Sea Trials

[jdkilroy]

I ordered the Cetus at the Kittery Paddle Sports show last April; she finally hit the US shores 6.5 months later. After only a day on the water I'm pretty sure it has been worth the wait.

Made a few modifications before she ever got wet:

- Installed a foot pump after reinforcing the forward bulkhead. (don't think it was easy to drill that pilot hole through the fore deck)

- Reinforced the after deck with a layer of biderectional glass. (the Cetus has a lot of flat acreage back there and I wanted it stiff for rescues and parlor tricks)

- Removed the seat and replaced the foam beneath so that the seat tips you a little forward instead of feeling like you are falling into it. The foam is one piece and continues from beneath to create the back rest. It feels great and I'm good movement in the seat without the factory pad. The real test will be the first 20 ~ 30 mile day.

Some photos of initial sea trials:

http://s311.photobucket.com/albums/kk467/j...nd%20H%20Cetus/

[cathyfoley]

I ordered the Cetus at the Kittery Paddle Sports show last April; she finally hit the US shores 6.5 months later. After only a day on the water I'm pretty sure it has been worth the wait.

Made a few modifications before she ever got wet:

- Installed a foot pump after reinforcing the forward bulkhead. (don't think it was easy to drill that pilot hole through the fore deck)

- Reinforced the after deck with a layer of biderectional glass. (the Cetus has a lot of flat acreage back there and I wanted it stiff for rescues and parlor tricks)

- Removed the seat and replaced the foam beneath so that the seat tips you a little forward instead of feeling like you are falling into it. The foam is one piece and continues from beneath to create the back rest. It feels great and I'm good movement in the seat without the factory pad. The real test will be the first 20 ~ 30 mile day.

Some photos of initial sea trials:

http://s311.photobucket.com/albums/kk467/j...nd%20H%20Cetus/

Jon:

I'm sure you're going to love the Cetus. I've had mine two years and am totally satisfied. I think the modifications you made are really good. I took my seat out on day one and made a foam seat, which has worked well for me. I've had some minor cracking near just in back of the rear hatch, probably from vibration on the car and bouncing on the road. I just reinforced with some additional glass and all is fine. Have fun paddling it. Great colors.

[wilsoj2]

Congratulations. You'll have fun with her.

I paddled John Carmody's Cetus for a day on Muscongus Bay in July 2007 and was pretty impressed.

I see the companion boat is a Nordkapp LV... interesting contrast.

Have fun!

[jdkilroy]

Day two of sea trials; In the Piscataqua River and off Portsmouth

The river was RIPPIN' today with winds out of the west and rains over night to add to the ebb. Off shore Portsmouth was pretty flat but the westerlies blowing a steady 15 ~ 20 with gusts between 20 ~ 25 allowed a good eval of the boats performance in wind.

I tend to cary a bit of kit and I loaded it to keep her down by the stern a little. Winds off the bows and on the quarters demanded some skeg use. I found it difficult to determine how much skeg I had down without feedback from my paddling partner (in the Nordkapp) but using about 30 ~ 50% seemed to do the trick in the worst cases. (compared to the Kari Tek system on my Romany, I'm not thrilled with the P & H skeg control)

Turned out to be a great day on the water. We met Greg Paquin and Paula Riegel along with Paul and another paddler while heading back through Little Harbor.

I'm liking this boat. My wife is not... I was pretty well keeping abreast of her heading in to those 15 ~ 20 knt winds today when she looked over at me and with with a bit of a scowl said, "Hey! You're not even paddling!"