Coastal Roaming

I was with some friends discussing what we do when some one asked what is your favourite past time.I thought long and hard and came up with a pretty good slogan for my: down time, relaxation, adventure pumping fitness related activities  that I like to participate in and came up with

 "I like to COASTAL ROAM "

as a concept I love it as you can often find myself and my family just hanging out anywhere along the coast  near the ocean somewhere just Coastal Roaming

Often it will involve getting some tucker(food) for lunch or dinner and foraging is becoming a great past time of ours. I have just introduced my son into free diving and at age 9 he's hooked.This so fits in with his love of water sports.He loves being in a kayak ( not so much the paddling side of it yet ) and exploring the coast,surfing,Nippers (Surf Life Saving Australia) Fishing and just playing on the beach...Oh and starting the fire on the beach to cook the fish

He managed to get his first Abalone not long ago and last weekend whilst we were coastal roaming to some of our favourite dive spots he had a go at spearfishing.

He did OK and scored a pan size Trevally on about his 100th shot : )

We ended up getting a good lunch meal between us and for the couple of hours we spent in the ocean,it was worth it.

I cant wait to go Coastal Roaming again 

Vacuum infusion

Wow....Wow ....Wow

We have made our first Vacuum infused hull yesterday after a long day getting everything setup.

Its an amazing system and a hoot to watch everything happen at once when the resin hits the material.
Its still early days using new resins and new materials but we made the right decision to take our time and getting these new processes right before we make it a standard option on all our kayaks.

Strangely it takes a little longer to make a hull but the bonus is that there are no fumes and no contact with wet resin which makes for a safer system for us the manufacturers and a cleaner environment for us all .

Whoo whoo !!!

New prices for 2012

With the  high value Aussie dollar a lot of the products we use have come down in price.This has been mainly driven by suppliers being able to deliver lower prices .

Strangely some prices have gone up but that is more to world demand in those products i.e Carbon and Kevlar has gone up by a staggering 30% in the last 6 months 

So rather than hang onto that extra money our selves we have decided to pass these savings onto customers resulting in considerably lower prices for the next few months or the Aussie dollar drops in value .
More on the web site

Nadgee Bombora LV  standard with skeg ..$ 2550

Nadgee Expedition no rudder or skeg ... $ 2950.00.. Skeg an extra $350.00 ..rudder an extra $450.00

Nadgee Solo  standard is now ..$3900 inc rudder

Ice Breaker layup in Kevlar is now $850.00

Light right and mean Carbon  $950

Light and easy unchanged at $650.00

That makes a lot of the kayaks seem pretty expensive especially the over seas brands and you have to ask your selves why are there so expensive compared to these......same question I always ask my self !!

Beat that all.

PHOTO: Caught out in big seas

Here's a photo that Andrew McAuley took just after we had paddled the 20 odd Kilometers from the southern extremities of Tasmania to Maatsuyker Island,half way around on our West Coast of Tasmania,Strahan to Hobart Trip.

We were paddling in huge swells and as we closed in on Maatsuyker the seas and currents made the ocean pretty messy. We ended up having to make some quick decisions and Paul Loker (in photo) noticed a gap through some off shore biggish rocks . I ended up having to do some huge high bracing as waves sent me through the gap.
We were hollering so much after getting through,the adrenalin was fair pumping.

And this was the sheltered side of the Island !!

 

Our first bagging

Well we finally managed to Vacuum bag our first kayak,well the hull anyway.

We are selling this kayak on ebay at the moment if your interested

Its a great looking kayak with a custom gel coat paint job..a real one off 

It was quite a learning curve to get it right,we ended up getting the first attempt wrong and had to bin the bits we stuffed up but I was warned that the failure rate can be high when you first start this kind of process.

There are lots of new materials and products out there for composite manufacturing these days and I'm making the most of trialing these new processes/materials in out "skillup" with the new moulds.
I even have 4 kg of bamboo resin coming from the US to trial, I don't think I will be making any boats out of it but it will be great to play around with a product like that.

Well a few more of these out of each new mould will see NKA staff ramping up the technology and heading for our Vacuum infusion process .

The main reason for all of this is to produce the highest standard kayak we can but also to get ourselves out of the fumes that are produced with a hand layup.

vacuum bagging then Vacuum infusion and life

Wow its been awhile since I have updated the blog as Ive  been busy with work and life commitments
Our family had the worst luck over the Summer period with broken wrists  (skateboarding) broken eye ( rock thrown in eye...don't ask!!) and a real life threatening scare with sun cancer ,please slip slop slap if your going in the sun .

But were all over that now ....all over it !!!

There has been lots of new happenings since I last posted.
The big one's has been the manufacturing  of three new moulds and the release of our new Double sea kayak the Nadgee 2 but more on that soon .
Getting Australian Canoeing Instructor qualifications last October was a big accomplishment and we are now offering Instruction and training through my sister buisness Wilderness Coast Sea Kayaking which is also the parent buisness for  a guided sea kayak tourism based buisness on the Beautifull Wilderness Coast 

so there has been lots going on ......lots 

We have had the moulds  made to enable us to use some new manufacturing processes and new resins/consumables .Its been very exciting and frustrating to get a handle on new techniques.

Firstly we are starting with Vacuum bagging then slowly progressing through to the Vacuum infusion process.Its all new stuff and I have had fun practicing making flat panels to start off with.
The not so fun part was making our first vacuum bagged hull on a Nadgee Solo only having to junk it and start again...very frustrating considering the time,material used to get it going but the experts tell me its to be expected in the first 1 to 10 kayaks and then once its mastered.. its mastered !!

 Our Nadgee 2 Double sea kayak was manufactured last year off the concept off the old Tasman Twin sea kayak.

We changed the bits and pieces we didn't like and have come up with an outstanding double sea kayak.
After manufacturing the first 6 now we are pretty sure we have got it right for a good purpose double sea kayak.Check the website for details 

So heaps has been going on in Life and in work and its all been a challenge but  as they say if it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger

When Fibrglass isnt fibreglass

Doing some research on the internet and I came across this youtube clip.

They might be talking about fishing boats and I might not agree with the outboard motor use !!

But I happen to use the same material and products from the same suppliers for this company and have visited both them and the Nuplex  testing site.

It shows the strength and versatility of good quality materials and workmanship  

If you need to know what your Nadgee Sea Kayak is  made from check this out.