The Pakesso

On May 27, 2025 I purchased a used Boreal Design Pakesso. Pakesso is the Abenaki name for the partridge aka the ruffed grouse - not sure why a waterfowl was not chosen. Here are the specifications:

Length: 14' 6" (441.5 cm) - the shortest kayak I have used
Width: 21.6" (55 cm)
Height: 15.2" (38.7 cm) - hmm, room for big feet
Weight: 38.8 lbs (17.6 kg) 

Maximum capacity: 260 lbs (118 kg)
Outer cockpit dimensions: 16” x 30” (40.5 x 76 cm)

Serial No. QBOPK614M03J

The latter suggests that the kayak was born around 2003. It is swede form, rudder (not skeg), with fore and aft hatches. The less ancient Pakesso kayaks provide a skeg and day hatch by default. Although I like a day hatch, this kayak seems too short for that feature. In particular, it is trivial to stick my kayak cart in the rear hatch; otherwise with a skeg box that would be problematic. For its length, this kayak has quite a bit of water length.

The rudder control is via the justly derided sliding foot pegs. Yet the skeg deployment system is easily repaired in the field. Since this would be our guest kayak, I am unlikely to move to a Sea Dog system or some other fixed accelerator style foot peg - as I did for my wife's Necky IV Looksha.

My only other Boreal Design kayak was an Ellesmere, which was a splendid kayak. Nowadays kayak models come and go, also true of the original companies. This is true of Boreal Design in both cases.  

So, in an optimistic frame of mind, I took the Pakesso for a drive on Sand Creek. For starters, the skirt fit the boat ... but the tunnel was too narrow to fit me. I am not slender, but at 5' 5" and under 140 pounds, I am not plump. I should have checked the fit! No big deal, but how did the kayak behave? Yikes, it leecocked fiercely; so back to shore to load the kayak as stern heavy as I could. That helped marginally, but it remains a somewhat dangerous kayak. Well, back to the seller.

 

Start of 2025 Kayak Season

On May 2, I made my first day trip of the current season starting from Sandpoint's 3rd Avenue Pier. Generally I don't take photos, and this one of a Western Grebe was downloaded from the Internet. It was a sunny, calm day, with Fahrenheit temperatures in the low to mid seventies. 

Among the birds I encountered, these were the most notable:

• a large flock of Western Grebes in the bay south of Condo del Sol 
• a scattering of Buffleheads
• Coots (probably)
• Mallards
• Geese with goslings
• many osprey cruising Sand Creek
• swallows and killdeer

Although I saw no mergansers, a friend saw many near Hope. In spring the grebes migrate through on their way to somewhere else, typically hanging out in the aforementioned bay. Just a few remain for the summer. As a paddler approaches the grebes, they flee by diving; whereas the coots run across the water before finally lifting off or else settling on the water further away. 

As expected, my left shoulder was dismayed by the paddling. Hopefully, it will come around. However, my back was reasonably happy. The next day I was still tired, despite only covering ~6.3 nautical miles, but at age 84 and puny that is acceptable.

I paddled solo in my composite CD Squamish, using a Nimbus Chinook, my preferred paddle.