Hooray!

Back in the sea!

Friday 8th April 2011

Ok, so Its not been a long sabbatical, Back in Febuary when I sold the Aquanaut, and wrote the last blog post I was thinking this might go on all through the 1st half of the year, if not all.
I aimed to have tested a couple of possibile contenders for a new kayak, made a decision and bought one in time for a annaul trip to South West Wales.

Back on March 19th  I went over to Brookbank and had a general look at the Tahe Marine Reval range.

This one is the Reval Mini LC version, LC means Large cockpit aparently! The whole thing was completely different to the Much shorter Mini.

This is the one I wanted to try, but unfortunately I had timed my visit with a big show in Ireland, all the kayaks had gone over there.

Not to be deterred, I went ahead and booked a demo boat for this weekend just gone - Friday thru Saturday. My intention to head over to Angelsey and put it through its paces.

I spent the 2 weeks from booking it to picking it up fretting about the weather, I had no worries there though! Picked a pefect one there didn't I?

After an initial panic over a communication error, (someone had failed to reserve it in the diary), and then going to make sure it was adjusted correctly revealled it was a PINK version! I was going to have to get in touch with my femmenine side!

Arriving after an uneventful journey, I decided to launch from Borthwen, you'll note the kayak is NOT pink! We managed to find this white one. I loaded all my kit in to it and set about taking pictures of it.
Its (to me) one of the best looking boats I've seen - compact at 4.83metres (15'10") and 52cm wide (20.5"), with loads of rocker and a nice low rear deck.
My thinking is: should make a perfect agile little day boat, I can't see me wanting to go on any long expeditions, maybe the odd overnight trip. Mostly day trips, and playing around in the surf.




                                     
I took a series of photo graphs along the deck from bow to stern, I still cannot believe how pointy it was at the bow (and stern) seemed to be much narrower here than the Aquanaut was.

Subtle, simple graphics.

Round hatch at the front has plenty of unobsructed storage, in fact looking at the manufacturers figures, it holds marginally less than the Valley Aqaunuat, infact overall capacity is 110kg the same for both boats.

My only note so far is that it has a flat area for a compass, not the normall reccess found on other boats - don't fancy cutting a hole to fit a Silva 70p in there!

I'd already put the deck bag on, but as in the recent review in Ocean Paddler magazine, there is no deck elastics for those of us who normally carry the split paddles on the fore deck, there is space in the cleats by the compass housing though.

The cockpit coaming was well made, not sharp to touch. It looks small here and its dimensions are a tad smaller than keyhole, but I found I could get in fine, and when seated I could tuck my knees up to my chest and back without scraping my shins down the front edge!

The day hatch ( and the forehatch) both have the new Kajaksport hatch covers that are dual density, the centres are harder and more plastic-like, the edges are conventional rubber - these felt very secure. The rear hatch is a standard Kajaksport type and I presume this is because there isnt one available yet. Deck elastics here were simply laid out, but adaquate for stowing the splits securely.

Pointy stern! Toggle doesn't sit right at the back here, not really an issue, except I normally ties a flag to the back to warn people of the overhang when its on the roof of the car!

Stern view, I love these sleek lines.

Time to get in the water I think! I had made an extensive list of questions I wanted to ask my self whilst out in the boat, unfortunatley the kids have been going mad with the printer recently, and I found it to have run out - I'd have to manage from memory.

I sat in the boat, fitted the deck and slid into the water, blimey! I couldn't believe how tippy it felt! Whilst in the shallow water I had a warm up, and performed a few support strokes to get a feel for the boats stability charicteristics. It seemed to have a very low initial stability but felt more reasuring when edging and leaning righ over during the sculling support - need to practice sculling for support on the left! I seem to be ok on the right though

Paddling out of Borthwen, it was clear I had picked a perfect weekend - save for the sea mist it was warm, still and calm. Heading toward the old lifeboat house, I wondered if there was a little swell out of the mouth of the bay? I wanted to try the boat in as many different scenarios as possible.

Paddling out to Rhoscolyn Beacon I was surprised to find little swell, although the race was running but only had the last hour of flood left to run. I had a little play here, it wasn't the Bitches, but there was flow, I found a section that held me, and had a try at moving my weight around a bit. Knowing that I'm getting toward the ideal paddler weight for the boat, I wanted to see if I could get the nose under the wave - not really!

