Venice Kayak has now operated for eight seasons, and to celebrate that we have finally made some racks for the kayaks. For the first time ever we haven’t got any kayaks lying around on the ground.
The three boats below aren’t ours 🙂
Next project must be to make a rack for the gondola.
Ever since the fatal accident in August 2013 there has been a lot of debates about what to do to make boat traffic safer in Venice.
There has been little change in the year and a half since the accident. All changes have been blocked or sabotaged by the various vested interests in the city: the taxi cooperatives, the transporters, the gondolieri and the city administration itself, through the public transport company ACTV.
In short, nobody has wanted to give any concessions to make the city’s waterways safer for everybody.
Traffic today is more chaotic than ever.
Change is on the way, it seems. Articles in local papers refer to new regulations, which has not, however, been published on the city web site.
This might be a thing of the past
The new rules would (it seems) prohibit the passage of kayaks, canoes, SUPs, water cycles, dragon boats, yole and even some types of traditional Venetian boats (‘sandolini’), in the Grand Canal and about a dozen of other unspecified city canals.
Already published changes include limitations of the movement of all kinds of rowing boats on the Grand Canal, including the traditional Venetian boats from the local rowing clubs.
Venice is selling its soul for short term profit.
Now, how come such draconian changes come just now?
The thing is that Venice has no elected city administration. The former mayor fell on a corruption charge, and the entire city council sent in their resignation. Without a city council, the city is governed by a state appointed official until the next local elections in May this year.
The city is therefore run by people who have no knowledge of local affairs and traditions, and it seems they just try to manage by finding compromises acceptable to the most powerful lobbies.
When changing the rules, the city administrators have heard the taxi cooperatives, the transporters and the gondolieri, but they have failed to communicate with the local rowing clubs or any other with interests in how the city traffic operates.
Venice is ruled by the lobbies now.
We all know how it’ll end when decisions are taken exclusively based on short term economic interests. This does not bode well for Venice.
In July I was on a brief visit to Canada and Michigan where I participated in the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium.
On one of the tours I was on there was a beautiful three-part almost golden Valley Pintail, and the owner, a local coach named Belinda, let me have a go in it in the waves.
It was such a fantastic boat.
A few weeks later, again back in Venice, I spotted a notice on a British blog that Valley Sea Kayaks would terminate a bunch of older Valley models, including the Pintail:
Valley Sea Kayaks have just announced that they are intending to rationalise their range of sea kayaks. … The result of this rationalisation process is that certain models are to be discontinued permanently.
The last date for placing orders with Valley is the 31st of August this year so anyone considering purchasing one of the soon-to-be discontinued models has just over a week to make a decision and place an order.
I wrote to them, and Joshua from Valley answered by email:
Yes this is true, the Pintail will be discontinued at the end of this month.
So, I had a few days to decide if I wanted a Pintail or not.
There’s no Valley dealer in Italy, which complicated matters a bit, but in the end I ordered a Pintail through Kajakhotellet in Copenhagen, and they were very fast in getting the order in before closing time.
Hopefully I’ll get it in the colours of the ancient Venetian flag, which is orange and wine red, with lots of glitter, so it’ll be really flashy when I’m paddling down the Canal Grande at sunset 🙂
I had already started to gloat just for the anticipation of it 🙂
Then, just the other day, Anders of Kajakhotellet posted this on my Facebook:
Hi René, just wanted to let you know that we talked to the Valley Sea Kayaks guys at the Paddle expo in Nürnberg, and your new Pintail (in Venice colours) is the last Pintail in the world!
They threw in a Kevlar keelstrip just to celebrate…. and then they chopped up the mould 😉
So apparently my Pintail will be the very last ever made.
It will be a historic boat in a historic city.
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.
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
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
I just noticed that Skim Kayaks have a new model out, the Skim Dipper. They haven’t put up much information about it yet, except that it is 536cm long (17ft 7in) and 51.5cm wide (20.3in). There are some photos linked from the front page.
It seems to be a middle thing between the Skim Dex and the Skim Distance, in the sense that it looks a lot like them on the photos and the dimensions are somewhere inbetween.
I think it will be a welcome addition to the Skim family, suitable for those who want a more spacious boat than the Dex, but find the Distance too long to handle.
Here in Italy the Distance has another problem, which has to do with its handling on cars, not on water. Italian transport regulations only allows cars to transport objects shorter than 130% the length of the car, which means that to put a Skim Distance of 588cm on a car, the car must be at least 453cm long. Most Italians have shorter cars than that, so a Skim Distance is simply not an option here for most people. They can’t take it anywhere. The Skim Dipper might well be (if only you could get a Skim kayak here in Italy, which you can’t).
I’ll have to see if I can get to try one in Copenhagen next month or at the Stockenträffen in late August.
Photo from Skim Kayak’s web site.
Venice Kayak has taken delivery of one of the very first of Nigel Foster‘s new design, the Point 65º Whiskey 16. Nigel Foster himself took it for its virgin paddle in the lagoon at Bibione.
There are more photos of the Whiskey 16 and Nigel Foster on Flickr.
Today I unwrapped the most beautiful kayak in the world.
It is a Rockpool Menai 18 and Mike Webb has outdone himself. Many Rockpool kayaks are spectacular, but none is as beautiful as mine 🙂
I ordered the Menai 18 last summer, and it was my intention to use it for the journey in Sardinia this autumn, but it wasn’t ready in time. The boat was delivered to Kajakhotellet.dk while I was away, and only now have I had the time to unpack it.
I’ve paddled the Menai for quite a while, because Escape Kayak Center in Göteborg, Sweden, where I ordered it, borrowed me another Menai when they couldn’t deliver as promised. Not many kayak shops can match such a level of service, but Escape is rather special. Don’t miss out on a visit there if you happen to pass Göteborg.
There’s a handful of photos after the fold (about 1Mb) …
(more…)
Here are some photos of the new Skim Distance in Venice and surroundings.
The Skim Distance parked besides a very busy inner city canal.
Paddling in front of the city just east of St. Mark’s Square.
Parked on the side of the main canal at Murano.
Paddling with Maria in the lagoon of Venice near the island of S. Erasmo.
Among the multicoloured houses of Burano there was one with exactly the same colours as my Skim Distance.
Doing a slightly illegal foray into the military area of the Arsenale.
Still transgressing on military areas with impunity
My venetian friend Marco wanted to try the Skim Distance and immediately took a liking to it. The expression on his face says it all: don’t try to take it away from me!
I had the new Skim Distance out for a short paddle today. The colours of the boat are beautiful, but the weather was a bit dark and cloudy. That’ll be better in Sicily and Sardinia 🙂
Each time I try the Distance, I’m surprised how manoeuvrable it is, in spite of its considerable length.
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:
Today I unwrapped the most beautiful kayak in the world.
It is a Rockpool Menai 18 and Mike Webb has outdone himself. Many Rockpool kayaks are spectacular, but none is as beautiful as mine 🙂
I ordered the Menai 18 last summer, and it was my intention to use it for the journey in Sardinia this autumn, but it wasn’t ready in time. The boat was delivered to Kajakhotellet.dk while I was away, and only now have I had the time to unpack it.
I’ve paddled the Menai for quite a while, because Escape Kayak Center in Göteborg, Sweden, where I ordered it, borrowed me another Menai when they couldn’t deliver as promised. Not many kayak shops can match such a level of service, but Escape is rather special. Don’t miss out on a visit there if you happen to pass Göteborg.
There’s a handful of photos after the fold (about 1Mb) …
(more…)
