Tower Hamlets Canoe Club

Hi Greg,

During the last club spending review it was proposed that we would sell our non-seaworthy sea kayaks (the likes of the pilots) and use the proceeds along with the budget that was allocated to sea kayaks to purchase some more boats.

Justin, it's great of you to volunteer to help, I suggest that yourself and anyone else who would like to help speak to Nick and find out which boats he thinks are worth keeping and those that can go... ebay can fetch suprisingly good prices even for clapped out old kayaks!

As for the basin sea kayaks... in practice these are available a lot of the time, it's just as we approach a busier time of year for the basin they are needing them a little more often.

If anyone else has any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

Yatesy 

Yatesy et al,

There are a lot of people who are willing to assist in this matter, but perhaps are reluctant owing to uncertain parameters of authority. It would greatly assist me if you might issue the authority to sell named and identified sea kayaks for x price on the open market so that there might be no confusion about proceeds, etc., and then I will put them on ebay. The authority should be issued by the Committee, preferably in writing.

The purchase of the replacement kayaks might also be executed in a similar fashion, but I will need the written assurance from Lars that he will reimburse me £x for replacements on production of the requisite invoice and physical proof of purchase before I can buy anything on my credit card.

Cheers! 

Can I suggest that you double check with the basin the boats that are being sold.

1) they might want them

2) they might be basin boats (the only reason I say this is I have noticed in certain posts, some confusion between club and basin boats. for example not all plastic sea kayaks belong to the club.)

I don't paddle sea kayaks but one question people may want to ask themselves is:

If the green pilot cost 200 quid.  Whilst not sea worthy, would one rather paddle this, or a dancer or invader when on the Thames?

Whilst not all boats are expedition spec, for the money that might be got for them (ie: sell 2 to get enough money to buy 2/3 of a new one), are they not worth keeping for the river and training, rather than having 1 boat instead of the two & thus having to paddle a dancer?

Perhaps keep the pilots for sea kayak training as they are shorter than many sea kayaks & thus a got transition?

Ultimately it's up to those involved in this process, but as a club (rather than the sea kayak section of the club) are certain boats not useful (ie for training, getting beginners on the river, etc..) even though they cannot be used for sea trips, by hardened sea kayakers? Ultimately the boats belong to the WHOLE club rather than a sub-section of the club.

Just a thought.

For the first time in a while, I completely agree with our wise former Chairman :)

Jon Goodliffe:

Can I suggest that you double check with the basin the boats that are being sold.

1) they might want them

2) they might be basin boats (the only reason I say this is I have noticed in certain posts, some confusion between club and basin boats. for example not all plastic sea kayaks belong to the club.)

I don't paddle sea kayaks but one question people may want to ask themselves is:

If the green pilot cost 200 quid.  Whilst not sea worthy, would one rather paddle this, or a dancer or invader when on the Thames?

Whilst not all boats are expedition spec, for the money that might be got for them (ie: sell 2 to get enough money to buy 2/3 of a new one), are they not worth keeping for the river and training, rather than having 1 boat instead of the two & thus having to paddle a dancer?

Perhaps keep the pilots for sea kayak training as they are shorter than many sea kayaks & thus a got transition?

Ultimately it's up to those involved in this process, but as a club (rather than the sea kayak section of the club) are certain boats not useful (ie for training, getting beginners on the river, etc..) even though they cannot be used for sea trips, by hardened sea kayakers? Ultimately the boats belong to the WHOLE club rather than a sub-section of the club.

Just a thought.

Jon Goodliffe:

If the green pilot cost 200 quid.  Whilst not sea worthy, would one rather paddle this, or a dancer or invader when on the Thames?

I can't speak on behalf of the SK Section here, who have been giving some thought to this. However due to shortages I tried a Dancer with Chris practising rescues and rolling (painful thigh bruises for a week after), entertaining yourself and others in the process of trying to do a self rescue into Chris's boat.

I have come to following conclusions: practising SK rescues (and other techniques) mainly have to be done in SK boats (emptying an SK is very different to emptying other kayaks). The way they handle is very different. The Thames although often benign, can get rough so needs boats that are designed to cut through waves. The SK boats are longer, therefore faster, someone in a shorter boat might struggle to keep up, or even make headway against a strong current.

The course for getting on the Thames is the "Introduction to Sea Kayaking Course" which goes some of the way to preparing people for their 3 Star SK, and I think the majority in the SK section do not see Thames paddling as an end in it's own right (enjoyable as it is), but as a preparation for proper Sea Kayaking and a way to keep fit for this.

So the question on boat choice is to use exclusively Sea Kayaks (and their smaller cousins - tourers?), but getting the mix right, so there are more stable and forgiving ones for beginners, roomier ones for the larger paddlers etc.

Martin, just to clarify your conclusion, am I right in thinking that you are saying that it would be better to be in a sea kayak shaped/length-ish boat, such as a pilot, rather than a dancer or invader & thus supporting my hypothesis that; it would be better to keep such boats than ditch 'psuedo-sea-kayaks' (such as the pilots)  in order to buy fewer full expedition spec sea kayaks, thus relegating some Tuesday night river paddlers to REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY (ad infinitum) crap boats (ie: Dancers & Invaders)?

Sorry for my asking but my brain has ceased to work from the shock of Sean agreeing with me

If this is the case, can we please rescind the decision to sell old boats, which I fully understand was made to help sea kayaking, yet ultimately I think would actually only benefit a few experienced sea kayakers rather than aiding sea kayaking development (which would ultimately put more money at sea kayakers disposal) by getting more people involved in sea kayaking?