The Boat

My 2013 race was an accident really. I used to live in Shropshire which made the logistics an additional hurdle to taking part in the DW but because of work I had moved much closer to the event, I had also joined a Sea Scout group as leader and kayak coach which in turn prompted one of my new neighbours to very kindly give me his old K1 after he saw numerous boats atop my car. The boat was (and still is) in beautiful condition and compared to the general purpose boats I had access to, seemed ideal for a DW attempt. Then at some scout meeting or other I mentioned that I was thinking about doing the DW race in this K1 and before I knew it two other leaders were taking part as well.

The Surprise, then name I gave to the donated K1 after the ageing Man-o-war in Master and Commander, is an Avoncraft something or other. I am guessing she is about 20 years old but I can’t find any references to the boat anywhere. She is a relatively heavy (about 18kgs) but extremely stable (WF easily over 10) boat and was a solid paddle, especially on the Thames section, but a nightmare to portage. I watched with envy as other paddlers zipped past me in modern K1 racing boats, barely a ripple of wake behind them, they would slide up to the portage and leap out with the boat up in the air in one fluid motion before jogging away to the next stretch as though unencumbered. My portage experience involved a lot less jogging and a lot more straining and groaning. There are a lot of portages on the DW! While I am prepared to do the DW again in the Surprise, top of my shopping list was a newer, slippery, gossamer thin K1.

My 2016 DW attempt, much like three years earlier has also been mostly an accident. For the last few years a very good friend and I have been goading each other into taking part in bigger and better events. She is the reason I accidently ran a marathon this year and she is also the reason I am going back to Devizes. Up until a few months ago she hadn’t even been in a kayak, and now between us we have bought three second hand racing boats. (My back garden currently looks like a fledgling kayak racing club).

The most recent addition to the fleet is to be my ride for the race, a green and yellow Popes-Canoe Thruster. It’s a South African boat which on their website is classed as having a Speed of 3, and a Stability of 3. I’m not sure how that translates to the wobble factors used by Marsport and Kirton but even from the photos I could tell the stability would make life interesting. The boat has gas pedals instead of a tiller which I have been using up until now, controlling an over-stern rudder. It is a fantastic looking boat and for the money we paid it is great value.  

Now, I have been kayaking for a while, on and off for nearly 30 years, and even if I do say so myself I am an excellent paddler but this weekend was the first time I unintentionally had to swim a kayak back to shore for a long time.

Sitting in the boat for the first time on my local kayaking lake was a real wake up call, even with my arm resting on the jetty the boat was trying to roll me upside down. I sat for about five minutes trying to maintain some semblance of balance, my arm hovering close to the side to catch the inevitable terminal wobble. I executed my first technical dismount a few moments later having moved zero metres. While I was emptying the boat it was dawning on me that I might not be good enough for this boat and was contemplating dropping the whole thing… But that’s not the attitude, after a few minutes of soul searching I did get back into the boat for round two. I sat there wobbling again for a few minutes but I did find enough balance to pick up my paddle and start to move forward. This time I cleared the jetty before I fell in. Thankfully the sun was shining and I did feel like I had made a bit of progress. Third time out I rediscovered my low brace, was able to save a few near-swims and got the K1 up to a decent speed, only when I attempted to turn around to head back did I fall in... That was a long swim. My last circuit was a success though, it wasn’t pretty but I was able to step out of the boat onto dry land.

I came away a lot less cocky about my abilities, I know I am going to have to put a lot of effort in to master this boat, but I am also sure that I can overcome its instability, and wow it was fast when I was the right way up. I’m glad I am starting this in September because it is going to take some time to get used to but it will be worth it if I am going to try and beat my previous time.