Looking forward to he photos, Kerry!
KerryOnKayaks wrote:
It is possible to paddle without foot support since you can push your feet and knees against the frame and skin, but if you want any speed and best control, having a firm platform for your feet to push off while paddling is really best
I think I've mentioned before that If you have short legs, the cross rib by your ankles makes a great heel rest, but protect the hull by having a thin layer of closed cell urethane mat
under the keel, as Kerry has suggested elsewhere
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Another important tip -- make sure that all the black plastic "hooks" along the keel bar are oriented to stick straight up BEFORE you start installing any of the ribs. Assemble the shock corded bar and then twist each segment to align them before putting it into the skin.
Great tip! Hugely important! If you've put Boeshield lubricant on the joints it helps too, as I think Kerry and others have already mentioned somewhere
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Inflating the sponson tubes by mouth is a real pain due to the fact that they didn't stagger them. Be sure you have the hand pump to do that.
...and I at least couldn't get enough air pressure in the tubes the one time I forgot my pump (grrrrrr)
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I've ruptured a sponson in the past by failing to open the valve to partially deflate it on a hot day. They can be repaired (Pakboat includes a nice little repair kit with the boat), but it's a nuisance that is easily avoided in most cases.
Be careful not to over-tighten the valves, as they will be even harder to undo under pressure, so you may (as I did once) detach the sponson from the valve seat - impossible to repair in my experience, which means a new sponson (note that the left and right ones are not the same but mirror images of each other). A dob of silicone lubricant from e.g. a dive shop helps seal the valves without needing to tighten them so much