Andy Retzloff's Page

ANDY, hope all is well, did you try a Hobie Adventure as a new member on the forum with a Triak is asking abot the craft, although i suppose you have seen the post. Still not sailed my Triak..

ANDY i hope your looking into the Triak is getting results. Have you seen the fishing forum www.kayakfishingstuff.com click onto the forum and scroll down to the sailing kayaks section. On page 1 there are some comments but on page 2 there is a lot more,lots of photos, comments and reports, it is well worth looking at, when i was trying to figure out the forestay rigging there were no pictures of that but now i have done it it is quite simple

ANDY, this is the John in Northern Ontario with the Triak, i see you are after info, very hard to find, i have E-mailed owners and they never answer. If you can get it obtain the JUNE 2007 issue of SAILING there is a good boat test on the TRIAK and really the reviewer had good things to say. As regards getting in, it should be possible from a dock if the out rigger is not in the way keeping the boat too far out, most of the time i have to get into my other boats from walking out and the water is always over my boots, it,s one thing i have got use to and i will do it with my Triak and getting out i step into the water, i have towels and dry footwear in the car ready for when i want them. I can,t give you any pointers on sailing theTriak untill late next summer after i have sailed it a few times, but the sail is really a LATEEN type and these are supposed to perform well including going up wind (up to a point) maybe 45 deg into wind. From reports the Triak paddles well and sails well too, from the quality of my boat which was one made in Canada i can recommend them, but i have not yet sailed it. It has to be car topped or trailered with the sails on, tied and covered etc. The mag SAILING is at www,sailingmagazine.net

In have a Nauti raid 2 and they are great. I will sailit this coming summer. greg

we are about 100km from Pukaskwa NP and been up here two years, i was going to try and do the trip to WAWA this summer but with the summers late arrival and spending 5 weeks of the paddling season away it didn,t happen so i was on all the local lakes plus White lake. Next summer i hope to get on Superior in the Rainbow Falls/Rossport area. Nice to see you have the Spirit sails, but i don,t think sails on a kayak is cheating just a way to use the wind, will that sail "reach", the PA will as one of the masts can be pulled back, i have been able to go VERY slightly up wind but not enough, So to go up wind i pull the sail down and paddle, some people say the PA will go quite well up wind but so far i havn,t been able to prove it . I have been told the Lateen sail is a lot better and not so expensive from either "sail boats to go' or Spring creek(canoegear.com). The main sail used on the Triak is really a form of Lateen sail with a different mast. I have been told that i am the third person in Ontario to own a Triak but so far i havn,t found the others. You should join the Tundra sail site there are 5 members but only GREG and Myself seem to be active with sails. If you want to see Manitouwadge without leaving home click on www.playintheextreme.com

Andy i have added four more photos of the Triak in my photo section. I am in northern ontario at Manitouwadge, between Thunder Bay and Sault St Marie.

I was refering to the paddle only. The Nautirand two seater is very similar to the Klepper Aerius 2, I have two of them and a Folbot Yukon, this is my folder "fleet", i also have two skin on frame kayaks made from TYNE kit,s a UK company that no longer exists. Each of the folders has a Pacific Action sail that i like as they are easy to use, they don,t turn a kayak into a sail boat but are great fun and give the boat a good boost at reasonable cost, i bought them from Greg at www. tundrasails.ca a very good person to deal with and lot,s of advice, we have a section on the site. Now the TRIAK this is a demonstrator that i bought at a"reasonnable" price it is now ready for next summer (this morning it was minus 15c) this is one of the earlier models made in Canada, the latest are lighter, it,s designed as a sailing kayak that can be paddled but to look at it who would, just take a paddle along to assist where required. So if you are thinking about them from what i see they, or mine is very well made, now made in the USA, and i think worth the money, i you can get a "demonstrator" or when they are on sale, but they are a single seater which dosn,t bother me as i sail and paddle alone, when my children went with me we had seperate boats which i found to be the best way.