René Seindal

Or maybe just a contender.

Sea Kayak Design is an Italian kayak brand, well designed and well built. Venice Kayak has three of them, one of each of the original three models. The one on the photos is the 16ft model.

Getting ready for a tour, controlling the essential gear.

This guy just went up and down a short stretch of lagoon canal behind the Vignole, training in a little corner sheltered from the winds of the day.

Venetian boats at work. There’s a green grocer on a boat behind the gondola, and a topo to the right. Three different uses for boats in Venice.

(this is an old post I found un-published on the blog – its more than a year old – better late than never, I guess)

I haven’t done as much about Venetian rowing – voga alla veneta – this winter as I would have liked, but today we went rowing in the Gondolone, a huge gondola type boat for eights oarsmen.

We paddled from the club at Ca’ Bianca on the Lido to Rialto for a snack, and back again.

(more…)

In March, 2010, I intend to paddle around the Mediterranean island of Sicily, a trip of some 900 km along a stunningly beautiful coastline, where, besides the natural beauty of the coast and the sea, we’ll pass Greek temples, Phoenician settlements, Roman ruins, Arab architecture, Norman city fortresses, Spanish towers, baroque cities, active vulcanoes and much more.

In 2007 I embarked on a project of circumnavigation of the two largest Mediterranean islands, Sicily and Sardinia. The plan was to paddle around the two islands in October and November, 2007, but things didn’t work out as intended, and I stopped having done 2/3 of Sardinia only. The following year, in May, I went back and did the remaining part of Sardinia alone. The posts from that trip are here.

My plans for Sicily were put on hold as all my effort and energy went into starting a kayaking business in Venice, Italy. I have now worked in Venice for two seasons, with quite satisfactory results. I have therefore decided that I deserve a holiday, which brought the circumnavigation of Sicily out of the bag. One has to finish what one begins, even it it takes a bit of time.

I will do the journey with a dear friend of mine, Cori Donohoe. I’m very happy to have found in Cori a paddling partner I feel I can fully trust, both in terms of paddling skills, endurance, dedication to our common project, and personal compatibility.

I’m also very happy that I finally get to do something that has been high on my wish list for three years now, almost since I took up sea kayaking.

The journey will start in Catania on the eastern coast, and take us counter clockwise in the shadow of Etna past Taormina, Messina, along the north coast to Cefalù and Palermo where we will no doubt have to take a break or face the consequences. From there the journey goes to western Sicily, to Castelammare, Segesta, Lo Zingaro, San Vito lo Capo,Trapani and Marsala, and along the southern coast with Mazzaro del Vallo, Selinunte, Agrigento, Ragusa, then up north past Syracuse back to Catania.

March is not the best time of year for such a trip. It would have been easier to do it during the summer half of the year, but I have to tend to my business in Venice from April to October, and Cori exploits a period between jobs to do the journey. As such the period was more or less forced on us.

The weather shouldn’t be extreme. Conditions for the seas around Sicily in March are average winds of F1-F3, at most up to F4-F5, average waves of 0.5-1m, up to 1.5m and water temperatures of 14°-16°C. We have paddled in such conditions before, and it should be well within our abilities.

The entire trip is approx. 900 km. We should be able to average 40km/day as we’re both fit and healthy, which means 22-23 paddling days. We’ve allocated the entire month of March to the trip, so we can have two weather (or rest) days à week and still be within schedule.

We definitely want some days on land during the trip, for touristy stuff. Sicily is full of marvellous things to see, and it wouldn’t be just not stopping at places like Selinunte, Agrigento, Siracusa, Taormina and Cefalù, not to mention some of the places along the coast where we have friends. Sicily is not a place where you offend you friends by declining their hospitality

Should we have a few days left after the trip there’s still plenty to see and do in Sicily.

Cori will be paddling a Sea Kayak Design 526, on loan from the producer, Over-line Kayaks in Catania. I had planned on using a Skim Distance from Skim Kayaks in Sweden, the same boat I paddled around Sardinia, but haven’t been able to get it repaired in time after the journeys it has made in Sardinia. I will instead paddle an Aretusa from Over-Line Kayak.

