I was scheduled to go on a SCUBA dive with some friends in Monterey Bay this Sunday, my first dive ever in Monterey Bay. Most of the way to Monterey there was a BASK camping trip scheduled at Sunset State Beach. This was the one year anniversary of the Folding Boat Clinic and Casey Walker was scheduling a get together for people with folding boats. He called this the Folding Boat Rally. I figured I could crash Casey's party for one night on my way to Monterey, and even go paddling in my folding boat. I actually own two folding FeatherCraft K-Light kayaks now. Before Maryly and I went to Italy last year I bought the second one for a very reasonable bid on ebay. Then Maryly told me that she did not want to lug a big backpack to Italy and we left both of them behind. Although I had put it together once to check it out, I had never paddled the new K-Light and took it along to the Folding Boat Rally.
In-between steaming fresh local corn as my contribution to the pot luck, I unfolded and assembled my folding boat. I cut a piece of foam tubing to cover the rib where the other K-Light cuts into my knee. Then I cut a wedge of high-density closed cell minifoam to cram between my legs. Last year when I tried to roll a K-Light I was unable to hold onto the boat with my knees. A foam wedge between the knees had made it possible to roll my Baidarka, I figured the same would work for this boat. I finished everything after dark and strapped the kayak to the roof of my car.
In the morning a group of us drove to Moss Landing (gateway to Elkhorn Slough) to paddle out through the jetty into the ocean. John Somers had a plan to paddle out to sea for a while and look for migrating whales. We got started too late for me to do this, but I followed them out the jetty for a short distance. I planned to try the fabric boat in the ocean, try rolling it, and try it out in the surf before I returned. The first interesting thing about this boat was simply paddling it in waves for the first time! The boat is held together by the aluminum frame and the fabric hull stretching into each other. The boat flexes and creaks and clicks in the joints as the waves go underneath! As usual, where my thighs and calves contact the flexible skin of the boat I seem to feel what is happening to the rest of the boat. A very intimate experience with the ocean!
While I had my friends around me to back me up, I tried rolling the boat. The foam wedge did not help at all with this boat. I think that the rib in front of the coaming on the K-light is much farther forward than the same rib in the Baidarka. As a result, my hips were able to swing back and forth and fall out of the boat even when my legs just down from my knees were firmly held in. I was unable to roll the boat and had to be rescued by Mac Carter. Still held in the boat by my knees I was able to swing my hips out far enough to hold my face above water until Mac came around to the other side. Holding onto his stern I could finally rotate the boat back upright and discovered that the sprayskirt had come off the sides but was still holding on at the front and back. I was wearing a "sea sock" inside the boat that limits how much water can get inside. I pumped out water and turned back towards shore while my friends paddled out to sea to look for whales.
I Spent half an hour in the surf and found the K-Light to be reasonably fun to play with there. The boat has incredibly "hard chines" because the fabric collapses a little around the aluminum tubing of the frame. These bite the water and allow the boat to track well in a straight line, or turn quickly on a wave if I edge the boat. I was very timid in the waves but manages two good rides before I had to leave to dash off in time for my afternoon SCUBA boat ride.