Adventures and Expeditions
Some things our
customers have done with their boats.......
Dr. David Petters is a chiropractor who lives in Skaneateles, New York. A few years
ago Dr. Dave was seized by the idea that he wanted to row the length of each of the eleven
Finger Lakes in Western New York. He sent us an e-mail asking if he could borrow a boat
for this undertaking, saying that he was going to write a book about his experience. Sure,
we thought, why not? Better him than us.
Every few weeks while he was rowing we'd receive a package containing newspaper clippings,
photographs and videos documenting his progress. His adventure was completed right on
schedule, and in one case, ahead of schedule. At the end of one of the lakes, his wife and other well-wishers were going to meet him at the town park, with a cake
shaped like an guideboat and a film crew from the local television station. The only
problem was……he was two hours ahead of schedule.
He couldn’t arrive before the invited guests
and news cameras. So….he pulled under a large tree and sat in his boat and for
two hours. Then, sensing he'd waited long enough, he pulled out from under the tree and
rowed into town to a hero's welcome. Dr. Petters has thus far written several
articles about rowing the lakes... the 15 miles of Canandaigua, the 38 miles of
Seneca, 40 miles on Cayuga with 8 other lakes. We look forward to the
publication of his book.
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Brooks
Townes is a writer, a rower and a friend of the company. He knows more
about boats than just about anyone we've ever met. Here's a note from him
about his latest adventure ....this time involving a kite and his dark-blue
guideboat.
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Hi Steve & Dave, |
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I meant to write a couple weeks ago and think I forgot (damn lead pipes,
or maybe it's age) to tell you that the old guide boat served me well
down on North Carolina's Outer Banks earlier this month - and I
discovered a thing or two. |
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I took it to
Beaufort, first to the NC Maritime Museum where I did some research,
then I rowed and kite-sailed about 80 miles just inside the Banks,
sometimes within apple-throwing distance of wild horses frolicking over
their islands. |
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Actually, I only kite-sailed a few miles, but that was an E-ticket ride
at hull-speed and beyond until I got a string caught in an oarlock's
safety chain. |
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Catching your kite string in the little chain when hauling hiney two
miles off shore makes things exciting. I got very sincere there for a
bit. The bloomin' boat half-broached and slipped along at a strange
angle of attack and heel, the downwind rail scooping more water than
seemly. |
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After an eternity of that, I discovered the water out there was only
thigh-deep: All I had to do was drag a foot to get the boat straightened
up and headed more appropriately downwind, then simply jump out, drag
along to a stop and stand on the sandy bottom to deal with the
situation. The kite, a 12 sq. ft. parasail, pulls like a mule, but with
feet planted in the bottom sand, it became easy to control. |
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Before the fiasco it was highly satisfying to sit in the bottom of the
boat (the center seat was removed so I could steer, sorta, and trim by
shifting my weight fore & aft and to the sides) and scream along, pulled
by the colorful kite, green water shooting up the hull to thunder, white
against the rails. The one time I chanced looking back, the top of the
sternpost was about level with the water as the boat's rump wanted to
fall into the hole in the water made by the boat's forward sections. |
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I'd guess with wind gradients, the breeze was about 20 knots up where
the kite was - and about half that on the water. In that wind, it took
judicious weight-shifting, and enough attention had to be paid to make
one plumb tuckered fairly quickly. |
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It's more relaxing to row the thing. |
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Speaking of which, while rowing solo and lightly loaded down there in
brisk breezes and chop, I found it very easy to trim the boat to track
well on any point to the wind by filling a two-gallon kitty litter jug
with water, tying a line to it and putting it on the floorboards just
ahead of the center seat. Going upwind, I simply shove the jug forward,
lowering the bow and the area it presents to the wind while raising the
stern a tad. That lets the boat weather-cock and keep tracking upwind
without making you pull harder on one oar than the other. |
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Slightly off the wind, the boat trimmed nicely and tracked well with the
jug shoved only a couple feet forward of the center seat. Just the
right amount of freeboard bow & stern makes a big difference. It's easy
to adjust the weight fore & aft until it's just right regardless of wind
direction. |
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For downwind or no-wind, I pull the line tied to the jug and slide the
thing back against the center seat under my tailbone and, again, she
