Outrigger Damage

[KARKAUAI]

Aloha, all,
I've posted some more pics on my website http://www.karkauai.com of the damage. After emailing back and forth with several of the experts, I've decided to start over. I'll keep this hull as is in case the claim goes to jury, in which case I feel that showing the canoe to a jury would almost assuredly result in an award of some kind. If the award or settlement is something less than complete reimbursement (apparantly it's likely that the insurance co. will take possession if they reimburse for total loss), I'll do repairs at some point and use it to paddle and sail in NC. It'll be interesting to see how much faster it goes this time, and if I learned anything the first time. Mahalo for all your support and sympathies and suggestions. This is a great bunch of folks and I consider you all my cyber friends. I hope one day I'll be able to meet you in person. I'll keep you posted and continue to lurk around here.

[Glen Smith]

Hi Kent, so you are going to start over from scratch, eh? Well, you've built it once so the second time should be a bit faster. Good luck on the settlement.

Peterborough, Ontario, August 13 and 14 come on up and meet some of your cyber friends.

[KARKAUAI]

Mahalo, Glen,
I'm going to really push to try and get done by the end of July so I can try to get it over to Kauai for my 3 weeks of vacation in August. I may be dreaming, though, and if I don't have it ready to go, I'll cancel the Kauai trip and come up to bend an elbow with you.

[Glen Smith]

Now you are going to have me wishing that you don't finish it in time and that wouldn't be very nice of me. Best of luck on your project.

[Patricks Dad]

Kent,
I really admire your determination. I'd be crushed and probably would have given up. You are an inspiration. I'm sure things will go smoothly on the re-build; You're an expert now. I look forward to pictures of the new canoe.

[KARKAUAI]

Thanks, Randy, You guys are doing a beautiful job on your bird, I know you can't wait to get it in the water...gotta be pretty soon, huh? I don't know if I related the two days after I found out about the canoe...next door neighbor's grandson went back to Iraq the day I found out, tsunami hit the next day. I was devastated for several hours till I got slapped in the face by two much more significant events. Thank God he got back from Iraq in one piece. It still hurts, but now I'm mostly PO'd with the shippers. I know that I can do an even better job on the next one, that it'll go faster, and that I'll be just as excited sailing the new one. Gotta come up with another name as Ke Kalakupua is tainted.

[garypete]

Kent,
My builder's heart goes out to you. I know how I felt when I saw one of my cedarstrips wrap around a boulder in a Class IV rapids. At least I had the fun of doing it myself; shipping damage like yours is just senseless and no one has any fun.

I shipped a wooden canoe by common carrier from Wisconsin to Arizona and had no damage, though the recipient said the outside container looked like it had some rough handling. Maybe the secret was I built the shipping container of 2 x 4s and 1/2" plywood roughly in the shape of the canoe, plus 2" on all sides for foam. By having it looking obviously like a canoe, maybe the monkeys unloading the truck were slightly less careless with it.

Good luck on the rebuild.

Gary