I’ve just received a message, in Swedish, from Skim Kayaks stating that they’re suspending production and sales because they’re having problems making ends meet  economically.

Its sad because the boats are fantastic. I have paddled a Skim Distance around Sardinia, and will take it around Sicily in March, and I have recently bought a Skim Dex for use as a guide kayak in Venice, where its combination of speed, agility and stability makes it the perfect boat for paddling in Venice.

Here’s the message in my unauthorised  translation from Swedish:

We take a break

We started Skim Kayaks in 2002 with the ambition of building and selling sea kayaks which we found missing on the market. And which we believe other paddlers found missing too. The goal was produce boats locally and as environmentally friends as possible, boats with characteristics and details meant to make it more fun and safer to paddle in all sorts of weather, all year. Boats that we ourselves as paddles felt we could grow in.

Seven years and many Skim Kayaks later we feel happy, and a little proud, that we have reached our goal. The only goal we haven’t reached is the economic. It is hard making a living making kayaks in the way we wanted. We have therefore decided to take a break and think hard about what we can do to build the boats we want to build. In a way that doesn’t conflict with what we think is important.

From now on it will not be possible to order a Skim Kayak. While we ponder what to do with the boats we have, we will continue to sell kayak accessories that we use ourselves and that we think is good. You will find that on kayaksaker.se. See you there.

Great paddling!

Göran Pehrson och Anders Nyström

and here’s the original Swedish text:

Vi tar en paus

Vi startade Skim Kayaks 2002 med ambitionen att bygga och sälja havskajaker som vi saknade på marknaden. Och som vi trodde att några andra paddlare också saknade. Målet var att på ett så miljömässigt sätt som möjligt närproducera båtar som hade egenskaper och detaljer som skulle göra det roligare och säkrare att paddla i alla slags vatten, året om. Båtar som vi själva som paddlare kände att vi kunde utvecklas i.

Sju år och många Skimkajaker senare känner vi oss glada, och lite stolta, över att vi nått det mål vi en gång satt upp. Det enda som inte riktigt nått ända fram är det ekonomiska. Det är svårt att leva på att bygga kajaker på det sätt vi tänkte oss. Vi har därför bestämt oss för att ta en paus och fundera noga på hur vi ska göra för att kunna bygga de båtar vi vill bygga. På ett sätt som inte tummar på det som vi tycker är viktigt.

Från och med nu kommer det därför inte gå att beställa en Skimkajak. Men medan vi funderar över hur vi ska göra med de båtar vi har och de båtar vi vill ta fram, kommer vi fortsätta att erbjuda kajaktillbehör som vi själva använder och tycker är bra. Dom hittar du som vanligt på kajaksaker.se. Vi ses där!

Skön paddling!

Göran Pehrson och Anders Nyström

Today we had the end of season event at the Diadora rowing club, where I should have spent a lot more time this summer.

Most of the morning was taken up by ‘social’ regattas for each of the types of rowing practiced in the club, both ‘English’ rowing (backwards in various types of boats), and Venetian rowing, voga alla veneta (standing up looking forwards).

The Venetian race was held in sandoli a quattro. The eight boats were same boats as are used in the official regattas throughout the summer. They’re all numbered and differently coloured, so they’re easier to distinguish at a distance. I was in the violet boat, number 3, with Silvia, Rollo and Alessandro.

Silvia is an accomplished rower, who have participated in races many times, so she knew exactly what to do and when. The rest of us were all more or less beginners, so Silvia’s coaching was much needed. I was a prua, in the front.

Getting ready

Fitting the forcolas on the boats.

Wading around on the boats.

Launching

Getting everybody on board

Waiting

Getting the hang of the boat

Spectators

Waiting for the start

Milling about …

in one of the most beautiful spots on this globe

Still waiting for the start

The last boats are coming out

Racing

Well, no photos, as I was rowing like a madman having Silvia in the back shouting orders at us continuously

The start didn’t come off perfectly, but we managed to keep up with the leading boats, and after the first 500m we rounded the buoy second. Silvia was shrewd enough to move us into the canal along the Lido, as the tidal flow there would help us. At that time we were second, so I don’t know what the boats behind us did. I assume they did the same.

