Laurie Ford's page.

I took up canoeing fairly late in life (I'm now approaching 65 (2004)) but got into it almost every weekend about 20 years ago. At that time nearly all canoeing was white water, and here in Tasmania we do have some of the best white water in Australia, and there were only three Sea Kayak moulds available. One was the North Sea Tourer, one was the Sea Leopard, and the newly developed Greenlander was just being used. These were mostly paddled just as bare boats in those days - no bulkheads, no hatches, no rudders, no sails, no pumps. This meant pulling the footrest out to pack gear in the bow, and trying to shove tiny packages back past the seat into the stern. Quite often you would see people standing their kayaks up in the air, and shaking them to try and get gear that was stuck right up in the bow or the stern.

After a few major trips down the West Coast of Tasmania; and to Maatsuyker Island; and to Flinders Island; there seemed to me to be enough interest to form a specialised sea canoeing club. I duly sent out letters to interested people, and had about 2 turn up to the first meeting. We tried again a few weeks later and got the nucleus of a club together - The Tasmanian Sea Canoeing Club. One of the 'rules' of membership was that persons wishing to become members must hold, or gain within 6 months, an ACF Sea Award, ie. it was meant for people that really wanted to go sea canoeing. We started a magazine in 1979 - 'The Sea Canoeist' - which was meant for a 'national exchange of trip reports and ideas pertaining to sea canoeing.'

In those first few years we got right into developing gear for sea kayaks; hatches that you could fit to any kayak after it was built, rudders, sails, electric pumps etc. In fact our rudder was so successful that it has been copied and mass produced by VCP, and now seems to be fitted to just about every new sea kayak that comes on the market. These are essential if you intend to revel in the excitement of sailing along before a good 30 - 40 knot breeze - eating up mile after mile.

We also engaged in overseas expeditions to Japan, the Greek Islands, and Fiji. These were the heady days of sea canoeing in Tasmania.

However, membership got a bit out of hand and impossible to police the ACF award requirement, hence we ended up with a large number of members who hadn't even been in a kayak in salt water, yet wanted to have a say in the running of the club. Three of the original members then split off and formed the MAATSUYKER CANOE CLUB (pronounced mat-syker), to get back to the original concept of using sea kayaks to go places - at least a two week trip every Christmas holidays.

My personal contribution over the years has been developing sails, which are now absolutely standard to a sea kayak, as well as my rudder design. This was developed after studying many less than satisfactory designs that were about in the early days. Electric pumps were another of my innovations, as early as 1982. About that time I was also experimenting with lights for paddling at night, and we now have an excellent little 'flasher' that you can attach to any kayak for night paddling. Night paddles include crossing the notorious Banks Strait, and also Bass Strait from Flinders Island to Deal Island, as well as a 28¹/₂ hour overnight non-stop crossing of Bass Strait from Victoria to Flinders Island.

I was Secretary of the Australian Canoe Federation Sea Touring Committee for several years, up to the time they abandoned it in favour of concentrating on competition paddling. I was also Secretary of the Board of Canoe Education of Tasmania for a year or two, and qualified as a Senior Sea Instructor in the early 1980's. But I haven't bothered renewing it - if the ACF aren't interested in Sea Canoeing, I'm not terribly interested in their awards.

Despite having paddled in every area of Tasmania many times, I still look forward to club trips, and to taking potential new members out. Now that I'm more or less retired I have plenty of time to take people out paddling. Want a trip out to Flinders Island, or Albatross, or Maatsuyker? Give me a buzz.

I resigned from the Maatsuyker Canoe Club in March 2000 as a protest against non-paddlers retaining membership in the club.