Aloha,

As you may remember, I launched my boat this past weekend. She is named "Kulia" which is a hawaiian word meaning to strive or to try hard.

Last Sat. at about 10:15am, I poured a little Heiniken on her bow, wished her a long and bouant existance and launched her. I went out first by myself with hatches on and paddled just a little and then flipped her over on purpose to experience a wet exit. While standing beside her, I flipped her over and over a few times to see if the hatches where water-tight.

I took her to shore and took the hatches off. There was a little leakage, so I have a little more work to do but it wasn't too bad. Then we duct taped some foam pipe insulation around the edges of the kid cockpits and my kids Bobby (age 6) and Nikki (age 8) got in with me. Again the first thing we did was to flip her over on purpose so the kids could experience a wet exit.

After dumping the water out, we all three got back in and went for a nice long paddle. We spent the entire day paddling in various combinations, solo, double and triple. We also had a borrowed Scupper Pro for my girlfriend and friends to paddle. We set up a base on the beach and just ran short excursions from there.

The Kulia paddled well. She was stable and fairly efficient. I was throwing a lot of course correcting paddle strokes though. She really needs that rudder installed (soon).

Future plans:

The rudder is not installed yet due to mail ordered parts not comming in in time. (I ordered then over a month ago from Seaward Kayak.)

My Dow Board, "Blue Closed Cell Foam" hasn't arrived yet either, I ordered it 6 weeks ago. It is comming by barge and is due here next week. I didn't want to use the expensive Mini-Cell (white foam) for everything. So, when the foam comes in, I will sculpt inserts for both the foreward and aft kid cockpits to prevent them from filling with water when the kids are in them.

Lots of work still to do on my cockpit too, Eventually, it will be like a foam body glove. It will have the shape of my butt and legs cut into it. Again, so that there will be no place for water to accumulate.

Self bailing feature?

I need to put in foot straps and knee straps (or pedestal?) , and a seat belt so that I can stay in and do the eskimo roll.

I need to put in some recessed line attachement points around the cockpit to attach things like backrests, seat belts, knee straps, etc.

Compass?

Permanent bilge pump?

My kids loved paddling with me as well as in a separate boat. I have GOT to build them their own boat. I figure I will build one that can be attached to my boat like a catamaran or outrigger. That way the can paddle with me or detach their boat and paddle independantly.

Photos at the link below... I didn't spent too much time on the www page, so please excuse it. I'm busy preparing for my first sea kayak camping trip! We leave tomorrow to paddle the nearly inaccessable Hamakua coast of the big island of Hawaii. YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Again, thanks for all the helpfull advise!

Paul