"Nigel Dennis was the star guest and he had some very strong opinions about Australian boats that caused a stir in some circles. His view is that if a kayak needs a rudder to be turned then it is either a bad design or contains a bad paddler. Mark echoed these views and naturally I’ve read these things before but here was Nigel Dennis right in front of us and slamming our boats. Given the preponderance of Mirages it’s no wonder there was lengthy discussion."

I recently came across this interesting statement on this website http://avastyematey.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/kayak-designs-and-opinions/

Having recently purchased a Nigel Dennis Greenlander, I can honestly say it is the worst kayak I have ever owned. The statement he makes above (if indeed he did make it) throws a lot of doubt about two things. In 1982 Paul Caffyn was the first (and still the only) person to paddle around Australia, and he used a Nordkapp kayak. This is basically equivalent to paddling around America - see comparison map. He started somewhere near Melbourne at the bottom end of Australia, but by the time he got to Brisbane made an urgent telephone call to Hobart to get someone to make him a rudder and send it up pronto. He fitted it and then went on to complete the circumnavigation. So Nigel Dennis is saying that the Nordkapp is a bad design (Valley Canoe Products will be interested to hear that opinion) or that Paul Caffyn is a bad paddler.

These are some of Paul's achievments:

    * 1978 Circumnavigation of the South Island, New Zealand
The expedition around the South Island started as an expedition along the Fiordland coast with fellow paddler Max Reynolds. Paul Caffyn continued solo and with ground support to complete the circumnavigation in 76 days.{ source: Obscured by waves}

    * 1978/79 Circumnavigation of the North Island, New Zealand
Paul Caffyn sea kayaked solo around the North Island, with ground party support. The circumnavigation took 86 days, after which Paul undertook a crossing of Cook Strait by sea kayak.{source: Cresting the Restless Wave}

    * 1979 Circumnavigation of Stewart Island, New Zealand
The expedition around Stewart Island was done with Max Reynolds, August and September 1979. This expedition departed from Bluff, New Zealand starting with a crossing of Foveaux Strait. { source: Dark Side of the Wave}

    * 1980 Circumnavigation of Great Britain
Paul Caffyn and Nigel Dennis circumnavigated Great Britain by sea kayak in 85 days.

    * 1981/82 Circumnavigation of Australia

    * 1985 solo circumnavigation of the four main islands of Japan

    * 1991 completed the first solo sea kayak trip along the entire coastline of Alaska

    * 1997 Circumnavigation of New Caledonia

    * 2001/2002 Circumnavigation of Phuket

Seeing that Nigel Dennis circumnavigated Great Britain with Paul Caffyn in 1980, I would have to assume that he considers Paul not to be a bad paddler - therefore the only obvious conclusion I can draw is that the Nordkapp is a terrible kayak. Hmmmm???

The rudder Paul fitted in Brisbane was one I designed in 1979. When Paul's Nordkapp arrived back in Great Britain the rudder was immediately copied by Valley Canoe Products, and is now used world wide - I should have had a patent on that.

I'm not going to buy into the discussion on whether you should have a rudder or not. I quite often use a sail on my sea kayak, side on to 25 knot winds and big seas. I would not attempt that without the rudder. Have a look at the Sea Kayak Sailing video here.

Laurie Ford
August, 2008.