We have a Kayaking Forum

We have been working on our website for the Kingfisher Electric Kayak. Recently we added a forum so that kayak fishermen, kayak builders and kayak dreamers can post to ask questions and to give tips and information to share with others with the same interest: Kingfisher Forum

We have had an incredibly busy summer with getting the kayak business off the ground, creating a website and showing the kayak most weekends at our local port market place. Some of the buyers have actually seen the kayak at the port, gone home and ordered plans. Karen has spent most of the time working at the booth. It takes her until Wednesday to feel rested enough to cook us a good meal! The sun and wind take a toll on her good humor!

We are getting ready to go to Port Townsend, WA for the Wooden Boat Festival taking two kayaks, wearing our newly designed T-shirts with boxes of business cards to pass out. My daughter , Lynnette who you can see on the video is going up with me along with her husband, Jim. We should have a great time meeting new people seeing some incredible boats and enjoying a festive wooden boat show! Karen gets to stay home to watch out for the four dogs and her mom. At least, she doesn't have to work at the port that weekend! LOL

It is sad that since summer, the Kingfisher hasn't been in the water. Port Townsend will be our first summer splash! It is fun to be busy, but the kayak is happier in the water.

Karen has been busy posting questions and answers of questions being sent to us via email to the website so you can learn more about our Kingfisher Kayak. She is teaching eBay at the local college....next will be web design or maybe a class on how to be a webmistress. I'm just happy that I don't have to figure websites out. I can spend productive time building controllers, electrical kits and whatever else is being ordered.

We retired to the Oregon Coast, but have managed to be way busier than ever before. Karen believes that doing website business may be as beneficial as cross-word puzzels to keep our mind intact. I certainly hope so! She often complains of having blisters on her brain from figuring this all out. I wonder if this could be true? LOL

Building Kayaks

I'm spending time in the workshop building controllers, electrical kits and kayaks to fill current orders before Lynnette shows up today for two weeks of fishing. She comes up from the Bay Area as often as she can get away. It is amazing how tolerant her husband is. I hear he buys more socks when he runs out. He doesn't seem to have learned the art of washing clothes. Maybe he wants her to feel important. LOL

I have spent a few days out in the water tuna and salmon fishing. I use my ocean-going boat to go out. No, I'm not nuts enough to use my Kingfisher in the ocean! My daughter and I managed to bring in approximately 500 lbs of tuna. It is rare that the tuna come in close enough for the sport fisherman to warrant going out to get them. They were as close 18 miles this year. Lynnette and I wore ourselves to a frazzel pulling in tuna after tuna. Cleaning them takes almost as much time as catching them. We got so good at cleaning that others in the fishing station were asking us for advice; which took more time! We dragged ourselves home to dump the canning job on Karen and Lynnette. I tried to catch up with web work along with snoozing in my chair. I beleive Karen and Lynnette canned 28 cases of tuna! They had to resort to using both 1/2 pint jars along with pints as everyone in town was buying the 1/2 pints. Friends brought over 12 cases from Medford. We have enough jars now for more tuna! We (well the girls) also froze up some steaks that they marinated in Teryaki and wrapped in bacon and now they only have to remove from the freezer and Barbeque. I did the smoking of several pieces. Now, it is a challenge to judge whether we like smoked tuna over smoked salmon.

Brookings is short on large salmon. We are catching 15-20 lb silvers and there seems to be plenty to catch. The water will be like a pond for the rest of the week, so Lynnette and I will catch all we can. I'm hoping for 30-40 pounders. Karen says that the smaller salmon taste better. I like to think that my limited tags will be used for largest possible! More for the buck, I guess.

I've been searching the web for the best buys in parts I need for the kayak building. I found some springs that were phased out by my former source. I actually got them for less money and will pass along the good price for my customers. I'm in search of better sources for those very small, but important parts. The component that I read about and lust for, isn't available from anyone that I can find. Karen was a sales rep for components and remembers her engineering department lying through their teeth about what was going to be available, so maybe my part is still only a thought in some engineer's mind. I wonder.

I designed a nice cart to haul the Kingfisher kayak around. We are going to the Port Townsend, WA Wooden Boat Festival Sept. 7-8-9 . I was thinking I may have to carry a 55 lb kayak further than up a levy or across a beach so I made a pretty niffty cart. We will be offering it for sale on our website soon.

If you have any questions or comments be sure to contact me at winchuckriver@charter.net or call our toll free number: 877-572-6451. If we don't answer, I'll get back to you right away.