The Work of a Master

Joe Greenley of Redfish Kayaks recently posted a picture of his latest cedar strip project, the Ursa 420, a unique rough water expedition kayak designed by and built for Robert Livingston, creator of the Bearboat Pro boat design software.  I remember seeing this project in the stripping stage in Joe's workshop maybe a year and a half ago.  Probably the most striking feature of the design is the really big aft compartment, which I think makes the boat self-righting.  There are four hatches, all secured by rare earth magnets.  As to be expected from Joe Greenley, the craftsmanship is superb!

While looking over Robert Livingston's site it struck me that I saw a kayak very similar to this years ago when I first joined the Washington Kayak Club and started going to their pool sessions in Tacoma.  I was struggling to teach myself how to roll and after an exhausting hour or so thrashing around, I sat on the edge of the pool and watched this guy perform slow and graceful sculling rolls in a short stubby white fiberglass kayak.  It had kind of a bulbous bow and a very large aft compartment just like the Robert Livingston design. A fellow observer told me he thought that boat was "self-righting".  Note the picture of the kid doing a hand roll with the Ursa 350 on the Robert Livingston site. 

Do you think they would let one of these boats into the Greenland National Kayaking Championships?