P&H Paddlers » Kate Duffus

Anglesey Circumnavigation, a new womens record.

Kate Duffus — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:20:35 +0000

After many happy hours of planning, and a winter of training trips I finally had a combination of a biggish tide, calmish weather and time off work. My target was to paddle round Anglesey, solo, in a time faster than fourteen and a half hours.

Ready to set off, 5am

Passing Penmon Lighthouse, 75km paddled, 47 to go

The finish, Cable Bay. Toal of 122km paddled in 13hrs 8 mins

The Cetus LV again performed really well. It’s narrow in front of the cockpit facilitating an efficient upright paddle stroke. It handles well in tide races, being easy to steer but still holds a course well. And most importantly on trips of this length, the cockpit was very comfortable. I have a custom fitted bulkhead in my boat allowing a variety of foot positions so after more than thirteen hours paddling I can still walk.

A Wight Knuckle Ride

Kate Duffus — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:40:02 +0000

Now that the days are starting to get a little longer, I thought I’d take my Cetus LV on a long day out.

I launched in the dark…

…and nearly thirteen hours later, I landed in the dark. In between I paddled round the Isle of Wight, a distance of 92km. The Cetus LV was fast, and most importantly after such a long paddle it was still comfortable. I love it!

Just introducing myself

Kate Duffus — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:31:03 +0000

It’s time for me to introduce myself as the newest member of the P&H paddlers family. I’m Kate and I’m the proud owner of a lovely, shiny, red Cetus LV. Here’s a short account of its first time on the water.

Having unwrapped layer after layer of plastic and cardboard and revealed my new boat in all its red and white beauty, I didn’t feel I could consign it to the shed straight away, so she spent a fortnight in my living room. It made getting to the kitchen a bit of an obstacle course, but it did mean I could admire the unmarked shining gelcoat.

Finally, work was done for the week and I could go paddling. The first launch was at Trearddur Bay on Anglesey. The weather was too rough for real paddling so we had to make do with a bit of surfing.

The Cetus LV is lovely and light, an easy one person carry.

Here’s the moment I had been waiting for.

And finally afloat.

A few wobbly moments later and I was getting used to a lovely lively boat.

photo by Jim Krawiecki

All in all I think it’s a grand boat. It’s fast, and narrow just where the paddle goes. It’s incredibly manouvrable, and whilst it’s happy sitting up on an edge, it doesn’t really need a lot of edge to turn. I think I’m going to really enjoy paddling it. Just need some decent weather to give it a good run out.