Dear Dan
Nereida is just INCREDIBLE
We have been paddling together an is FAST, ELEGANT…and almost sexy!!
I still don´t have photos on the sea, but believe: everybody turns and stare at her.
I can stand about 5-6 Knots, she surf waves, is stable…the perfect kayak??
I am a HAPPY MAN
Thank you Dan!!!!!!!!!!!

Dan

http://clearstreamwood.com/WordPress/portfolio/kayaks/2008-nereida-njord-spain

There was just too many photos I wanted to show for only one or two galleries.  So I broke it up into one gallery of final beauty shots taken outside before shipping and five taken during construction.  Any future photos from Gonzalo will be posted to the Beauty Shots gallery.

The “Nereida” was one of those “once in a lifetime” projects.  Thank you to Gonzalo for giving me the opportunity… Enjoy the photos.

Dan & Christine

Now that I had a way to get it there I needed to make sure it would survive it’s trip across the pond. I talked with a few other people who have shipped kayaks overseas on what they did.  Some just wrapped the boat in bubble-wrap and sent it on it’s merry way.  Other’s built full wooden crates.  I heard horror stories from people where forklifts drove their tines through their kayaks and canoes.  After hearing those stories I went the crate route.  Read on…

Ah, you have to love international shipping.  One thing I quickly found out through my freight consolidator was that the crate had to be made out of approved wood.  Approved wood? What the heck? From the USDA AHPIS website:

Effective March 1, 2005 the European Union required all newly assembled, repaired or recycled unprocessed raw wood packaging materials (hardwood and softwood) entering the EU to be either heat treated or fumigated and officially marked under ISPM15…. Wood packaging materials including dunnage less than 6 mm and processed wood produced from glue, heat, and pressure or a combination thereof (i.e., Oriented Strand Board, plywood, etc) are exempt from treatment and marking.

So all wood for the crate had to either be heat treated, fumigated or be processed.  I couldn’t find any heated treated/fumigated wood locally (at least not in small quantities), so I made the crate completely out of plywood.  I ended up using 5 full sheets of 1/2″ (13mm) CDX and 2 sheets of 3/4″ (19mm) CDX exterior grade plywood.  I glued and screwed it all together making a rigid box beam with the cover on.  I added internal plywood gussets to give it added torsional strength. To lessen the likely-hood of the crate getting damaged while moving it around, I added some rope/PVC tubing handles on the sides and put the crate on lockable casters.  On the interior I cut some wrap-around cradles out of some green builders foam (used to insulate concrete basements).  I used various forms as templates and cut about an 1″ outside the lines to allow for packing material. The crate ended up weighing just under 300 pounds (136 kg)!  The “Nereida” only weighs 43 pounds (19.5 kg)!

Time to put the “Nereida” in the crate.  First the hatches needed to be left open for port inspection.  So I wrapped each hatch lid with bubble wrap and taped them to the deck.  Next I wrapped the entire boat in more 1/2″ thick, large cell, bubble-wrap, taping it every few feet.  At the hatches I cut out the opening and taped the tabs inside.  I did the same for the cockpit.  With the some help I set the “Nereida” into the crate, packed every void with more bubble-wrap and plastic air bags.  We said goodbye, have a safe journey and screwed on the lid of the crate.

With her safely in her crate I glued on the various labels and markings I needed to have on it and waited for the truck to show up that would begin her journey to Spain…

The container ship arrived in Barcelona this weekend! It docked on Friday. It’s already been offloaded/loaded and has left for Haifa, Israel. Gonzalo should have her this week or next. I’ll keep you posted.

Update: 4/16/2008

I received confirmation that the “Nereida” has been loaded upon Eastern Star’s American Route Container Ship “Zim Qingdao”. It was commissioned in 2006, has a gross tonnage of 39,906 tons and is of Liberian registry. Information on the boat can be found here. Below a picture from another website. Kinda neat to know…

UPDATE: 4/15/2008

Due to problems with the trucking company the “Nereida” will not make the 4/16/08 sailing and got pushed one week. It will leave NYC on Wednesday 4/23/08 and arrive in Barcelona around 5/3/08 with final delivery the week after.

Just a quick note:

Yesterday (Friday 4/11/08) the “Nereida” began a journey that will take it from NH, to Boston and then to New York and ultimately to Gonzalo in Barcelona, Spain. Land Air Express picked it up at about 3:30 pm EST. They were subcontracted by my freight consolidator, APX, for pick-up. They’ll bring it down to Contech’s terminal in Boston, MA. It’ll then be brought to NY City and get loaded on the freighter which departs for Barcelona on the 16th. The freighter should arrive in Barcelona on 4/26/08. Gonzalo should take receipt of his kayak the week after! Exciting!!In a future post I’ll fill in more of the shipping information including how I built the 300 pound crate. The joys of International shipping!

Stay tuned…

Dan