tracks like a train. I suspect the bow is slightly higher than the
stern when thusly trimmed since a rower's weight is naturally aft of the
hull's center station. |
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When the boat's lightly loaded, due to the extremely hollow ends and
lack of buoyancy in the extremities, shifting a mere 16 lbs. or so of
water jug three or four feet along the center line makes a big
difference! |
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Nice thing about a plastic water jug for trim ballast is it can be
dumped out or refilled whenever and it doesn't mar the boat's finish. I
don't tie the full jug to the boat so if I go over it's not a liability. |
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Since returning to the mountains, in Western North Carolina, I'm still
using the ballast jug. It greatly expands the number of days I can
comfortably row on my local lake. Before, if it was blowing 12 or more,
I'd often not row since fighting to keep the boat pointed right took a
lot of the fun out of it. Now I just fill the jug and shove it to and
fro as required. There's satisfaction in rowing on a windy day with the
water slap-slapping the hull, the breeze cool against the fevered brow,
the ability to pull as evenly on the oars as on a windless day. |
On a dock in Beaufort was one of your
boats, a cream-colored Kevlar guide boat fitted for the big back-rest. I
couldn't recall f'sure the color of the boat I delivered to the Colonel
in Washington for you, but thought it might be the same one. Nobody
around to ask.
I've had to tell plenty of people this spring how to reach y'all and
hope they have!
Yer fan,
Brooks |
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Next on our list of adventurers is Tim Gleason.
Tim is an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. And in this account,
we've actually change his name. We kept asking Tim what exactly he does for the ATF but he
wouldn't say. As we were nearing the completion of his boat, Tim was sent undercover
to a far-away place. His assignment took longer than expected and, getting bored in the
empty hours of waiting, he kept calling to check up on his boat. “Tim," we
said, "Your boat is done. It's sitting right here. It’s beautiful. When are you
coming home?” |
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“Where are you?” |
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“I can’t tell you that either.”
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Finally, as his days dragged on, he told us that he was undercover, buying illegal
drugs and machine guns. At the conclusion of his assignment, he returned home, collected
his boat and rowed for 5 days with his 15 year old daughter from White River Junction in
Vermont, down the Connecticut River, through Vermont, New Hampshire, western Massachusetts
and Connecticut to the Long Island Sound. We'd like to show you pictures of Tim and
his daughter on their trip, but then we'd have to kill you. Also, his
first name isn't Tim and his last name isn't Gleason. |
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We’ve never met our next rower, Mike Georgia.
He purchased his boat from one of our dealers. The first we met Mike, and heard of his
expedition, was on the telephone. Mike's intention was to row from Buffalo to Key West.
His route would take him down the Erie Canal (360 miles); then a right turn at Albany and
down the Hudson to New York City. Then he would walk the boat (on a rolling cart)
across New Jersey. Then down the Delaware River, through Philadelphia, to the Chesapeake
Bay. Then we lost track of his plans….something about the Intercoastal Waterway and
to Key West in time for his 50th birthday. And then maybe, he said, up to New
Orleans for Mardi Gras.
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“Mike," we asked, "Are you
married?” |
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“Yes.” |
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“What does your wife think about this trip?”
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“Well….this isn’t the first thing I’ve done like this. Nothing
seems to surprise her anymore.” |
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Mike had it all planned. He had maps, safety equipment and camping gear. He
launched on the Erie Canal and rowed the 360 miles to the Hudson. On his last day, coming
into the Mohawk, Mike rowed with a 25 knot crosswind. He rowed so hard and long with one
arm (due to the cross-wind) that he tweaked his back. He spent the next day rowing the
Hudson but realized that he was too hurt to continue. So…the trip was called off. With
plans to take it up again in the Spring. Stay tuned. |
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Most
of our customers don’t have expeditions or adventures in mind when they buy one of
our boats. They just want to go out on the water and have a little fun. Maybe take the
kids, maybe go for a solo row at twilight, with or without a fishing rod. A boat dealer
from Boston came to Vermont and put his kayak into the water and pushed off from shore for
an evening paddle. "I was just a little ways out when I saw one of your boats. There
was a couple sitting in it in the reeds, they had candlelight and wine. It was one of the
most beautiful things I have ever seen."
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