06 November 2013

VIDEO: sea kayak sailing best hits

A short collection of sea kayak sailing best moments.
From expedition distance paddling to fast afternoon outings Flat Earth Sails have been a trusted companion on my rudderless kayaks.
After years of using Flat Earth Sails these days I welcome windy conditions when sea kayaking.
Every kayak that I have fitted a sail to has delivered great fun, but some kayaks sail better than others.

 
Video produced for a sea kayak gathering in Austria. View it in full screen if not using a mobile device.

If the winds are blowing above 20 knots I prefer a smaller sail of 0.8m² since most kayaks I own have a relatively low hull speed; a bigger sail does not equate to higher speed. However, with lighter breezes I often can sail slightly faster with a 1.0m² as I usually don't reach the kayak's hull speed.
I prefer masts in carbon fibre with only two side/backstays instead of the often recommended 3 stays.
On my sail set ups the boom swing is limited to 180° and I now firmly believe that this configuration is safer than the full 360° swing of a 3 stays set up.
After recently sailing for a month and 500 Km (in borrowed kayaks) I have concluded that limiting the boom swing prevents dangerous situation when sailing in higher winds.
More details on my findings in this post here

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8 comments:

  1. I haven't seen anyone that gets the video angles you get. Excellent work and entertaining to watch.

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  2. Thank you. My paddling and sailing is nothing out of the ordinary but I do spend a bit more time setting up my camera to get a better view of what is going on.

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  3. I would love to see how you get some of those amazing camara angles - but I can't find a blog post on it, can you give any information?

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    1. The camera angles are achieved by thinking outside the box, tinkering for hours to create new concepts and then fabricating the mounts. All that to maybe capture a few seconds of usable footage. Most of the camera mounts are specifically designed for each individual kayak and occasionally I modify the deck of a kayak to fit them. I rarely use off-the-shelf offerings as they usually are no sturdy enough or don't offer the angle I want to get. Of course there are occasional failures and the odd lost camera :-(

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  4. You all seem to have a black case on your left shoulder. What is that?
    Very entertaining video.
    Best wishes Lars

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    1. the little black box on the left shoulder is Personal Locating Beacon (PLB) that I want to keep on me (not somewhere below deck) but out of the way. I tent to use it when I am paddling alone.

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  5. Damiano, you just ROCK, that's all there is to it! What a great little video! And just about the time I was wondering ... "Yeah, OK, but how do you roll with that thing," ... you answered my question with an elegant sculling roll. I just love it, love it, love it!

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