Marsport Condor

Forgot to say anything about the boat!

The Marsport is a long standing classic of the DW, legend says it was created for the DW. It isn't the fastest knife edged sprint machine ever designed but it is a fantastic stable work horse that is capable of a respectable pace.

I first used the Condor for my second DW in 2006 (Junior Vets). At 26h 05m it reduced my DW time by 13h 08m from my 2004 DW. 2004 was senior doubles in a Kirton Mystére, to be fair to Kirton the Mystére isn't that far removed from the Condor except ours was in Land Rover class- it had been repaired so many times it was only 2kg lighter than a Land Rover Discovery (MkI Disco - 3500kg/ 3.5T). The Mystére served us well but I pray I'll never paddle a racing kayak that heavy again!

Richard and I tried out the Condor a couple of weeks ago on the Thames. We got in, we paddled, we portaged, we paddled some more, we did a difficult high portage, we paddled some more and we didn't get wet.


In order to satisfy my curiosity I wanted to try the Marsport Gamma. To me the Gamma is the most stable thin boat there is. It leaves the Vajda Sonics standing. Richard and I managed about 15 cm. This doesn't sound very good but to quantify it Richard had not paddled a kayak for over ten years and we didn't capsize until we tried paddling and considering we had never paddled anything before the Condor together I was happy. I was also happy that I now knew the Condor was the right boat for us.

The team name? Well when we have the champagne launch of our ship we'll put up pictures which will explain all.

Tom

das boot

The boat has been decided upon

The extras chosen

The colour and design scheme are awaiting finalisation

Paddling

Today I went paddling in a racing K1, JKK Eclipse XL- It's a bit different from my Epsilon. The hardest part was not having a tiller bar and steering with foot peddles. It's also a metre longer than the Epsilon.

Here's my course. A power boat driver actually apologised to me because he powered up his engine. He didn't even affect me in any way. I told him that back in the UK powerboat owners weren't even aware that I existed!

I haven't paddled a racing boat on the sea before. The Eclipse is stable but the waves made it a bit of a challenge and the different steering made it harder. The cockpit size is smaller than my Epsilon, I think it's large key hole, which would make portaging on DW difficult.

K2

No, not the mountain

Change of plan with 300 days to go.
I'm changing from K1 to K2.
I once mentioned to my mate Richard if he ever fancied doing DW K2 ...
Well the changes are K1 to K2 and 4 day to 2 day straight through!

I best start doing some more training

The boat we're hoping to use is the Marsport Condor, that's the one we used in 2006 junior/vets

Marsport Condor
DW JV 2006 with Jake

DW2010

Everything's just gone Pete Tong!

Actually that's not quite true, everything's just changed- dramatically

If you ever say,"Why don't you do DW with me sometime?", using the power of beer, don't think there won't be consequences!

training 2

Went out on the bike today and this time I took my GPS with me. Unfortunately the battery ran out after less than 2 mins, well nobody can see what a bad training session it was! session map

The heart rate monitor wasn't working either, I don't know if that was because the battery was low or if I need a need battery in the chest strap. Well at least it was training which I guess is better for me than a Big Mac!

training 1

Well I've finished procrastinating and, now that I have a bike, I've just been out and done a 12 km training ride. I'm leaking a bit now. Just got to make sure that I keep putting in the training between now and DW.

As for paddling, I did get out on the sea yesterday in my little plastic boat just to remember what a kayak is.