I headed around to Silver bay, I felt as though the kayak had speed, and accelarated nicely. What I now realised was that I had forgotten the gps, I wanted to see what its comfortable cruising speed was.

I landed through the surf onto the worlds steepest dumping beach! I wondered if I'd get back through it at one point, but manged to find a fairly flat time to launch through, I was expecting to get a face-full of spray, whatr with the kayak being pretty narrow in the bow, I didn't.

I passed through the mist that seemed to line the coast edge, and set off against the now ebbing tide up the estuary toward Four Mile Bridge, I didn't expect to get far, and I was right! Using the map, it was really difficult to navigate up here, I kept finding myself in dead ends!

Definately a dead end here, sorry looking boat has had its final moment.

Now that does look like a place to live!

This is an island in the middle of the estuary, it looked like a perfect beach for a lunch stop.

My own island, my own beach for a few minuits!, it wasn't to be, as I slid onto the sand, I put my hands down to push myself up out of the water, they sank in the muddy silt the was lying there to catch me out, with the tide ebbing, I figured I'd need to wade through it to get back out, I left my island adventure to the birds.

I had suddenly noticed a lot of activity at RAF Valley airfield, looking out to sea I could see the mist had drifted out revealing the sand dunes that form a barrier between air base and sea.

I decided to have a spot of lunch up on the dunes.

Could it be HRH Prince William? If it was he was having fun doing fast approaches and then pulling up and heading back around for another go.

Eventually they got bored, but then 15 of the Hawk trainer jets left for a blast around the mountains.

When they returned one by one they gave an aerobatic display each - good to watch, but I bet even better to perform!

The sea mist had really gone now, the sun was burning, I realised I'd left the sun screen at home!

Back in the water and heading for Rosnieger, just through the rock islands you can see the Lleyn Peninsula.

I had a chat with two other kayakers here, and they were asking me about the Reval, they'd heard good things about them, but never seen one. I asked them how it was sitting in the water, I had no way of seeing if it looked over loaded or not.

One of them said "much more gear in the hatches, you'll be dipping your elbows in the water!"

Looking toward Rosnieger, I paddled hard to see how the kayak felt on a sustained paddle. It felt good, it seems to glide well, It is a short boat at 15'10" so its never going to have a high speed, but the manufacturer claims it to have good speed qualities, I agree, it seems as good as the Aquanuat to me.

Arriving on the beach, there was still no surf or swell, so no testing here. I had a stretch, and a snack and got back in, heading straight out to the tip of the the rock islands at Ynys Feirig.

I seem to have developed a spot of salt on the lens here, and surprisingly found a bit of swell, still noything to speak of though. I tried to go as close to the rockas possible to try and paddle through some rougher water.

The boat seems to be fine, I've got used to the tippyness by now, and only now and then do I get a wobble on, mostly noticed when taking pictures.

With Rhoscolyn beacon in the distance, its easy to think I havn't paddled far, when actually its about 2 3/4 miles straight across here. My shoulders are starting to feel a bit tired now, so I steady up and concentrate on some paddle stroke honing. I alternate between a low angle and a high angle stroke across here giving differant muscles a turn. Its 4 months since I last paddled and I'm feeling it a bit. 

Approaching Rhoscolyn and Borthwen, I was pleased to have been out again and in such wonderfull conditions.

Landing at low water I had to carry everything up the beach, what an amazing place it is here. I'm enjoying the Kayak. I now head to the campsite, and decide to have a meal in the paddlers return pub just down the road.

The evening view through the tent door.

In the pub, over a glass or two of cider I had time to reflect on the kayak.

It is proving to be what I expected, easy to paddle, although very tippy. Agile, is an understatement really, it is a very manoverable boat, but seems to have the speed aswell.

My only doubts are the tippy-ness - will my back be supple enought to handle the movement? sleeping on the ground in the tent will tell me in the morning! I'm also unsure of the waterline when I'm sat in it, I am inside the guide weight, but am also a good stone over my weight from a year or so ago when I first hurt my back.

I've been looking for something to prompt me to get this extra weight off - I might just have found it!

More testing tommorow