Tom Yost Sea Flea

I've had a few questions about Fiona's kayak.  Its a design by Tom Yost called a Sea Flea.  His website is called Yostwerks and it has detailed plans and a long building manual.  Tom doesn't charge for his designs or support and provides the information to encourage and enable people to get into kayaking.

The Sea Flea is a skin on frame (SOF) kayak made with a fuselage style frame.  There are a series of plywood frames with stringers attached, very much like a model aircraft.

Ready for covering

The ideal wood to use for the stringers ,due to strength and weight, is Western Red Cedar (WRC).  It is strong enough and only weighs 380 kg per cubic metre.  Oak by comparison weighs 750 kg per cubic metre, both float as sea water is 1073 kg per cubic metre.  WRC is so rot resistant that it is used untreated to make roof shingles (wooden roof slates) in places like Kentucky USA and has a 30 year lifespan!  Kentucky has a climate very similar to the UK in terms of rainfall, but it is hotter in the summer and colder in the winter, so 30 years without rotting there shows some serious rot resistance.

First time out we fitted stabilizers

Tom Yost encourages people to modify his designs and experiment with new building processes and techniques.  Here is a picture of the first cockpit layout, it was an ocean cockpit as per the plans.

Ocean cockpit Sea Flea

Fiona was comfortable in the ocean cockpit, getting in was easy, but a wet exit wasn't.  The problem could have been solved training and practice but a change to keyhole cockpit was made to make it safer for her and other novices.

New longer keyhole cockpit

The Sea Flea is the second skin on frame kayak I've made.  The first one was a cheap summer project to entertain my son and was made from any kind of scrap wood lying around and still ended up light enough for a 13 year old to hold with one hand!

The build process was fun and the result surprisingly capable

The white kayak above was another Tom Yost design that I increased by 20% to make a 13.5 foot by 24 inch kayak.  The shape and behaviour on the water of this kayak was very similar to an Easky 15.  It was easy for my son to paddle and control, my wife also loved paddling this kayak.  I was able to paddle it but getting in and out was very difficult with my long legs.

Sadly the white kayak didn't survive the winter, the scrap pine and fabric skin rotted beyond saving.  It was an excellent prototype and we spent less than 30 pounds making it.

Paddle 9 Hilsea Creek

The view from Mountbatten Center car park towards Portsdown Hill across the West end of Hilsea Creek.

Weather and water temps were fine for Fiona to take a trip out in her Sea Flea.

The Sea Flea is one hand car top-able at only 9 lbs!

Wrecks or ruins are magnetic for kids - and adults now I come to think about it

She uses a Greenland paddle I made for her from a cheap 2*4.  It weighs 410 grams and is the right length for her at age 8.  Her Sea Flea is only 50 cm wide so she is able to use a paddle that is close to the same anthropomorphic measurements as Greenland paddles for adults.

I have been making a few changes to my kayak.  I re-routed the cables that raise and lower the rudder, they are now fitted closer to the factory position.  The previous owner had fitted the pulley in front of the cockpit and it was catching on my paddle.  I also removed various bolt on accessories he used for fishing.  Prijon sell HTP sticks the right size for putting into a glue gun so that you can weld over screw holes etc, but since I haven't got any I filled the holes with "rivots" of polymorph plastic.

Polymorph filled bolt holes from the outside

Just pop some in a cup, pour over boiling water and you have plastic about as hot as your fingers can handle that molds like putty but sets hard. No leaks and its easy to remove, just use a sharp knife to cut off one end of the "rivot" and you can pull it out.  No leaks today and I much prefer having a clear deck.

3 hours after HW

The tide today was 4.83 metres at 12:45.  The picture at the top of the page was taken at 2:30, but the water height was almost the same as the top of the tide.  The effect of the Isle of Wight during spring tidal flows is to cause a long high water stand in Portsmouth Harbour.  See the graph below from Magic Seaweed showing how the height various through the tide cycle.

On spring tides once the stand is over the sea level drops quickly and can easily leave you with a muddy landing or stranded a long way from your car.

Paddle 8 Eastney through Hilsea Creek and back

The forecast for this weekend was Force 3 gusting to Force 7.  That's just too rough for comfort in the Solent, but the picture below taken Saturday lunchtime, shows just how sheltered Langstone harbour can be.

Eastney Harbour Entrance, low tide Saturday 18 September 2014

Steve and I are both from Portsmouth and took advantage of a 4.1 meter neap tide to pass from Langstone Harbour to Portsmouth Harbour via Hilsea Creek.

One thing to be careful of when paddling in Langstone and Portsmouth Harbours is "storm discharge". The local water company will discharge untreated sewage into the harbour if the alternative is to have raw sewage flooding the streets or peoples homes.  Luckily you can see notices of discharges and register for email alerts via the Langstone Harbour Board here.

We had just enough room to pass under the train bridge and the low road bridge by Hilsea roundabout.  It was low pressure so I expect the water was a little higher than 4.1.  If the tide were any higher than today you would need to portage or wait.  The train bridge wouldn't be too bad, close to 50 meters assuming you can get in and out of your kayak via the concrete side which would be about 18 inchs or less from water level.  Hilsea roundabout is another deal.  The only portage would be 600+ meters zig-zaging over the footbridge that crosses 6 or 8 lanes of traffic.  See Google Earth below:

Luckily, we could avoid all such hassle and just drift below the roundabout.

Steve

I made a Greenland paddle when I first started kayaking, mainly because there were so many choices of "serious" kayak paddles all costing hundreds of pounds.  The choices involved length, blade size, blade shape, cranked or straight shaft, fiberglass, carbon fiber and many other variations from manufacturer to manufacturer.  A quick trawl round the internet shows that it is a subject fraught with strong opinions that ultimately boil down to suck it and see.  I decided that I couldn't invest a lot of money in a paddle until I had paddled enough to know what works for me and my body mechanics.  Enter Greenland paddles.  I know there have been some serious journeys completed using them, Greg Stamer and Joe O'Blenis have both proven that a Greenland paddle can do the job.  The attraction to me was the cost.  I could get a decent paddle blank of Western Red Cedar from our local timber merchants for twenty pounds.  In making it myself, I could also modify it and explore which length and shape worked best for me. Four iterations of my paddle later (same piece of wood) and I am close to set on what I want from a paddle.  Steve tried it today and was pleasantly  surprised at how it felt.  Enough that he is interested in making one as a winter project.  I broadly followed the guidelines of Chuck Holst found here.  Kayarchy has an excellent page on Greenland paddles here.

Going back to Greenland

When I bought my Kodiak it came with a euro paddle and I thought I'd give it a go.  My first impressions were positive, but I found that on longer paddles I developed swollen and sore wrists.  Today was my first time going back to my Greenland paddle since buying the Kodiak and I found it placed a great deal less stress on my wrists than my euro paddle.  I need to do some more experimentation with euro and GP paddles in similar conditions to come to any solid conclusions.