Thanks are due to Darren Bush of
Rutabaga in Madison, Wisconsin for the pictures; and to Brian
Day of Pyranha US Sales and Marketing for the lead. Brian told
me this in an email in 2012- "Back in the late 90’s I
worked there and we found the boat sitting on a rack over at Nigel
Dennis’ place. We arranged for it to be loaded into a container
and shipped over to become part of the small canoe and kayak collection
that we had at the shop. Nigel would know the history of the boat
and who paddled it on the trip.
Very cool historic boat. Decklines run through
rubber tubes glassed beneath the deck. Elastics on stainless pad
eyes. Aluminum lifeboat hatches. “Dayhatch” glassed behind the
seat to take a BDH pack that could be accessed while paddling.
Chimp pump with handle melted and bent out of the way of the cockpit
coaming. And they have the original all neoprene spraydeck with
built in suspenders." |
I had this from Nigel Matthews when the pictures were first posted
on UKSKGB's forum : "The boat pictures are interesting
and look very ‘shiney’ I must admit that my Cape Horn boat looks
considerably more battered. Just as matter of interest we obviously
took the original Nordkapps to Nordkapp and as result of this experience
modified them when we got back by adding a permanent skeg which
made them much more directionally stable. Just before Cape Horn
I sold my Nordkapp Nordkapp to a friend and the boat suffered severe
if not terminal damage on a weir in Leicestershire – an ignominious
end. I don’t know if you know but inside the original boats was
glassed the name of the owner. Also Lendal made paddles for us with
our initials on. Maybe they are collectors’ items now??? The paddles
were really good – asymmetric blades with a glass loom. I’ve still
got my but one blade was broken off by some idiot who took them
out of the office without me knowing and then didn’t have the decency
to tell me he’d broken them. For the Horn I used normal slalom paddle
– a wooden mark Gees – which I still have in pristine condition"
And this, some time ago when he and I first corresponded:
"(I) was a member of the Irish Sea crossing group which
we did in Anas Acutas, then the Nordkapp Expedition of 1975 which
the boat was designed for then the subsequent Cape horn Expedition.
The Anus Acuta and my original Nordkapp I sold but I still have
the Nordkapp which I paddled around Cape Horn. Mine was the boat
which became warped during passage out to South America and which
Frank Goodman part straightened out over a camp fire and a huge
pair of pincers made from branches of a tree. The boat had not
been on the water for some years and I keep meaning to paddle
it but I keep finding excuses not to.
With the early modifications to the boat a number of people
were involved with ideas myself, Sam Cook, John Anderson, Colin
Litten and Peter Davis. A lot of ideas came from the Irish Sea
crossing, from a frantic circumnavigation of Skye prior to Nordkapp
and then following the Nordkapp Expedition. Following the Horn
Expedition, when the boat became really popular Frank developed
the variety of versions.
Team members of the Horn Expedition, myself, Frank Goodman,
Barry Smith and Jim Hargreaves are still around and Frank celebrated
his 80th birthday some time ago. Barry is living in Edinburgh
and still very much out of doors, Jim is living in Canada and
still paddling the last we heard. I got spoiled by paddling in
warm water off Bermuda so my outdoors is spending winters in the
Alps skiing." |