Back in the shop...with a video glimpse of the US class

Back in Norway, winter is approaching fast!

Both night and daytime temperatures are often below zero. All the leaves have fallen from the trees and we need to fire our wood stove every morning to stay warm. It warms our hearts to see this super AWESOME!! (That's for you, Peter Gengler)... movie that a friend of ours made, out of all the fun we had building kayaks in the US:

Besides building loads of paddles, I've spent the last couple of weeks finishing a rolling kayak for a guy in France who is planning on taking it to Greenland in a year or two to compete in the Greenlandig qajaq championship. I also had time to finish the kayak I started working on with Jon David Jensen. It's based loosely on ancient Aleut designs, the biggest difference being plenty of room for leg work below the deck.

The kayak weights 13 kilo or 28 Lbs. Length is 540 cm or close to 18' and beam is 45 cm/ a little over 17". Took it for a test ride yesterday. The stability was not bad and it was very fast. The acceleration impressed me the most: It went from 0-100 in seconds. Hull shape is very close to circular around the middle:

I'm currently making a little video from the test ride to post in this blog entry as soon as it is ready.