ron-t kayaking blog

17 July 2013 .............. Modifying my Isel

I spent a big chunk of June modifying my Isel again.

The first time that I modified it, I cut off a bit of the rear skeg, and it definitely improved the manouverability of the boat.

This time I have been a lot more radical - I have changed significantly both the bow and the stern, they now both have a much longer overhang - pretty much based on East Greenland sea kayak design. It all took a lot longer than I thought it would, because the first time I did it I didn`t like the result, so I cut it all off and did it again.

It involved a lot of problem solving, as essentially I was trying to mold glassfibre cloth into a three dimensional shape on top of thin air.

Another problem I found that, although it is easier to produce, a bow or stern with a cross sectional shape that is an arc of a circle is visually less attractive than a cross sectional shape like a gothic arch - but a gothic arch is a hard shape to produce.

However the result of all this is that I love the way the boat now behaves. It still needs some cosmetic improvements, and I would like to lengthen the rear overhang some more to balance the boat more, but I`m now hard against the skeg box. So to go further I`m going to have to move the skeg box, which would be a bit of a challenge.

For its first trip out I went out to Penrhyn Mawr on the flood tide, with a bit of a wind, so it was good conditions for trying out the boat.

The inside race was in a nice chunky state with a bit of swell coming in, and the Isel just felt so good. It doesn`t carve like the Anas Acuta, it never will because it doesn`t have the hard chines, but it feels a lot more passive and well behaved. In fact it doesn`t really exhibit any particular characteristics, it just does what I want it to do.

Coming back from Penrhyn Mawr I got another demonstration of how well it behaves - for about 200 metres or so round Dinas Stack there was a very big sea coming in, onto the forward beam of the boat. The Isel behaved beautifully - and I carried on through it without any concern.

I have done some more trips out in it since then, and I`m still very pleased with what I`ve done to it - in some respects I would like to take the concept further - but I`m not too sure about the practicalities of doing it.

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