It was a colorful gathering that year 2011, decade passed quick, must have been having fun.
The Rasta Cuda… someone that I used to love.
I have no shortage of kayak photos.
Peace J
It was a colorful gathering that year 2011, decade passed quick, must have been having fun.
The Rasta Cuda… someone that I used to love.
I have no shortage of kayak photos.
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Keep the thread alive! My new-to-me Current Designs Prana on Kingfisher beach, Matagorda Bay (Port O’Connor)
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Favorite stock boats:
Grb Classic xl
Savage River Otegan
Savage River Saranac C4
Racing class:
Savage River DIIIX
Savage River JDPRO
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Al nice boats! I should be picking up my new-to-me Mirage 580 next weekend, I’ll definitely post some pics. It’s been getting a tune up, keel strip installed and a sailing rig.
THAT is 0ne pretty picture!!
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Here’s our 1986 Curtis Northstar on a local river. Love this canoe for pond hopping, marsh meandering, and exploring mellow rivers and creeks.
Tom
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Valley does not put rudders on their kayaks. I don’t think they include skegs either. Perhaps your buddy put a rudder on the Valley? Valley kayaks- Nordkapp’s & Ana’s Acuta’s- track very straight with the skeg built into the sterns design…
From the Valley web site you find that:
- skegs are standard
- rudders are an available option
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Technically no longer my boat, since I just sold her, but here is my awesome CD Sirocco. When I bought her I was a total newbie, with just a little canoeing experience, recently divorced and looking for a boat where I didn’t need a partner 
Multiple happy overnight trips on the Texas Colorado (which is where this photo is from), plus other Central TX destinations. I believe this was my very first campsite!
Loved that boat and would have kept her if I had room. Now paddling a Prana - won’t be dragging her up the bank on a rope tied to my truck (second pic is the take out on the Little River in TX).
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gee I owned two Nordkapps (1996-1998 models)and neither had drop down skegs….so skegs are not standard as you claim. Like I tried to explain, the reason Valley did not put drop down- wire or rope-skegs under the hull was because Valley incorporated the skeg into the sterns design. The skeg is in the design.
That is historically correct. The Nordkapp HM (hull modified) even had a tendency to lee cock. There is at least one person I heard of who sawed part of the skeg off to reconfigure the HM hull. However, today’s Valleys typically come with skegs. To quote from their web site (see Options, then rudders)
“Although most Valley sea kayaks are supplied with a retractable skeg system as standard …”
There are several vendors who provide Valley skeg parts. I’ve used the Kayak Academy in the Seattle area (Issaquah?).
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I worked for the Valley importer (Great River Outfitters) for three years (2010-2013) when it was operated by The Kayak Centre of RI. The Nordkapp has gone through many many modifications and versions in its 40+ year history, and there were a couple of versions that did not have a drop down skeg but rather a fixed “skeg” at the stern of the kayak. The Anas Acuta never had that fixed skeg although some were built without the pivoting one, I imagine much to the chagrin of the people who paddled those kayaks (I owned an AA for 9 years and can tell you it is a much more pleasant boat to paddle with a functional skeg!). Back in the 80s and 90s skegs may have been more optional but certainly by 2010 when I was ordering kayaks and unloading full shipping containers of them, every Valley kayak that came through our doors had a retractable skeg. I do recall one that was ordered with a rudder as well (I don’t recall which model).
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Actually, that was Nick Crowhurst. An old quote (2010?) from www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk says he “modified the boat by cutting away part of the HM stern and adding a KariTek wire skeg”
Just a worn, old blue 145 Tsunami, but it has taken me all over the upper Chesapeake and Jame’s River. Wouldn’t want to leave it home and would have to tow it if I got a faster boat.
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Looking good, Prana! 
I love those colors Wormdevil - would never have chosen them, but they sure work well!