placement right in Moxie. I was a little worried, even after the float test, because of what happened with Constance, but she looks trim to me. Don't you think?
And in some places the water was like glass.
Must catch up; she's getting away....
Actually I still think that Constance is a touch faster than Moxie and I'm sure now Moxie turns a bit faster--at one point during our perigrinations Alice turned the boat in place (forward paddle on the right, back paddle on the left, repeat) and I tried to copy her in Constance but ended a quarter turn behind, in spite of knowing how to handle a paddle and being willing to put a certain amount of strength into it.
Again, it looks gloomy here because I got too much sky in the picture. I was mostly waving the camera in the right general direction and pressing the button, rather than being careful. I can't see the camera's LCD very well in daylight anyway, and there's the whole being in a canoe, don't want to leave the paddle rolling on the gunwales too long thing going on. I just burn a lot of "film" and hope something comes out. The delete button is easy to press.
The wind was starting to come up a bit, and Alice wanted a rest, so rather than risking being blown, however gently, onto the rocks, we crossed the bay and hid out in a protected "sub-cove" and even found a place to get out (getting onto the shore in the park is ... well, you have to pick your spot, is all.) And while we were standing having a drink of water and thinking about the sandwiches in the dry bag, along comes this odd motorboat with kind of an old-fashioned profile, and it turns out it's a Tennessee Fish And Wildlife guy, and he wants to admire my boats.
Well... of course that's the way to a builder's heart so we chatted for a while. He has a website: Gary's Outdoor Wanderings2 and he likes canoes--and mentioned rocker! Like, he knew about canoe design! That's kind of rare to meet on Cherokee Lake. So now I'm prepared to talk shop for a while and I give him the short version of the canoe story, and we get to talking and he wants to know what the trim is and such, on Moxie and Constance, and he takes a couple of pictures, and presently he lets on that he wants such a canoe himself and I mention that I would be willing to make one, but they're about four or five thousand dollars because of all the labor involved, and instead of turning pale, he laughs and says well of course, a good factory made canoe is about three and a half thousand. And he sounded serious about having one made... on the other hand he just had to move, and I know that can involve unexpected expenses... so we'll see. I would love to build him a canoe, but I will understand if it doesn't happen. I gave him my phone numbers.
And then he had to go, being on the job in spite of it being Sunday but I suppose Sunday is a big day for the fisheries folks. And Alice and I had our sandwiches and agreed how nice it had been to talk to him, and we swapped boats and paddled back to the put-in. Where there were jet-skis, drat them. If you think mimmoths are obnoxious, they don't hold a candle to jet-skis.
And then we had the event I'd meant to do on launching day and then forgot about. It's important to know what your boat can take, so I always tip them first thing--except not first thing because paddling in wet clothes is sometimes unpleasant, so I tip them last thing. Usually the first day but this time it was the second on account of us being tired yesterday and I forgot.
I am happy to report that Moxie is stable (automatically returns upright when you stop forcing her over) with her gunwale an inch under the water. I had to move my center of gravity out over the water to make her go.
So, all in all, a lovely lovely weekend. In spite of the fact that I forgot to give my wallet to Alice before I tipped the boat. I caught it before it floated away or sank, anyway. And looking back on it it would have been smart if I had brought a big fluffy towel to put on the seat before I drove home. But still, lovely weekend.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 01:42 am (UTC)And the design before the change was as close a copy of the Wee Lassie II design (from which Constance was built) as I could manage with the boat design software I was using.
The slightly slower speed, if real, was not intended but may be an unavoidable result of a boat that turns a little more easily. If she turns a fraction more with each paddle stroke, that is energy that does not go into increasing her straight-line speed.