Murky Water

http://worldkayakblogs.com/murkywater/kayaks/squirt/slip/

6am Sunday and it was an early start. The plan being to leave West Virginia and head back to Canada to get my squirt boat re cut (made smaller) at Murky Water. With a 9 hour + drive ahead of us we head out early. I'm super lucky as Matt Hamilton and Johnny have offered to give me a lift so well before everyone wakes from their festival induced commas we are on our way north and before we know it was have crossed the Canadian boarder and I am back at Ed and Mariolas, where our trip began 6 weeks ago. The boys head on another 7 hours North back to Beachburg and the Ottawa and Ed cuts open my squirt boat and the float tests and re cuts begin.

Chocolate Fondu marshmallow boater action on the long drive north
(photo by John Rathwell Photography)

5 float cuts later and the boat is perfect. Ok, well to me its perfect, to everyone else it looks so tiny and small. Normally most squirt boats look small and float just below the surface of the water to perform their best. But Jim's new design the 'Slip' seems to work best when it doesn't float at all. In fact its best performance is when it floats 4 – 6inches under the water. So by the end of the day we have my boat so small it floats about chest level, 6 inches under... perfect.

Its smaller... a lot smaller :o)

Ed spends the next 48 hours working super hard somehow managing to get inside both ends of the tiny boat and put it back together. I sit and wait super excited that I will soon be able to take it back to America and test it at the Halls. Its strange not being able to do anything to help but great to watch a craftsman at work.

Custom squirt boat building