What a great event. I'm glad I made the 6 hour drive up for it. Some absolutely stunning kayaks. The workmanship was spectacular. The demos were great. I was right in the middle of carving my own greenland paddle, so it was helpful to see someone else's approach to see how I could have done things a little differently. Rob Mack's strip building demo was invaluable. I learned quite a bit about the building process from his demo and it definitely got me reconsidering my initial plans about going with bead and cove strips, and his stapleless approach it great too. All around a great grip. It was also great to meet the guy who designed the boat I intend to eventually build...Jay Babina. He must be proud, as the Outer Island definitely seems to be a favorite with the builders. I think there were about a half dozen Outer Islands on the beach. Thanks also Jay for the paddling/rolling clinic. I actually used your advice just yesterday and went out in the shallows and worked on sculling....definitely a confidence booster...and once you've got that, you are right...the high brace carving turn is actually pretty easy....get your elbow right down into the water and lean over....its actually a lot of fun. Now I just need to work on it enough to build up my confidence to go out and do it in the middle of the lake Thanks again all and I look forward to the meet next year!!
: We had good weather - sunny with one 3 minute shower and a few overcast
: spots. Around 50 or more boats arrived. A real nice time with some new
: creations. The last photo (image nfd-7) is a stunning hard chine stripper
: built from the specs out of Harvey Golden's Greenland Kayak book. It's 19'
: x 16" wide (no typo) built by Kent LeBoutillier.

: Here's a few interesting ones among the many beautiful boats.

: http://www.outer-island.com/photos/nfd-2.jpg
: http://www.outer-island.com/photos/nfd-3.jpg
: http://www.outer-island.com/photos/nfd-4.jpg
: http://www.outer-island.com/photos/nfd-5.jpg
: http://www.outer-island.com/photos/nfd-6.jpg
: http://www.outer-island.com/photos/nfd-7.jpg