Adventures in Paddling the Pacific Northwest

An amateur kayak designer and builder from Seattle produces a design which becomes the almost legendary Mariner Coaster and when production of the commercial version ceases a skin-on-frame builder and paddler in Oregon continues the line with construction seminars all over the world.

Held in Port Townsend, WA every year since about 1984, the West Coast Sea Kayak Seminar has remained the premier single event learning experience in the Pacific Northwest.

The fuel uptake issue has been a major hurdle in preparing the Muthah-Ship for safe and reliable operation. During our first on-the-water operation of the Carver we could not get over 2500RPM which meant that the boat could not get onto a plane and reach design speeds of 15 to 20 kts. Although we intend [...]

It was supposed to be just a cruise but ended up testing several of the systems I had installed as safety features; like the 9.9 hp Mercury 4-stroke outboard on the transom and the Zodiac.

Introducing two bright and capable kids to kayaking is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world.

Building the F-1 designed by Brian Schulz of www.capefalconkayak.com based on the Mariner Coaster. A seven-day skin-on-frame workshop in Manzanita, Oregon.

As an official “ol’ guy” I’m more-or-less supposed to be computer illiterate. Unfortunately for my kids I had kept up with the computer revolution and kept ahead of my high-school-age children. My son, who works with me now in our network engineering consulting firm, once went with me to a talk I gave on network [...]

Just a few short years ago I would have had to drag out paper charts in order to plan a kayak trip. As a retired merchant marine officer I have a collection of charts gleaned from those we would have normally discarded from our ship’s navigation library. However the charts still had value for planning [...]