Not a bad start to winter down under - 18 degrees Celsius at first light! I was getting over heated in a long sleeve rashie - though that may not be the case later in the week as we are about to get our first taste of single digit figures with the temperature dropping to 7 degrees Celsius by Wednesday.
My new Vadja paddle needed its first repair after our morning paddle. The epoxy on the clamp gave way so I borrowed a mates Epic mid wing for the hit out and reattached the clamp, post paddle. This wasn't as easy as you would think as there was a two millimeter gap between the paddle shaft and the inside edge of the clamp which meant centering the paddle shaft took a bit of guess work and I hope I did a better job of gluing than the production company. I will have to do some sanding to clean up the excess glue off the inside of the paddle shaft before a test paddle next week. I have just added glue to my spares kit for our up coming trip!
The other modifications are now complete and I am happy they are functional. The seat has been replaced with a bumfortable which has a 3 cm foam block under the rear of the seat to get a better paddling angle and to release the pressure on my hip flexors for those days in the boat. The seat is attached via a strap of webbing which runs inside the seat and attaches to the standard Pace 17 seat attachment points. If you were doing this modification to your own boat I would consider putting some closed cell foam between the seat attachment point, a thin sheet of fibreglass which comes down from the cockpit combing and the side of the boat. Not sure if it is required, but there is a lot of flex in this material with any sideways pressure.
You could attach the seat to the floor of the kayak with velcro, but I have found that the seat doesn't move once you have pushed it back against the attachment strap. I also like to have the seat floating so I can push it forward to store things behind the seat for easy access.
I have the pump setup behind the seat with the battery and switch setup in the day hatch area. I used a sealed magnetic switch which runs off a standard 12v 4 point relay and small 12v battery.
The output runs behind the seat and I have it pumping out above the water line on the front deck. The base of the unit is glassed in so it sits nicely and doesn't move around.
Now I just need to work out how to fit in everything I need to take for 19 days on the water!
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