Two Northwinds going for a stroll

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Darrells
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by Darrells »

Its amazing what you can do with the NW while holding a pig by the tail. Im on my phone now, will be back at the shop in awhile and write the report.
Darrell Sykora
Darrells
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by Darrells »

Ok, here we go. i got to Ron's about 4:30 and we loaded the boats and headed for the Brazos.

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It's only about ten minutes from Ron's house to the river. We arrived and put the boats down on the launch and before loading I wanted to take mine for a quick spin (just to make sure). :D

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Handles like a dream, stable and responsive. Ok Lets go. There used to be an old bridge at the location that the State blew up and left in the river to control erosion. There is a lot of concrete and rebar to impale yourself and/or boat on. We pick our way through without any problems and head on upstream. Both boats performed exceptionally well going into the current. We paddled several miles to a sandbar that we like to fish and seined some bait put our poles out and got to relaxing. We caught a few fish and had numerous bites.

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Both boats were slimed on their maiden voyages, Matt's must include a little Mojo in each boat. :)

It was gettin on towards dusk and some Thunderheads were in the area and the wind picked and started lightening so we decided we had better head on back to the take-out. Even with the current the wind was blowing hard enough that we had to paddle just a little to keep heading in the right direction. We had paddled a half mile or so and I told Ron, 'Hey there is a group of wild hogs at the water drinking". Without even saying anything to each other we started easing toward them. We got to within about 15 yards from them and all ten panicked and bailed off in the water. Ohh, it's on now. :D We got to chasing them, and were having a ball laughing our butts off. They would get close to the opposite bank and we would cut them off and they would turn around and head for the other side of the river. The biggest Sow (probably 175# or so) decided she had enough of this and headed to the shore, I was on her butt, but she was determined to get to the sand bar. I was a little leary about getting too close because she was big enough to do some damage (Darrell, what happened to your new boat? Ohh, a pig bite it.) Two piglets made it to the other side and I don't know how they did it, but the ran up a sheer dirt cliff and stopped at the top. Once they realized that the rest of the group was on the other side of the river they bailed back off into the water. i took one and Ron took one and we were on them. Now, for those of you have never seen a pig swim, they can swim circles and the best Labrador Retriever. So I am chasing this piglet and it's zigging and zagging but I am staying right with it. Suddenly it does a 180 and heads the other way. Well with the wind and the current I couldn't get turned around so i just threw it in reverse and in just a few yards I had caught up to it. Well it did another 180 and I dug that werner in deep and caught back up in just a couple of strokes and pulled alongside. The only handle presenting itself was a little curly tail so I grabbed hold of it. So the wind is trying push me and the current is trying to me and I have the Tiger by the tail so to speak. I am thinking to myself what are you going to do now genius. Well it did a little flop maneuver and I lost my grip and it swam to the sandbar. Once it got to the bank it lit it's afterburner and headed for the Border. By this time Ron has finished with his piglet and we pull up and just kick back in the boats and laugh till our sides hurt. Once we caught our breath from laughing it's dark so we head on in. The first obstacle coming down stream is the jumping jacks. Big steel that were put in the river upstream of said concrete and rebar to help control erosion on a bend. Usually we can paddle on the off channel side and avoid them, but the river is so low that we had to pick our way through them. We made it without any problem to the concrete and slowly picked our way through that also. We were still laughing after loading the boats and getting back to Ron's.
The Northwinds performed flawlessly and I am perfectly happy with this boat. It must be pretty stable because i was reaching out and slapping the water with my paddle and reaching around catching pigs and laughing and still ended up dry. I'm sure Ron will chime in about his pig chasing experience on the other side of the River.
Darrell Sykora
jem
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by jem »

Chasing pigs? Now that is something I NEVER... EVER.... would have guessed I'd see posted about a maiden voyage.

