Newsletter, April 2000

April Program -- Tuesday April 4

 Before kevlar, fiberglass, plastic or wood, kayaks were made from animal (usually seal) skin stretched over a frame of wood and/or bone. These boats were used in the most unforgiving of seas, and the method of construction produces a craft that is probably more seaworthy than any of the modern commercial methods of construction.

Ken Gates, a local contractor, has just completed a skin on frame kayak. Since sealskin and whalebone are a bit hard to come by, he used a wood frame and a fabric skin. Ken has had a substantial amount of experience in offshore and surf kayaking and kayak sailing in the Monterey Bay area. His previous experience and his desire for a tandem sailing craft have influenced his design and construction techniques.

Ken will have his kayak at the meeting and will discuss the general area of skin on frame construction as well as the design considerations for producing a safe sailing kayak.

(ed. note: I am really looking forward to this presentation, as this is the construction method I have settled on for the next kayak I build. The last two boats I built were stich & glue and several club members have built strippers, so I would expect an interesting discussion of the merits of the various methods.)

Hazard Reports

The R-G reported the Mckenzie is completely blocked by fallen trees at milepost 44.5. The blockage is located in the middle of an "S" curve and should obviously be avoided.

Upcoming Trips

April 29 - Triangle Lake - leader Omar Nelson

Power boats, water skiers, jet skis - plenty of them in midsummer, but not in April. The weather and water are too cold for those folks at this time of year. A good chance we will have this popular midsummer lake all to ourselves.

May 13 - Fish Lake - leader Chris Luneski

Did this one last year and it was so pleasant it has been scheduled again. More details in the May Newsletter.

May 20 - Willamette River Cleanup - leader Omar Nelson

TBA - Willamette River (moving water run) leader -Phil Backman

June 17 - Coastal Lakes - leader Omar Nelson

June ?? - Larison Cove - Joint trip with Salem Club. Leader - Steve Butler

Trip Report

An odd caravan was spotted heading west on Hwy. 126 on March 25. Three cars with boats on top- a canoe, a sit on top kayak and two, count 'em two, folboats. Jim and Janet Peterson, Phil Backman, Omar Nelson and his sweet wife Neila Campbell were off to Florence to meet with Dennis and Anne and Joe and Jeff for a day of paddling up, yes up, the Siuslaw River.

Dennis and Anne were paddling their new to them Blue Hole canoe and Joe and Jeff were paddling fabric covered kayaks. Joe, Jeff and Phil are going to bicycle from Canada to Mexico a month at a time over the next few years on a bike trail along the Rocky Mountains.

We put in at the boat dock in Florence after paying our $1 per car parking fee. Paddling up with the tide we got to Cox Island and the South Slough in pretty quick time. As we paddled into South Inlet a breeze came up so we looked for a sheltered place for lunch. We found a beauty just under the railroad bridge. No wind, sand beach, and great views.

After a leisurely lunch of good food and visiting we started to work off the calories. The breeze out of the north freshened making the paddle back to the bottom of Cox Island a chore. Ah, we thought once we make the crossing into the North Fork we should be sheltered from the wind. Wrong. We paddled the four miles or so up the North Fork with the wind almost always in our faces. Most of us were tired puppies when we finally made it to Bender's Landing. Jim Peterson seemed almost fresh as a daisy after paddling his sit on top back and forth, leading the way and then making sure us slow poke canoeists were ok. Many thanks to Janet Peterson for driving shuttle even though she wasn't paddling.

The sun was warm, the scenery great except for a clearcut at the mouth of South Inlet, the group feeling was warm as the sun. What more could we ask of a day on the water. Well, maybe a few more birds would have made the day perfect.

Omar

March Minutes

Former president Omar Nelson again opened the monthly meeting which was held March 7th. The fifteen of us whom attened the meeting were treated to a wonderful slide show by Chris Luneski. "Where the Rain Goes : an Oregon Sampler" Of course the theme was WATER. Water in all it's forms, dew, fog, rain, snow. River, stream, lake, ocean. We even saw the show twice. Once with accompanying music and again with narration so we could know where all the wonderful photos were taken. Thank you Chris.

Omar mentioned he found an old and dusty copy of goals the club set a few years ago. Another possible goal setting meeting was discussed. Call Omar at 345-5115 if you are goal oriented.

Member Notes

Coal Oil Stove, from "Four Months In a Sneak-Box" by Nathaniel H. Bishop, 1879

"The recently perfected coal-oil stove does not give off disagreeable odors when the petroleum used is refined, like that known in the market as Pratts Astral Oil. This brand of oil does not contain naptha, the existence of which in the partially refined oils is the cause of so many dangerous explosions of kerosene lamps.

Recent experiences with coal-oil burners lead me to adopt, for camp use, the single-wick stove of the ‘Florence Machine Company’ ..... The Florence stove ... is one of the few absolutely safe oil stoves, with perfect combustion and no unpleasant odor or gas. This statement presupposes that the wicks are wiped along the burnt edges after being used, and that a certain degree of cleanliness is observed in the care of the oil cistern.

I do not stand alone in my appreciation of this faithful little stove, for the company sold 40,000 of them in one year. In Johnson’s Universal Cyclopedia, Dr. L. P. Brockett of Brooklyn, New York expresses himself in the most enthusiastic terms in regard to this stove. He says: ‘For Summer use it will be a great boon to the thousands of women whose lives have been made bitter and wretched by confinement in close and intensely heated kitchens; in many cases it will give health for disease, strength for weakness, cheerfulness for depression, and profound thankfulness in place of gloom and despair’. (ed. Note – now that is one hell of a stove).

Boatmen and conoeists should never travel without one of these indispensable comforts. Alchohol stoves are small, and the fuel used too expensive, as well as difficult to obtain, while good coal-oil can now be had even on the borders of the remote wilderness. The economy of its use is wonderful. A heat sufficient to boil a gallon of water in 30 minutes can be sustained for 10 hours at the cost of three cents."

(ed. note: Wow! Where can I get one of these? But what in the world is coal oil and where in this remote wilderness can it be found?)