Falcon Sail & my Calypso - Part 2

My kayaking past

I have been enjoying sea kayaking, or actually kayak island hopping - thanks solely to the superb initiative, way back in time, from my wife and super cool kayaking buddy! - for many years but it never even crossed my mind, to consider mounting a sail on my kayak. Kayaking is all about paddling; why on earth would I want to mess things up with a sail? A sea kayak is definitely not a sailboat!

So, years rolled by and I was still paddling my trusty age-old North Shore Calypso: extremely well built in the UK, very seaworthy, super comfortable, very safe - and kind of slow. Not that I'm in a hurry when on the water but those modern kayaks just seemed to - almost effortlessly, when observing the one in the cockpit - float away from me. I sure wasn't getting any younger and stronger so perhaps it was time to get something new. I might need a bigger boat! And yes, that's paraphrasing a movie tagline; you can see what I mean here...

Close to present

Some research followed and I got especially interested in the long (585 cm = 19,2 ft) and apparently fast Skim Distance. A very cool touring kayak, it seemed; there was just one obvious drawback: the price tag. After all, I had a perfectly well functioning kayak and when you have a brand new one, it's always such a hassle if you get it scratched or banged up a bit. Sounds like I had a hard time, making up my mind? That's putting it mildly.

One day, I was - once again - checking kayak related stuff on the web and somehow I happened to notice a post about a Finnish(!) guy who had bought a FalconSails kit, installed it in his Distance and was now thoroughly enjoying kayaking with a wind booster. The next step was to move on to the FalconSails site, get in touch with Patrick Forrester there and very soon I was hooked. Shoot, I had already modified my Calypso a bit so drilling some additional holes wouldn't matter that much. Done deal, I ordered my kayak sail kit!

Installing and testing

When my FalconSails kit arrived, I noticed right away that it was for real - not something hastily thrown together for show only. The quality of the materials seemed very good and the kit was complete in a way that was really impressive. Every nut, bolt and line was also neatly packaged and clearly labeled; something that I appreciated a lot. The instructions that accompanied the kit were extensive and well written so I felt I should be able to manage - even though my DIY skills are nothing to brag about.

It turned out that I possibly should have read the instructions more carefully than I did; I mailed Patrick quite a few times about my installation woes and I must say he was very patient and always answered my questions promptly. I took my time but, in the end, everything was set for the first trial and it sure was an exhilarating experience. Everything worked fine; however, I decided to add the (optional) back stays and that was a wise move - after that the rig has been rock solid even on really windy days.

Looking back - and forward

It's full winter now in January on my home turf - temperature sometimes goes down to, say -30C (= -22F) or so - and there's definitely no open water available anywhere close! Next time I'll be in my kayak again will probably be in May and then - with water temperature just slightly above freezing - I'll also be wearing my (very light weight) Ursuit MPS dry suit. 

I have been learning more and more about paddle sailing during the past three summers and here are some of the key points:  

• The Falcon sail does not change the paddling characteristics of my Calypso when the rig is down; it's still the very same sea kayak and the rig is out of the way - tucked in just by the cockpit. When I have the sail up, the boom and the sail hardly restrict my paddle strokes at all which is great. The skeg works very well when using the sail.
• I started testing the rig in very light breeze, as recommended, and that's smart for sure. Slowly, I have gained more confidence and the rig has performed flawlessly even when the wind has picked up quite a bit. In steady breeze, I get an amazing boost from the sail and I always keep paddling along; something you have to do on a big wind day in order to brace instantaneously when an unexpected gust suddenly fully powers up the sail. Gusty wind is the worst!
• After some practice, I find it fairly easy to control the kayak when using the sail. In heavy wind - providing it's not gusty! - I'm fine by using the paddle a lot, often skimming the wave tops with the paddle and supporting the kayak. Kind of a flexible outrigger, it works surprisingly well.
• Falcon is not only a downwind sail and that's really cool. Actually, I prefer having the wind more from the side. Of course, there's no point in having the sail up in headwind; no sail can magically transform a sea kayak to a sailboat.
• The kit is designed to be used with an (optional) boom vang to keep the boom down and thus increasing the sail efficiency. It does make a difference but also makes things much more complicated. Forget about the boom vang when you're just getting started.
• Getting the rig in place before kayak launch is easy and takes perhaps ten minutes. I want to be careful, not to get the lines sandy so I'm probably slower than most folks though! Launching the sail on the water is very quick; depowering it, taking down the rig and fastening the whole shebang takes a couple of minutes only. 
• In my view it's definitely a smart move, to take down the rig well in advance before getting very close to land - I almost got knocked over once by a mean, sudden gust extremely close to the beach! No more showing off for my part...

Famous last(?!) words

Adding a small sail to a sea kayak increases the fun factor enormously and also makes it possible to cover much longer distances, weather permitting. However, the sail also adds complexity and thereby increases the risk; there is no way getting away from this fact. There is an excellent and very comprehensive OPM article about using a sail on kayak expeditions, written by an Australian sea kayaking pro Rob Mercer, and you can find the text here. Some parts of the article definitely also apply to a fair weather kayaker like me.

Transforming a kayak into a fun sailboat-of-sorts - with a huge sail and all the hardware that comes with the deal - is possible but nothing I ever considered. My main interest is still in paddling my sea kayak and keeping things as simple as possible on the water. My Falcon sail is just about as far as it gets! In addition, I often tour the outer archipelago of my home waters where quick weather changes are frequent. Getting stuck out there in a kayak-turned-into-a-sailboat with unfavorable winds (or dead calm) would definitely be a real bummer. I'm pretty sure that trying to paddle that thing home would be a nightmare. 

There is a, at the time of this writing, still new (private) Facebook group that focuses both on kayak and canoe sails and everything connected to that: Kayak And Canoe Sailing. If you only want to focus on kayaks, there's now also the Kayak Sailing group (group owner is Patrick from Falcon Sails). I'm A Bad Facebook User myself and the groups are to me the best feature of this social media behemoth -  and pretty much the only thing that keeps me from deleting my account.

I do find it interesting that during my kayaking years I have never seen another kayak in the Nordic waters sporting a 'real' kayak sail (umbrellas, sure!). However, this discovery might be connected to the fact that there are altogether only some 10 million people living in Sweden - and kayaking wintertime is not an option in my neck of the woods!

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