Today was a little better, weather wise, than the last few days. The wind was down to 10+ knots and the temperature was in the mid-50's. That's a lot better than what it has been, mid-30's at night and a constant 15-20 knot wind with some really heavy and extended gusts. This is the weather we got while the rest of the eastern seaboard was socked in with some heavy snows.
I picked up the new Perception Acadia this morning and would have had to take it out for a trial if a tsunami had been raging. The Acadia is blue, plastic, 14 feet long, 27.5 inches wide, weighs 50 pounds and has a 0.5 inch keel. That is good for tracking but I was surprised to find it turned better than the Looksha IV, probably because it's 4 feet shorter.
After launching, I paddled out into a small cove with 40 white pelicans drifting around and another 15 on shore. Close to 50 brown pelicans were roosting in trees out of the wind with a few more floating around. I thought the white pelicans were trying to keep out of the wind too but looking out past a protecting island, I saw another 50-75 of them on the Indian River, right in the middle of the wind.
Each of the past few windy mornings, the nearby coves have been full (100's) of pelicans, coromonts, some egrets and other birds with as many as 50 turkey buzzards soaring overhead. I started to look around to see if Alfred Hitchcock was lurking in the wings somewhere.
The Acadia swayed back and forth a bit when I first started paddling but I quickly brought that under control. Paddling into small 1.0 foot waves proved to be much wetter than I thought it would be. The Acadia didn't seem to ride over anything, preferring to plow straight through everything it encountered. I'll deliberately seek out some waves somewhere soon to see what it does with 1.5-2.0 waves. I might have to include a snorkeling kit in my safety gear.
As I paddled into the wind I seemed to be getting a pretty bouncy ride. I don't have a real feel for speed yet but would assume the Acadia is slower than the Looksha IV since it's 4 feet shorter. Coming back with the wind I was surprised at the amount of surfing I was doing on the 1.0 foot waves. No matter how fast I paddled or how slow, I seemed to be surfing.
The Acadia has a rear bulkhead but does not have one forward. Instead there's a large piece of Styrofoam holding the foredeck up. The rear bulkhead is located right behind the seat and seems to be there to support the aft deck only. Water flows freely back and forth between the cockpit and the rear hatch. The volume is such that it's not likely it's a minor leak. Time to break out the dry bags. The Looksha IV was watertight.
The Acadia is so wide and so stable, I found I could turn half way around and diddle with stuff under the rear bungies with no problem at all. When I stopped for a break I didn't even have to get out of the boat (except for nature stuff) and could just slouch down in the seat and relax right there.
I originally thought the Acadia was more like a SOT (Sit on Top) than a closed cockpit kayak because of it's width and was wondering what I was going to do with my knees and how was I going to brace. The salesperson's comment that the Acadia was very stable and you didn't have to worry about bracing, didn't instill a lot of confidence in me. So, while it is very stable, there is also plenty of room to lock your knees. The difference for me is in the Looksha, I would brace my knees and thighs under the top of the foredeck. With the Acadia, I'm bracing them under the coaming around the sides. Since my legs are spread farther, I'm bracing more with the sides of my knees and thighs than the tops. When I get to warmer waters, I'll see what, if anything, I remember from the rolling class I took last spring.
Perception's recommendation is to carry and store the kayak upside down to avoid hull distortion. I have a deck mounted compass I like to leave on the boat all the time and paddle float and pump that I'd just as soon leave on all the time too. On the Looksha IV I carried the float and pump under the extreme rear bungies next to the rudder where they were completely out of the way. Under the rear bungies of the Acadia, they fell right across the cross bar of the truck rack. So I've moved them up with the compass. The front end of the compass has lifted up a little, making it more difficult to see but I'll work on that. What I really need to work on is the paddle float. It was one of those yellow ones made by Perception, except it's not yellow anymore. It's almost white from being out in the sun all year and I better see if it still works soon.
I don't, and never did, like the little, round, rear hatch cover on the Acadia. The Looksha IV had big hatch covers and you didn't have to concern yourself too much with the size of an item you were trying to store. The Acadia's 9-12 inch hatch will make that a constant concern.
I don't much care for those removable backrests either. It's more comfortable than the Looksha IV's but pops out and slides around when exerting pressure while leaning forward.
I paid the extra $150 to have a rudder installed. I don't use a rudder very often but consider it part of my safety equipment. I'm usually out by myself in remote areas for many hours a day. When coming home I'm often very tired. When encountering strong quartering winds or high following seas in those circumstance, the rudder becomes extremely important in maintaining a course with the least amount of energy expended.
The dealer was pushing Harmony Spray Skirts. I hadn't heard of this brand before but then I'm really not up on everything (anything?) going on in the sport. A 300 pound man could probably fit into this spray skirt. It has velcro fasteners on the sides to take up the slack. It is much more substantial than the nylon Perception skirt I had and maybe just a little lighter than the neoprene skirt I lost this summer. Water beads on top of the skirt so I take that to mean it's waterproof.
The dealer threw in a Harmony cockpit cover that reminds me of a rubber life raft. I'm sure it would do the job but since I'm going to be carrying and storing the boat upside down...
Why did I get rid of the Looksha IV and switch to a smaller, plastic boat? The 18 foot Looksha was more boat than I needed or wanted. I don't do much touring so don't really need all that storage space, nor do I often go very far offshore into large swells and waves. I know there will be times though, when I wish I had it back.
I think I'll be heading out west into the Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah area next summer. I think I will feel more comfortable with the smaller, more maneuverable Acadia in the smaller rivers and lakes I think I'll find in that area. I also want to do more rivers and lakes on the east coast. Much of the interesting stuff in Florida seems to be on the rivers and I don't want to miss anything good.
I felt perfectly comfortable today in the wind and waves I encountered and look forward to getting out into some bigger water to see how that feels.
04/05/00: The bungee system leaves a little to be desired. They're held on by a flimsy, 3 pronged, plastic device. The plastic is flexible and it requires little force to pull a bungee out from under one of those prongs. I lost an expensive PFD when a bungee popped loose. The bungee behind the screw fastening the device to the deck seems to hold OK. I've moved the other bungee lengths behind the screw and they seem to be holding up OK now.