Kayak sailing is fantastic!

Since about four years I have a sail on my kayak. Now let me start a blog to share my experiences with you. Kayak sailing is a fantastic experience, provided you can already kayak nicely of course. It takes you much further on a day of sailing, with speeds that can reach up to 15 kilometers per hour and sometimes even faster. Then I don't count the surf and the tide yet.

Holwerd-Ameland, 2018 on the Waddenzee, Holland. I use a Capelle high volume seakayak with a Flat Earth sail.

Kayak sailing is a hybrid activity with a kayak and a sail. But then really hybrid, so a fusion between two sports that interlocks in such a way that a new way of sailing actually arises. They are not two things that coexist, like a regular bicycle with a battery to also ride electrically. That remains an ordinary bike with less effort to paddle along. Kayak sailing is therefore not sailing with a kayak, nor kayaking with a sailboat. Kayak sailing is... kayak sailing!

More dynamic
Kayak sailing on the waves - rather paddle sailing - feels very different from just paddling on the waves, but also totally different from just sailing. It's much more dynamic, less monotonous than hours of stiff paddling in a neat, repetitive stroke.  Your movements are always different.

Oosterschelde, Holland. November 2019. Force 4 Beaufort on a beam course. My most exciting trip so far. Photo Mike Griffin

Sometimes you just paddle along easily, if it remains quiet you can eat your sandwich at 8 km / h, then occasionaly you put a backwards paddle rudder at the stern or you have to let the paddle gently drag over the water where the wind comes from, just for support in case. With a nice breeze from the back you have a good chance that you will catch up with the waves to surf from instead of looking back every time the next wave is coming. And who knows, if the wind is on beam or from behind, you can paddlesail against the tide with a nice pace. Here is a good example of an average trip with a Falcon sail, with the designer Forrester himself at the paddle loom. The wind is mainly from the stern, but paddle sailors can also sail diagonally against the wind, up to about 35 degrees to the wind.  Here it comes:

Downwind run

Waiting
Such a nice speed provides the positive disadvantage that others in the group quickly disappear behind the horizon, which is not safe on big open water.

Again Oosterschelde November 2019, thanks to dayplanner Jan Vlak. Mainly on a north-south route, with a beam wind. I'm ahead of everybody, but actually too far. My paddle is regularly out of the water with windorce 4. Only for balance or to steer I sometimes paddle along a bit because that just gives a good feeling. In this case, I quickly decided to step on the brakes. 

Photo Mike Griffin

So I often have to wait or turn circles around the group. That's why I hope more people will set a sail. I have already received a few strong criticisms from the group for sailing too far ahead. My sad record is at 12 kilometers per hour nonstop wind from Middelharnis to Hellevoetsluis (a route of 8.5 kilometers) with only few real paddle strokes (summer 2018). I only used the paddle to steer and support a little. I was there after 45 minutes. I had the most fantastic experience so far. At first I was a bit tense but when I noticed that it was going fine I could really enjoy the wind and the waves for the first time. The rest of the group arrived half an hour later. The comments were pretty negative. Rightly so, of course. It was very stupid of me. I'll never do it again!

So far I know of two other Dutch people who also paddlesail. In other countries it is much more popular. I'm not sure why. Or maybe I do, having an innate tendency to laziness. I do like to kayak but it shouldn't be too fanatical. You won't find me in a K1 or surfski any time soon. Nature attracts me more. I like to drift out from time to time and listen to the silence, to peer down the water in the hope of seeing 'something'. The waves also attract me, but not so much from a sporting point of view. More because of the mysterious connection of the waves with the refined kayak. I only go into the surf to practice, not for the kick. Paddlesailing in shallow waters also mean mast breakage sooner or later.

Elderly people
So it makes sense that I fell for kayak sailing. One can be lazy, look around and enjoy the dynamics of a kayak on the waves even more without falling behind the group. Perhaps the interest in kayak sailing in the Netherlands is disappointing because the average age of kayakers in the Netherlands is quite high. Elderly people shy away from the ‘crazy stuff’. They’d rather work on their shape. A sail would distract from that. It's like hooking up an electric motor onto your kayak. Which, of course, is not the case.

Another cause may be the bulky appearances of old canoes fitted with large sails, daggerboards, outriggers and Lord knows what. In the last fifteen years, a huge revolution has taken place in the field of kayak sailing. It started in Australia where sailors on the Tasman Sea in the eighties needed something simple, extremely seaworthy and manageable from the cockpit. Without any other contraptions that would be in the way during rescues, rolling or sculling. The first modern sails were born there. Nowadays, a good sail is mandatory on many large water trips in Australia, as is a PDF and other safety equipment. That gives us some thought.  

'Buy a sailboat'

The most common statement in the Netherlands is unfortunately still: 'If I want to sail, I buy a sailboat.' But then people forget that kayak sailing is not just sailing. You always paddle along. Even if you go fast enough on the sail, everyone tends to use their paddle anyway. Supports, bow strokes, giving backward paddle rudder and rolling, it is all necessary to be able to kayak sail. And on track dead against the wind, you are a real kayaker again.