Malachite performance

Having waited some time to get the new yak on the water for some serious paddling, the oppertunity came with a weekend on the North East coast. Saturday saw a few friends and myself out of North bay at Scarborough, the weather was rain with a slight wind and the sea had about a foot of swell so nothing that could not be handled.

Once out on the water I soon got used to the tippy feel of the yak and settled in to paddling. The yak moved through the water with ease which I expected but I was really suprised by how it tracked keeping a straight line even with cross wind, having spent the last couple of years paddling the Big Game and fighting the slightest breeze to keep straight, this yak was a pleasure.


After 20 mins or so, we decided to put a bit of recovery practice in, so I capsized the yak and took the plunge.

On starting my self recovery I was amazed at how the yak came to meet me, with the gunwale below the waterline it made recovery very easy, the only thing needing any thought was how not to go straight over the other side. The narrow beam means that weight shifting suddenly from one side to the other needed to be done with a bit of agile presision, something I`ve grown out of over the years but the riding a bike theory applies to yaking and I managed to stay upright.
After a couple of re-entries we got back to paddling and ventured further from the beach, paddling into the wind, across it and then with it, the yak was behaving itself nicely but it didn`t seem challenging enough so I started a bit of messing about. I flipped over the side and made my way round to the bow, I intended mounting the yak from the bow just to see if it could be done, well maybe on a mill pond with an acrobat but not me, not today. First attempt and I was straight back in, second go and I managed to get up on the bow deck and sat for about 5 seconds, bump from a wave and the sea had got me back in, leave that for another day I thought.

Having seen the pictures taken on the day, courtesy of Andy Elliot, the Malachite seems to be sat a bit low in the water suggesting that my 13 stone may just be a little short of its load carrying ability, if I were to compare it to other s.o.t`s, that may be the case, looking at the first picture with Dave`s sit in sea kayak, both seem to be at the same level so I`m not to concerned. A future test of load carrying will have to take place.



The Sunday of the weekend saw us launch at Flamborough`s North landing. Now this isn`t a place for the faint hearted, the slip is enough to bust your lungs when you are pulling your yak back up.

The forcast was looking good and the weather was perfect. We made our way down the slip and launched on to a calm sea, paddled out of the cove and into a wind of about 5mph, we were heading into the wind and up towards Bempton cliffs. I had put on the thigh straps today, these were supplied with the yak and what a difference they made. Control of the craft was much improved and they also allowed me to deliver more power to my paddle stroke, I will keep them on the yak from now on.
Arriving under Bempton we decided to do a spot of fishing, now the comfort of the BG was begining to be missed. I prefer to fish side saddle, the malachite does not lend itself to this very easily, I felt very vulnerable and decided that for the time being, sat in the seat with my legs over each side was the safer option.  Having spent an hour fishing without any sign of fish, we decided to head back down the coast and try our luck near the landing, I stowed my gear and off we went.

I stopped along the way and beached my yak at the bottom of the cliffs on the rocks, by this time the sea had got up a bit and there were 2/3ft waves breaking. I noticed Dave was heading towards me in his Dorado, he took one look at the shore line and promptly turned back out to sea. Definately one advantage poly yaks have over glass yaks is you can beach on rocks.
Once we reached the landing the others carried on with their fishing while I carried on getting to know my yak.

I`ve enjoyed my first couple of days afloat on the Malachite and look forward to many more outings and more new experiences.

DIY Anchor reel

Having used a cable tidy for the past two years, I decided it was time to sort myself out with something a little better for storage of my anchor rope.
I have found myself short sometimes with the 50m of 8mm rope that I normally use, so replacement storage needed to hold more rope, using 8mm would need something large to hold 150m or more. I needed to change my requirements on the size of rope for anchoring. Fishing a lot of rocky ground means a fast anchor needs a comfortable grip on a thicker rope, to pull it free. Deeper water often has cleaner ground so thin rope would be ok, as a lot of yak anglers I know use paracord, I opted for the same. With my thinking cap on I began my calculations for making a reel and how big it would need to be, after some scribbling and use of a calculator I had achieved a size and design.
Next a list of materials, what I had already and what I needed to source. I had everything I needed but required something for the sides, a quick trip to Tesco`s and I had a good sized 8mm thick nylon chopping board for a minimal price of £3.
A friend of mine has a very big old lathe, I had a word and got a couple of hours time in his workshop.

