{"id":520,"date":"2014-11-16T12:18:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T20:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/creatures\/?page_id=520"},"modified":"2026-01-08T06:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:36:03","slug":"our-new-boat","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/?page_id=520","title":{"rendered":"Our new boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our Fathom had taken us a long way, but I was spending a lot of time paddling by myself and I wanted something that was easier to handle, both getting on and off the rack and maneuvering in the water. \u00a0I splurged and ordered a Seda Ikkuma 17 through the Northwest Outdoor Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Claimed weight is only four pounds less than the Fathom, but six less than the Raven, the Eddlyline boat that I would have considered as a replacement. \u00a0I have come to prefer Seda’s seating arrangement, a fairly flat platform suspended solidly from the cockpit coaming. \u00a0Eddyline’s adjustable system has a lot of theoretical advantages, but with my particular leg-length I don’t seem to be able to make good use of them. The more nearly cross-legged posture in the Ikkuma allows me to edge more confidently and to roll the boat more successfully.<\/p>\n

The savings in weight come at a cost that is not just monetary. \u00a0I admire the Eddyline boats for their use of ABS plastic, which is a more environmentally-friendly kayak option. \u00a0My boat is made of fiberglass and, perhaps worse yet, Kevlar (the all-fiberglass construction would have added back in those four pounds). \u00a0The reason I didn’t get all-Kevlar is that Kevlar boats are said to be noisy as they try to flex. \u00a0The reason I didn’t spend even more for carbon is that Seda doesn’t offer carbon construction on all their kayaks. \u00a0I haven’t yet actually weighed the boat — there’s a chance that there could be a pleasant surprise. \u00a0The occasional complaint about Seda boats is that they’re under-built, rather than over. \u00a0Still, you never know quite what you’re going to get. \u00a0Some of the promotional literature talks about toggles whose loops pass through the hull, for maximum strength; mine was delivered with little stainless U-bolts at each end.<\/p>\n

Ikkuma is said to be the Inuit word for fire, and the new boat does look zippier than the old one. \u00a0Still, I chose to keep the white-on-white color scheme that we invented for our Fathom, and for the car that we got to carry it around with<\/a>. The Fathom itself has found a new home — a nice lady named Jan drove up from Portland to claim it in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Fathom had taken us a long way, but I was spending a lot of time paddling by myself and I wanted something that was easier to handle, both getting on and off the rack and maneuvering in the water. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":165,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-520","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1690,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/520\/revisions\/1690"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}