This is video shows our third day using the Falcon K2. The initial falling in is with the seats in and the second half of the video is with the seats out…
Spot the difference!
New low profile seats are now on order. Well done chaps as it is not fun falling into the canal when it is cold and the water is extremely dirty!
YouTube video here:
Before and after lowering the seats
Special thanks to Dan Chaloner who has completed our advertising poster. Looks brilliant Dan, nice job and thanks from all of us…
If anyone feels inclined to print this out and place in your office, business or in the back of your car, please feel free to do so.
After our session with Neil from MADCC last Friday Neil recommended that we lower the seats in the Falcon K2 to give us more stability. So Steve phoned Marsport and they are now going to be making us two custom seats especially for the Falcon K2 at a discounted rate (custom molded) . These new seats will be around an inch to an inch and a half lower than our existing seats. Now this does not sound like much but it does make a HUGE difference in a serious race boat like the Falcon K2 lowering our center of gravity and making the boat more stable when paddling.
While discussing monies for these new seats between the Jolly Paddler team members David Stebbings from the Storm Brewing Company overheard the discussion and literally put his hand into his wallet and gave us cash for the full amount. Thanks Dave, that was very generous and kind mate and much appreciated!
The new seats ought to arrive next week some time and Marsport has also donated free delivery given the nature of what we are doing.
Brilliant job Steve for spending the time to sort that out (we all know it took quite some time on the phone during working hours), Dave for financing them and Marsport for working out a solution at a discounted price and free delivery. All this done within 2 days – yet another result!
We decided to make a map of the “Cheshire Ring Race” route so that people we talk to get a perspective of what the race involves. Special thanks to Glenn (the proprietor of the Jolly Sailor on Sunderland street) for letting us have some wall space. Cheers mate..
We had a good weekend training in the Falcon K2. All of us are improving but we have a way to go. Simply more practice needed but we are doing a lot better! These are just the fun photos.
We all had some more great coaching with Neil from MADCC on Friday evening again. More tips received. He has now even offered to give us another free coaching night next Friday evening. Neil was also kind enough to get out a couple of K1 race boats for us to try plus a Masport Condor K2 (wobble factor 8). No pics this time but enjoy the films which Steve made on his phone. I could not resist adding some sound effects and playing with the speed in Pinnacle. Ha ha. Enjoy…
The Jolly Paddlers (on YouTube)
We braved the cold weather on Thu evening to try out our new Falcon K2 racing kayak. We all now understand what “wobble factor” means first hand! This kayak has a rating of 4 (1 is most unstable, 10 is most stable). This amazing kayak only weighs 18 kg but we did manage to go 2 meters each but without paddles :-). A lot of practice needed but we will master it. Photos speak for themselves…. (day zero).
An interesting morning for Steve (Thu, 9th May 2013). Poor chap had to custom fit roof rails to his van quickly and then collect our new K2 by himself while loosing a days work. Great effort Steve and thanks from everyone. The texts throughout the day…
10:47 Steve Green; On route roof rack fitted 🙂
10:48 John Kamp; Brilliant, j
12:05 Steve Green; The falcon has landed we need a bigger van 🙂
13:20 John Cocker; I think we should call the new kayak, “lottery”, cos they’ll be plenty of opportunities for it to rollover!!
13:21 John Kamp; Ha, brilliant, c u at 5pm, j
After our coaching session with Neil from MADCC on Friday evening we were all convinced that investing in a racing K2 was a necessity. They are amazing boats and much faster than our training kayaks. Neil suggested that we contact Marsport . Low and behold they had a second hand K2 for sale (just in). An emergency meeting Saturday afternoon and by Sunday the purchase was made. They are even delivering the boat to Cheshire for us (for free). Brilliant job Steve for negotiating the price and making this happen!
Below is a picture of the kayak we are receiving delivery of this Thursday. It is going to be a very wet weekend as this boat is far more unstable than anything we have tried before. It is going to be interesting… Stay tuned for the dunking pictures soon. Ha ha.
Great training over the May bank weekend.
We had some brilliant professional coaching on Friday evening for the whole team. Thanks very much to Neil from MADCC who spent a good 3 hrs with us and gave us brilliant tips for our technique. He also got out a racing K2 and K1 for us to have some experience in so we were all on the water in double kayaks.
On Sunday we all did 10 miles from the Miners arms in Poynton to Marple and back. This is one of the official segments and Steve and Matt did the run in a time which would give us a loop of 20 hours. This was done in one of the training kayaks we bought so a brilliant time. John and John were only 10 minutes behind (and had to wait 5 mins for a barge) so a huge improvement. The coaching on Friday has improved our skills considerably but we have a lot further to go. Training sessions will need to increase.
Here are some pictures from the weekend, including the group photo’s taken at Marple.
Kayaking for care. A team fundraising event for East Cheshire Hospice. 