The Baja Paddle

The “Galene” / Herman’s skiff

My boat is the second one that I built. Originally I was going to use the the baidarke, but when Martijn decided to join the trip, the building of a second boat became mandatory; this was going to be a rowboat from a design by Ron Rantilla called Odyssey 18. Ron is also the inventor of the Frontrower rowing system which we will use. This system allows the paddler to be facing forward when paddling and to use one’s hands and feet concurrent, or independent from each other.

I started building this boat in September of 2009, and finished in December. We have named this boat “Galene”.  In ancient Greek mythology, Galene was a sea nymph responsible for calm seas and since this is what we hope for we decided to woe old King Neptune by naming the boat after one of his disciples.

Both boats have been upgraded to “expedition” standard which means that we built in watertight compartments; numerous attachment points inside the boat, as well as additional anchoring points for the Frontrower (Galene). We still need to make sponsons to be attached to the side of the boat which will give additional flotation when required.

“Samoset” / Martijn’s Aleut baidarka kayak

Martijn’s boat is a kayak, based on an old Eskimo design, the Aleut baidarka. We named the kayak “Samoset”, my Grandson’s middle name, which means “he who walks far” in an old Native American language. The artwork was inspired by a number of different Eskimo designs and done by Marijke.

The building of the kayak took from January until June of 2009 and it was truly a community project. Almost all of our visitors, family and friends, we had during that time contributed, mainly helping me over a problem, or preventing one from developing in the first place. Martijn put in a good bit of work when he was visiting and his expertise in working with epoxy came in very handy at times. Marijke of course also helped took part and also created the artwork on the boat.

The baidarka (Samoset) will still get a compass mounted on deck; it already has netting for small stuff in front of the cockpit, and we may decide to use a deck bag to hold items that may not get wet; end sleeves to hold a spare breakdown paddle on deck only need to be mounted to complete the outfitting.

Both boats were built with the coastal conditions in mind. We will be landing on rocky beaches, or just plain rocks and we need to expect some heavy surf landings. The baidarka was built with 6 mm plywood, sheathed inside and outside in fiberglass and with epoxy reinforcements in the bow and stern. The rowboat was also built with 6mm plywood with the keel reinforced by an extra layer of plywood to make it 12mm.

The bottoms of both boats were coated in epoxy mixed with graphite, which, according to many experts will make it slide easier off rocks and thus reduce the risk of punctures. The bow and stern of each boat have brass strips over a Kevlar strip to protect the ends.