John Leonard

16.5' long 21.5” wide Includes Werner Camano fiberglass paddle 220cm Werner Tybee paddle 215cm Astral PFD, Seals neoprene spray skirt, pump, paddle float, compass skeg works, but is a bit sticky. Straps that hold the seat back up are torn, but aren't necessary. $500 John jlpaddler@gmail.com

We're having a garage sale at rei in Hingham this Saturday. Quite a few boats and paddle boards at end of season prices. Mostly recreational, but a few light touring boats and a good variety of boards. John

Thanks Les. I would hate to be around rocks in a boat as thin as the mako. I will throw the old seat back in the explorer.

Not 100% but I can probably make it Sunday. Now if I can just find a boat that floats and has an intact seat....

I store mine upside down and covered. I also tape over my skeg box to keep any water from getting in and expanding. It's a bit of a pain to clean the tape off in the spring, but it's worth doing. I also pull my hatch covers off, if they seal well you can crack the deck as the boat expands and contracts.

These are the old style saddles that have the removable rubber pads, presumably to make them easy to replace if they still made them. Easy to remove but leaves a bare, hard plastic cradle. That might work David, a bit different shape, but probably workable. I'm not worried about the boat moving while driving, I'm more concerned about putting the boat in bare plastic as the gelcoat on my ski is pretty thin. John

Thanks, I'll give the fiberglass cleaner a try, but they may be too far gone for that. I took another look at them and they are getting pretty soft with little chunks pulling off. The velcro is brilliant Ernie... Never would have thought of it and that's probably what I will end up doing. John

I've got an older pair of yakima saddles with the grey rubber pads that are leaving black streaks on my boats. I don't mind so much on my older boat but the spots are actually building up on my surfski and are a pain to clean off. The pads don't look dirty but something is coming off of them. Has anyone cleaned up an older pair of saddles or replaced the rubber (yakima no longer makes the parts for them)? Anything work particularly well for cleaning them? Thanks, John

That was absolutely priceless to see. If anyone wants a deal on a roofrack I may sell mine... Obviously I don't need it to carry multiple boats.

It's looking like I'm probably out for tomorrow. Safe trip!

definitely interested

I've had good luck with the 3m 5200 and never bothered to try to track down lexel again. Sure lexel works fine, but 5200 is more common. Another common spot to check on the NDK boats is the base of the hatch rings. The hatch rings are bonded on then have a screw on either side that is usually overtightened. Both of the hatches on my boat (and I've seen others) developed small cracks at the screw holes and small leaks. Eventually the cracks will migrate up the ring and leak like crazy if you don't loosen up the screws.

Hey Mike, you forgot spending half the morning practicing your roll with half a paddle. Then breaking one for real in the afternoon! The "let's pull the hatches and flip 'em" rodeo was always a hit. Extra points are awarded if you break the hatch lip away from the hull and force a field expedient repair. Getting the victim laughing hysterically before tipping was also encouraged so they would blow their roll. Doing random ties to a tow rope and other boats and making the leader sort it out was always a hoot...especially in Woods Hole on a windy day. Sounds like we could have a great start of the season rescue practice event.

Christopher, can I borrow your Nordkapp? I have seen two coamings cracked and pulled off the deck badly enough to cause significant leaking. Neither one was caused by particularly rough handling. Cracking and chipping on the edges seams to be pretty common with routine paddling and rescue practice.

You'll certainly find out if your Romany has any voids in the deck! Looks okay, but I have chipped my coaming enough doing regular t rescues (dumping part) that I would be concerned about cracking the coaming or seperating it from the deck. A well done T rescue solid enough that I am not sure you would need to resort to a more stable method. Maybe one of the five star paddlers can comment on conditions getting to the point where a regular t wont work, but I am not sure I would want to risk breaking a boat in those conditions. Having broken boats enough times in lesser conditions I can say that it never made the situation better.