As we reached the finishing line I was completely out of breath and my legs were shaking, but Silvia paced us on mercilessly, and we finished the race in good order between the firsts.

Pulcini in kayak

My friend Marco teaches kayaking to a handful of small children, and they participated in the day’s events too.

What better place can there be in the world for learning to kayak?

Marco needs to confer with the judges.

The race has begun

and the winner arrives triumphant.

Awards

Green flags for third place

White flags for second place

Red flags for first place

Your’s truly got a red flag

The kayak chicks got a medal each.

The entire youth lineup of the Diadora

Socialising

Could there possibly be a more stupendous place to hang out after a race?

Clearing up

Chief coach Lino Farnea didn’t like his oars in disorder.

Last year I started rowing Venetian style, voga alla veneta, where you stand up in the boat, looking forward, pushing on the oar to move forward. I continued Venetian rowing when I returned to Venice this spring, but then work took over, and I haven’t been rowing for several months now.

Yesterday I finally went rowing again at the Canottieri Diadora. My friend Enzo, who has an orchard neighbouring the camp site where I start my kayaking tours from, had asked me to go rowing Friday morning. When I went to the club, I met Krystyna, an Austrian girl who has been rowing at the Diadora for three years.

Consequently, we went all three of us in a sandalo for three, towards Venice. Enzo, the more experienced rower, a poppa (in the back); Krystyna, the smallest of us, a prua (in the front); and me in the middle.

It took a little while before I quite got the hang of it again, as we crossed the lagoon south of Venice. The waves weren’t much, maybe half a foot, but still enough to make me feel unstable stading up in a rather narrow boat in the middle of nowhere.

Conditions were calmer when we arrived at the Giudecca island, but then we had to cross the Canale Giudecca, one of the busiest and most wavy places in Venice. It was definitely difficult, but we got across safe and sound, passed though one of the smaller canals on the other side, and entered the lower part of the Canal Grande, between the Accademia bridge and the Madonna della Salute church.

The Canal Grande was quite calm and rowing was easy. We got in a bit of a squeeze between some gondolas near the Rialto Bridge, but nothing serious. Its always a busy place, not matter what kind of boat you’re taking there.

We moored illegally on a private mooring near the Rialto Markets and went for a snack. Enzo knew a good little place, and on the way we passed the fish markets. I’ve never really spent any time there in the morning before, always just rushed past on my way to work, so I took some quick photos on the way, without losing sight of the other two, who were clearly a lot more attracted to the prospect of vino and cicchetti.

The little place Enzo took us to were completely devoid of tourists, which is quite rare in Venice, the only other guests being a handful of elderly men drinking wine and reading newspapers.

A door in a nearby calle had a forcola for a handle.

We returned the same way we came. First under the Rialto Bridge, then down the Canale Grande, through the Rio San Trovaso, across the Canale Giudecca, through the Giudecca and across the lagoon to the club at Ca’ Bianca on the Lido.

The trip down the Canale Grande wasn’t that difficult, except for a bit of traffic. There was plenty of space for the oars most of the time. In the smaller canals its more difficult, as we had to be alert and pull in the oar each time we passed a moored boat, a stair, a pole or something else restricting our space. The Canale Giudecca was as difficult on the return journey as on the way out, but we made it across anyway. Crossing there is quite an exercise in balance, and the conditions weren’t even bad, compared to what I’ve seen there while kayaking.

The return across the lagoon was the most challenging part. The wind had picked up a bit, so we had it from the front left, and Enzo moved me to the the back position, a poppa, but as I had to push hard to keep the boat on track, I soon managed to dislodge the oarlock, the forcola. As we were entering a canal near S.Clemente the time was not for shifting positions, and I continued with a still more wobbly forcola until we were safe across the canal. Then Enzo moved back a poppa and we rowed rather slowly back to the Diadora, as the forcola would no longer stay put if put under pressure.

Back at the club eight very colourful sandoli were moored. They are eight of the ten sandoli the city of Venice has for the official regattas during the summer. When not in use for the regattas, the various rowing clubs of Venice and surroundings can borrow them for training or use in unofficial regattas.

The boats are at the Diadora for the end of season event, which includes a club regatta in sandoli for four.