We launched the Iggy today. The good old Lake Superior was pretty calm today with 1' rollers coming in from the southeast. So, we took the boat down to a friend's kayaking shop in town. Launched out without much fanfare. The boat turned lots of heads as we paddled around Artist's Point in Grand Marais. We made our way into the harbor and past the Coast Guard station, landed at the North House Folk school. There I answered a few questions about the kayak, and we got a friend to leave the very busy desk to come out and look at the boat.

The design is based of the 1959 Ken Taylor kayak. This is the kayak that spawned the Anas Acuta. The deck is my own design, the cockpit modern. It's built with western red cedar dyed blood red. The coaming and hatch recesses are carbon fiber. The hatches, air and water tight, are Kajaksport. The original kayak had a skeg-like feature, which I kept, but was removed from the AA. I also added a wire controlled skeg which I offset from the centerline. Happy Bottom seat with a foam pillar backband.

The boat paddles great. I built it for Ilena and she weighs 130. She loved it. I noticed that it takes off very quickly and hold a nice cruising speed, and we finally have a kayak that she has no problem keeping pace with me in. It turns very easily, is easy to roll, and fits my size 11 feet. Still, at my 190 pounds, I'm a little too heavy for it. Ilena said that she was able to catch a few waves very easily in it.

So, far it is a highly recommended design for a smaller paddle, which is the same praise given to its commercial counterpart. I've modified the deck design slightly after building it. I like the knee bumps that I added, but really this kayak is for someone smaller, so the knee bumps shouldn't be needed. I might even consider using an elliptical deck if I built it again. I can't wait to see how it does as the season moves into fall.