Frederick Goodman

Because of the dam in Lawrence, presumably only the stretch from Lowell Aiken Ave. bridge to the dam is relevant. This is what I gleaned from a quick look at Google Maps satellite view. In Lowell, there are walks or bike paths from Aiken St. to an area below Hunts Falls Bridge, where there appears to be a rapid or riffles. The rest down to the dam in Lawrence could be scouted less thoroughly from roads. Since that section will be partly backed up because of the dam in Lawrence, I would guess, without having looked at it, that it could be navigated upstream and down from a small motorboat, and I wonder if Mr. Hug would not prefer to do that himself. From this report, it seems the whole stretch can be kayaked: https://www.bostonkayaker.com/cgi-bin/bkonekpage.cgi?pagekey=merrimacklowell. The report mentions that the flow was 20,000 cfs when kayaked.

What's the length?

Here's the sizing chart: https://www.sealsskirts.com/sizing/sizing.php. New price $190 plus tax. I made a mistake in ordering and got an impossibly snug tunnel.

Looking forward to it. Will test, of course. I'll bring a salad and some loaves of bread.

Thanks everyone. Interim report: I used Lexel because it was a bit of guess what would work, and Lexel claims to be more tolerant of cool temperature application. The leak seems to be sealed for now. (I'm still getting water in the boat, but by some other channel.)

Rob, thanks for organizing this. It was a very worthwhile session, even though I had already attended a previous workshop.

It's not an occasional drip, Jim. It's a whole lot of water sloshing around after an hour on the water.

Thanks, Mike and Janet. With enough gentle encouragement, I eventually got the slider block free, Just in case someone looks at this thread later for advice, let me say that the trick to getting the skeg control block free was to hook a tool (*) behind the plastic tube and pull the assembly a bit out away from the boat before wiggling the skeg block to the left (in the picture below). This allowed the block to clear the fiberglass protrusions that you see in the picture, while lining up to clear the brass ring on the plastic tube. I was really stuck for a while before I figured this out. Re-assembly was completely straightforward. The set screw needs to be tightened just until you feel a little resistance; it hits the plastic tube just aft of the brass ring. (*) I used a dental pick.

Just bumping this to check if anyone has experience with the skeg slider on newer Valley Kayaks. It has a slider block secured into a recess on the deck with 4 screws and also a set screw that clamps to the tube through which the actual cable is threaded. I thought that if I removed all the fasteners I could slide the block forward out of the way, but the block won't budge. The block is closed in back, so it's not going to lift out of the way either. Force is not a good idea here, as the tube is terminated with some sort of brass ring bonded to the tube (according to info on the web) and if that brass ring doesn't want to slip out of the slider block, then it might decide to un-bond from the tube instead, forcing a much more complicated repair.

I have a Valley Sirona with wire operated skeg. The wire is threaded through a poly tube. There is a leak where the tube penetrates the hull, from the cockpit to a skeg control box on the deck. I am looking for advice for sealing the leak. In particular, what is an appropriate sealant, and how was the thing sealed in the first place? So far I have not tried taking apart the skeg control slider, which apparently has several parts and fits into a recess on the side of the deck. Like everyone else, I have had experience taking things apart and discovering they are more complicated than I thought. I think I may need to take it apart, because it may be that the poly tube is not being held properly in place and its movement has broken the seal.

I’m in.

More tips: Tie a wiffle ball to the grab loop to make it easy to find in an emergency. Practice releasing your spray skirt on land, with your eyes closed, one-handed, with either hand. Make it part of your mental checklist for launching to make sure the grab loop hasn't got caught inside the boat. Also try squiggling out of your boat (in a swimming pool or lake, with a safety person standing by) without releasing the spray skirt; either the skirt will release from the boat, or you will leave the skirt behind attached to the boat, assuming sufficient motivation.

I'm not going to make it tomorrow. Have fun out there! Thanks for organizing, Jim.

Interested

https://helmet.beam.vt.edu/whitewater-helmet-ratings.html?fbclid=IwAR3EkxDfdFWbkYgmyB-mfXKWPZxkmgtmu82CeE7c84s27gWbi3gwjGH-QZk