I marked out the chopping board with 2 circles at 165mm diameter, then marked one of these with all the drilling centres I needed for fixing the hub, the shaft, the turning knob, a shackle and ventilation holes. First hole to be drilled was in the centre, this allowed me to bolt both pieces together for machining everything else, and end up with two matching sides. I drilled a pilot hole in every point marked, then began with a 5mm bit drilling all the hub fixing holes and the points where the knob and shackle were to be fixed. The ventilation holes were drilled with a 20mm and a 25mm Fostner bit as these are neater than holesaws. The next job was to mount the whole thing in the jaws of the lathe chuck, the bolt holding the 2 pieces together was of sufficient length to do this. The job of turning was very easy because of the soft nature of the nylon board and they were soon down to size with a nice smooth finish.
The hub was next, a spare piece of 50mm nylon bar was put in the lathe and both ends machined flat reaching a length of 100mm. While in the chuck I took the opertunity to drill the centre for the shaft, a 6.5mm drill to allow a clearence hole for the 6mm stainless shaft.
While the lathe was still warm, I decided to get everything done that involved machining so some 20mm nylon rod was put in the chuck. I turned a knob on the end of it and drilled the centre, this was cut off and I machined the inside face. I put the rod back in the chuck and proceeded to make the handle for the shaft, length was 125mm. One end of the handle and one end of the knob then received further attention and were recessed to hide the ends of screw threads and nyloc nuts.

Back to the hub, this needed to be drilled and threaded to fix the sides to it. A piece of 6mm screwed rod was cut to size and the reel side plates were bolted in place using the centre holes. The whole thing was then held on the pillar drill and every other fixing hole was drilled. I had intended using 6 fixings on each side but thought better of it and 3 would do. Once drilled, the screwed rod was taken out and the fixing holes were tapped to 5mm.

The final piece to make was the shaft, this was made from a piece of 6mm stainless rod cut to size and threaded on the ends, the finished length was 240mm.

The side plate on the knob side of the reel then had the centre hole drilled out to 14mm, this was to recess the nut on the end of the shaft but also allow the use of a socket to tighten it up.

Assembly was a dream, with the use of precision machinary, everything fitted perfect. The side plates were fixed in place with 3 - 25mm X 5mm countersunk screws on each side. A nut was put on one end of the shaft with a washer then inserted through the reel, 2 stainless washer were put on the shaft followed by the handle, then a further washer and finally the other nut, everything was tightened up just enough for the whole thing to spin freely. The knob was fixed in place again leaving it to spin.

An oversight soon became apparent, the only place to fix a cord to the reel was the ventilation holes. A quick thought on the matter soon had a drill in my hand and I was drilling into the hub through one of the unused side plate fixing holes, this came out just inside the edge of the hub.

It was finished, my new anchor reel. A small D shackle was put in the hole opposite the knob, this will be used for a snap link to lock the anchor reel off and fix it to the anchor buoy.

I just needed to put on the paracord. I had purchased a spool of 100m off Ebay, price £7. I threaded the end through the hole I had drilled in the hub and tied a knot, then began to wind, it didn`t take too long before I reached the other end of the spool leaving plenty of room on the anchor reel for at least another 50m, maybe another 100m once the cord has been wet and re-wound back on tight.

I am pleased with the end result and look forward to using my new anchor reel. I must admit, making it was a great pleasure which will always be in my mind when I have it in my hand.

Total cost for this project including cord was around £13.