V12 Touring Ski

Thought you guys might like this. My V12 flew off my truck on the highway a little over a year ago, decided to rebuild it as a touring ski, aka "The Ego Smuggler"

Pics and writeup on my blog www.fasterfarther.com/journal/

Cheers!

Nicholas Cryder

That is very cool. Some people add hatches for the Missouri River 340 (more info on the MR340 at rivermiles.com) to make ultra marathons possible in a ski.

Your hatches are the closest to a touring kayak Ive seen though. Very nice work by the shop. Also, killer paint job.

How is the stability / responsiveness / feel affected by cargo on a tippy boat?

Thanks, super fun to see it come back to life.

The ski started life as an Ultra, and now weighs 35 pounds. Not light by ski standards, but very light by touring standards. Especially so when factoring the amount of reinforcing for strength that went into it, and the addition of sealed bulkheads, rubber hatches, etc.

Paddling it, it is remarkably stable, the extra weight makes the boat far less reactive. It still goes downwind quite well, but is obviously more work to catch a run. Once on however, it feels very planted and solid. I am able to average 6.8mph with a full touring load. Not a lot of sea kayaks, if any, can do that.

-N-

That is Bad Ass!

Great boat, great paint job...also had a look at your other (business) projects...only your contact icon/button does not work
How can I contact you for more details/ideas?

Cheers
Ole

Hey, thanks Ole! I had no idea the contact link was broken. My email address is nicholas(dot)cryder(at)gmail(dot)com

This is so cool

Finally, a use for all that volume in the front end

Oh and 35 pounds I about what my first generation V10 sport weighed and is slightly lighter than a plastic ski I have that can still be fun downwind, although I reckon your V12 would be much quicker and more comfortable

I'm curious what happened to the stringers that run the length of the boat in the middle. Do you still have them, or did Sterling remove them and reinforce the hull to not need them? Thanks!

Hey Kocho,

They don't run the whole length of the boat (surprising to learn this when we took the pieces apart). The stringer pauses just in front of the cockpit and resume in the nose. The foam stringers are roughly 2.5" thick, and we decided to wrap them in carbon and add some reinforcing strips that anchor to the bulkheads. The result is a hit in weight, but a noticeably stiffer / stronger hull that can now handle the weight of gear and big water. I'll try to take some more pics when I get a chance of the interior.

Loading it now for a three day tour in the San Juan Islands.

-Nicholas

We had a nice big storm blow in on our three day tour this weekend. Here is a video crossing an open straight of water, in 30 mph wind with confused seas in the 4 to 6 feet range.



The ski is still a V12, and not a touring kayak. But I found it remarkably stable in some rather spicy conditions, and even with a full kit of touring gear, it was a joy to paddle.

Your ski, as with most sea kayaks would be more stable with a load on board.