While paddling in the USA I've been using a plastic 'Storm' kayak for some years, bought originally because they were going reasonably cheaply (Elli had one as well). We weren't sure how much paddling we were going to do over here, so didn't want a lot of unnecessary expense to get the top of the line sea kayaks. But now after a few years I was looking for something a bit sleeker and faster. I'd seen this Nigel Dennis Greenlander on top of a vehicle down in Virginia, and it looked a reasonable sea kayak - and the owner agreed to sell it a year or two later. One reason he was selling it was the low front deck and the limited foot room. One of the features I wanted was a small cockpit and this certainly has the smallest cockpit I have ever seen. I never actually saw this kayak in the water before buying it.

Elli picked the kayak up one winter when I was back home in Australia, and she had a quick paddle in it on a lake in New Hampshire next summer. She said it appeared to want to turn up into the wind all the time. It was 12 months later when I was next in USA, and I intended spending some time altering the kayak so as to be able to use a sail. But I also found it had some serious design problems. Every other kayak I have ever owned you have been able to pick it up just in front of the seat and it is fairly well balanced, and can be put on the shoulder for carrying - sea kayaks, river kayaks etc.. The Nigel Dennis Greenlander however is not like that. If you pick it up just in front of the seat the front of the kayak never leaves the ground - it is extremely bow heavy. This practically means it would require two people to carry it any distance from the car to the water - a rather insane feature. Because the cockpit is so far back this may be why it turns up into the wind - the wind hitting an upright body would tend to blow the stern downwind, hence the bow would go up into the wind. Could be quite tiring.

Now into the workshop for some serious modification.

Take a saw to the stern and whip a few inches off.

Carve a plug out of 3/4" marine plywood so it is a neat fit and epoxy glue it in place.

Fit the rudder (I brought this one over from Tasmania, one I made for my old Adrian Dean Greenlander).
Fit nylon fittings for the cords to run through.

Make a rough and ready footrest out of scrap timber and brass hinges. Now the problem with a footrest like this is that if you have
come out of the kayak and are getting back in then the foot pedals down like this will stop you sliding back in, until you can wiggle
your toes under the pedals to lift them up. Not great when you are in rough seas.

Therefore you need to do something like this to keep them up - a bit of thin shockcord.

Then I drill and tap holes in a solid aluminium bar, to take 1/4 inch stainless steel bolts.

And drill corresponding holes in the footrest.

You will have needed to sit in the kayak with the footrest and mark out exactly where it needs to be, and
then glass the aluminium  bar in (with tape around the thread so as not to get fibreglass resin on them).

The fitted footrest.

The rudder steering wires run through nylon tubing from the cockpit to the stern. Because of the very low deck I needed to push a bit of
electrical wire (white insulation stripped back) through from the holes in the rear deck near the rudder and push the tube onto it.
This can then be drawn back and out through the holes.

The nylon tubing is then held in place with a few fibreglass patches.

It was not possible to glass way down in the stern so this was sealed with silicon, put in on the end of a stick.
120 lb breaking strain stainless steel fishing wire can then be threaded through from the rudder to the footrest.

When sliding back into the cockpit after an exit you ended up sitting on the back strap, so an extra piece
of cord was fitted to keep it up as high as possible.

Time to fit the mast step. 5 to 6 inches of one inch plastic electrical conduit. Sit in the cockpit and reach forward as far as possible
and mark where it is (the further forward the less it will interfere with your paddling). I drill a 1 inch hole here, then carefully
enlarged it with a round file till the conduit could be FORCED into it. I usually heat one end of the conduit and use a screw driver
handle or similar and splay the conduit out. This will stop it going down through the hole.

Lining up the mast:- Walk all around the kayak, making minor adjustments till the mast looks
vertical from all angles. (This is another kayak, not the Greenlander)

After getting it fairly vertical use 5 minute epoxy to hold it in place before starting to fibreglass.
I usually strengthen the whole deck area as above, with a piece of chopped strand mat.

Use small pieces of chopped strand mat (CSM) all round the mast step till a couple of layers thick. Work gently as it is
only held in by 5 minute epoxy at this stage. The conduit should have been roughened with a course rasp.

Wait for the preceding stage to harden. Cut a circle of cardboard and cut a pie shape piece out and staple the edges together
to make a cone. Cut a hole in the top and slide it down over the mast step. Now use many strips of CSM to glass over the cone,
this will hold the bottom of the mast step very firmly in place when strong winds are blowing.

Block the end of the mast step with a small wooden plug and epoxy it in place, and also put a screw through it.

Now to overcome the heavy front section. I bought several pounds of lead sinkers
and mixed them in resin and dropped the lot down into the stern. And kept
adding more till it was reasonably balanced when picking it up in front of the seat.

This also helped make the wooden plug where the stern was cut off much more secure.

Naturally I fitted an electric pump to it. There was almost no room behind the seat for a normal installation,
so the pump went one side and the battery the other side. The switch is on the front deck next to the sail holder,
and the outlet on the left  front deck just in front of the cockpit.

I fitted a much better quality deckline, and slide plastic tube over it on each side at the front and the rear.

This makes a much better carrying handle than the silly toggles that are normally fitted.
If you are on an overnight trip with heavily loaded kayaks (and more than 3 people) then it is a cinch for two people at the front
and two people at the rear to carry kayaks fitted like this. Two people can carry it easily when empty, with one on either side.

Yes, I know - not much wind for it's first try-out.

I have since tried it out on the ocean off the coast of Maine. My first impression is that it is quite unstable, and taking
photos is a bit hazardous. But I have been spoilt by the exceptional Adrian Dean Sea Leopard where you can just put
your paddle across your waste and use both hands to do things. This ND Greenlander is much more like the
North Sea Tourer which we all paddled in Tasmania back in the late 70's. I guess I will become accustomed to it after a few more trips.

Laurie Ford
New Hampshire
USA
July 2008