You guys are out of control! :lol:
-Matt. Designer.
Darrells
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by Darrells »

I thought I was going to get kicked out of bed at about 2 this morning because i just busted out laughing needless to say my wife did not the the humor in chasing pigs at 2:00 in the morning. My stomach is killing me today from laughing. probably something you would have had to been there to share the full humor of it.
Darrell Sykora
tx river rat
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by tx river rat »

Need I say we had a ball.
Now there are boats with mojo and there are matts boats. first trip out and we caught a freshwater drum , one nice cat a spotted bass and a PIG.
Darrel called me the night before and told me he couldnt stand it any longer his Northwind was going to get wet , so about 430 we headed out Darrel tried the new Boat and it handled beautifully.
We loaded up and headed up the river against the current ,these boats are slick hulls and paddling up river was a snap. We picked our way through a couple spots that have a lot of sharp steel sticking up seined some minnows and caught a few fish. about dark with the help of some lighting we decided to head down river. Now this is when someone should have given us the sign :shock:
We were cruising talking about how easy these boats were to paddle and Darrel saw the critters on the bank ,we started paddling easy and got with in 15 to 20 yards and they hit the river and started swimming across Not a word was said both North Winds went into high gear ,dont ever let anyone tell you that you cant sprint in these hulls .
I was on the left and was trying to get ahead of them, I ran through the middle of the pack ,they split some hit the bank and the one big hog headed back across toward Derrel , as she got closer to him he sounded like a bull fighter ,hey hummp hummmmp but she hit he bank and was gone.
Darrel made the comment that two of the hogs went straight up that high bank and that they must be part moutain goat.
The rest of the hogs ran upriver about 75 yards and hit the water headed back across , sprint time again we were hot on there little curly tails when the hit the bank. they can move in and out of water.
Derral hollered that the other pigs were coming back down the cliff so we headed back across the river I cut them off and ran between them slapping one on the nose ,hollered at Derral that he was coming his way. I was chasing mine hoping to catch a back leg , thats when the fun started I heard Darrel doing his bullfighter imitation again as he was trying to get in front of that pig
The pig doubled back on him and he hit reverse (folks if we ever have a back paddling marothon race bet on Darrel) he went flying backwards and cut the pig off again ,the pig did a 180 turn and he ran up beside it and grabbed the tail water went flying everywhere. I heard him holler sh--- you cant paddle and hold a pig by the tail. I lost it I was laughing so hard I couldnt chase mine anymore he hit the bank and was gone.
Now we are floating in the middle of the river laughing so hard we couldnt even talk.
We finally got it together and headed in picking our way through the steel and loading up.
The Northwinds preformed flawlessly to be two different kinds of construction
Mine a ss@g and Darrels a full striper they were evenly matched up stream and down. I can tell you they dont need a rudder when chasing pigs. The cruise is awesome we were coming down the river at a good clip and Darrel made the comment he could hold this pace all day.Matt you did a great job on these designs. We cut all these shinagins with my seat at 11 inches and Darrels at 6 inch in height .
Ron
jem
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by jem »

Great report. If you guys ever think of it and have a short canoe paddle, I'd like to know what you think about a rudder when using a canoe paddle.
-Matt. Designer.
neon14
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by neon14 »

Looks like you guys had a good time. Darrell congratz on the catch and release! And those are some nice looking boats!
woodman
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by woodman »

You guys are going to have to put a few notches in you're paddles for every pig you touched...."counting coup" in Native American terminology--- means touching one's enemy :lol:
tx river rat
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Re: Two Northwinds going for a stroll

Post by tx river rat »

Matt the area we were in you couldnt put a rudder down and at times it was swift and so shallow going up even with a low paddle stroke you just had half your blade under water ,not Ideal conditions for a canoe paddle.
The rudder and canoe paddle I believe was a combination of things Veren did ,
The main one was being able to tandem up and just one person paddle while the other one slept . I have a short paddle ,I will try it one of these days.
The only place these boats have a problem is sitting still and trying to turn , but a rudder wouldn't help that.
Ron
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