DOBELE Sea Kayak
Currently embroiled in the ongoing Alona and OC1-trainer production woes, it was with surprise I received news that the first kayak I ever designed is ready.Well, it was 'ready' last June, but the design for the seat, hatches, rudder, foot braces, etc took almost another 9 months. Longer than the kayak design! The smallest thing give the biggest headache!
So last week I received a call to say that the kayak is finally ready ready... is it true what the Chinese say?
But the logo is not yet printed, and they have trouble finding a trusted source of a particular type of 3M glue to seal the bulkheads. It seemed that in China, there are 'professional' factories pirating 3M glue... and yesterday we spent an hour figuring out how to tell the real ones from the fake ones.
As for the name DOBELE, it came about when I was thinking of a name for DOUBLE. Then I also wanted it to be a happy thing, so I was thinking different happy-related words...joy, happiness...like the Chinese saying of 'Double Happiness'. Then I hit JUBILEE. So putting DOUBLE JUBILEE together, I shortened it to DOBELE !
Barring all these delays, and unforeseen small parts, and unknown hiccups, the DOBELE will be ready in another 3 weeks. Here are some more photos.
Comments
I look forward to paddling Dobele (are u sure that's not a French influence?) with you and soon I hope!
Let me know when it's in Spore!
The rudder is a luxury option eh? If these boats are bought by operators for heavy usage, that might be the first thing that gets damaged first, so do be prepared to receive comments about it.
Jia you!