Editorial: A Winning Combination

April-May 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

Cover photo: Paddling at Chatham Island by Alan Wilson

What happens when a diehard kayaker and a diehard boater fall in love? Can they find true happiness?

I'm the kayaker. She's the boater. We were friends and colleagues for years, then the circumstances in ours lives changed and allowed a new form of relationship to open up.

It was a wonderful coming together, sharing a love of the sea and adventure. And yet we found that we faced a troubling decision whenever we wanted to get out on the water-do we paddle or sail?

It may sound like a choice anyone would happily make either way, and that was largely the case. We both learned to love the other's 'first love'.

But it didn't take her long to acknowledge that although she preferred to be on her boat, she felt a bit guilty I was missing out on paddling. And whenever we did get out paddling, I felt just the reverse-I knew it wasn't her first choice.

Since we both work long hours, with little time off, we were especially aware of how little time there was to fit in all the things we wanted to do. And this conundrum was amplified when it came to our summer holidays because she wasn't very keen on kayak camping, and my 6'-2" frame didn't adapt very well to her 23' sailboat.

It didn't take long to realize the perfect solution would be a bigger boat which could carry kayaks. But how could we afford it? It would mean having to sell our cherished vessels. Gulp!

We looked at sailboats big enough to carry kayaks and quickly discovered these were out of our reach. Then the ideal mothership appeared-an elderly 35' former troller a friend had acquired in a recent Canadian government's fishing license buy-back. It was an affordable classic with a Dickinson oil stove and enclosed wheelhouse-an attractive prospect after a particularly rainy holiday spent in an open cockpit.