Night Heron

Night Heron lines

Picture of the Night Heron

The Night Heron line is an evolutionary branch of the Guillemots, but Nick took a look back at Greenland Inuit boats for some of the hull shaping inspiration. This boat brings the volume of the hull out towards the ends more for a higher prismatic coefficient. This gives it good efficiency at faster speeds. It has fairly hard chines with no concave sections. A slight lean will allow the boat to turn easily. The low back deck permits the paddler to lean back so their head touches the back deck. The foredeck is high enough that most paddlers will be able to get their legs in and out while sitting down. If you need more room for your legs you should look at the High Deck Night Heron.

This boat has been widely admired for its beauty, with an example accepted in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, but that does not detract from its on-the-water performance where it is fast and efficient and surfs very easily. It is a secure boat in rough water and responds well playing in the surge of rock gardens.

At 20" wide this is a narrow boat, however it is not scary to paddle. Even novice paddlers quickly get comfortable. The boat tracks well with good balance and is quite fast. It is very easy to roll and perform various braces.

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Night Heron Hybrid lines

Night Heron Hydrid

This boat combines the quick assembly of the stitch-and-glue hull and the beauty of a strip-built deck. The hull is exactly the same as the S&G Night Heron and the deck is exactly the same as the strip-built version. Since stitch and glue construction is generally quicker than strip, this hybrid goes together more quickly than the strip version. Since the strips look better to a lot of people than the plywood, the hybrid puts the beauty where you will see it, on top.

Because the hull shape is the same as the stitch and glue version, the performance will be the same. This boat is fast and efficient, tracks straight and carves turns easily.

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Night Heron High Deck lines

Night Heron High Deck

This design is exactly the same as the regular deck Night Heron below the sheer line. The deck has been bumped up for a little more leg room and more storage volume. This boat will maintain the performance characteristics of the standard deck version, but provide more room for taller paddlers.

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Night Heron Hybrid High Deck lines

Night Heron Hybrid High Deck

A hybrid version of the high decked Night Heron with a stitch-and-glue hull and the beauty of a strip-built deck. This is a higher decked version of the hybrid Night Heron suitable for taller paddlers who need a little bit more knee and leg room.

Better leg room in a quicker built boat: nice shot !

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Night Heron Greenland lines

Night Heron Greenland

The deck of this design has been lowered behind the cockpit to ease layback rolls and the cockpit is shorter to allow bracing anywhere under the foredeck. The hull is still the same as the standard Night Heron so the performance will be similar.

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Night Heron "Stitch and Glue "

Night Heron "Stitch and Glue" lines

Picture of the Night Heron "Stitch and Glue"

Like the strip version of the Night Heron, this S&G version is at home out on the open water and exploring the shores of distant islands. As drawn, it has the exact same profile shape of the lower deck version of the strip-built Night Heron. As built it tends to track a little more stiffly due to a slight sharper "V" at the stem and stern. Due to the plywood construction this version has the more defined "hard" chine than the strip version. This makes the boat a little more responsive to edged turns. Otherwise the performance of the different version of the Night Herons are all quite similar.

The "chine" on the foredeck provides clearance to keep your paddle stroke entry close to the boat while paddling with a high or low paddle angle. It also provides room where you need it for your knees and feet.

The stitch-and-glue Night Heron has proven extremely popular with builders, thanks to the high performance, aggressive styling and great looks. Many builders adopt Nick's multi-color staining approach, with each of the jigsaw-puzzled parts a different hue. This is a neat stitch-and-glue kit, where Chesapeake Light Craft's CNC technology is taken to its logical conclusion, with intricate parts and fits all perfectly sorted out. Holes for wire stitches are drilled in advance.

(CLC-Guillemot stitch-and-glue kayak kits include CNC-cut and –drilled BS 1088 okoume parts, complete no-blush epoxy kit, fiberglass for inside and out, hardware, kayak “tractor” seat, Rapid Pulse kayak backband (three-point adjustable), Keepers footbraces, flush deck hatches, watertight plywood bulkheads, complete deck rigging including bungies and hold-downs, and plans and instructions.)

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Petrel

Petrel lines

Picture of the Petrel

Early sailors thought the Storm Petrel could walk on water. Named after Saint Peter, petrels are small birds that feed at sea by fluttering just above the swell with their feet tip-toeing across the water. Like its bird namesake the Petrel kayak is at home at sea where it can dance among the waves.

Designed as a responsive, light-weight boat suitable for day trips in rough water, it is equally at home poking into sheltered estuaries or exploring the shores of isolated coves. This design will carry a large paddler through rough conditions yet it is small enough to be easily handled by petite kayakers. With a form inspired by the ancient Inuit inventors of kayaking, the Petrel will appeal to devoted Greenland-style paddlers without being intimidating to novice sea kayakers.

This boat is derived from Nick's Night Heron designs, but it is shorter, has more rocker and more reserve buoyancy in the ends. The moderately hard chine of the strip-planked Night Heron has been softened forward of the cockpit and transitions into a hard chine behind the cockpit. The result is a lively boat that accelerates quickly to catch waves, carves down wave faces and maneuvers easily.

The "transitioning" chine varies from a quite rounded, soft chine forward to a hard chine aft of the cockpit. The forward section provides smooth performance pushing out into waves and reduces the tendency to broach while surfing. The hard chine aft provides some shape that facilitates carving and leaned turns.

The deck shape takes its cue from Greenlandic Inuit skin-on-frame designs with a sharp chine-like feature line on either side. This provides height where you need it for knee room, while keeping the deck low overall. The side of the deck slopes in quickly so it is out of the way for close-to-the-hull strokes.

This design was developed to carry a 200-pound, 6+ foot paddler on day trips, but it is small enough in volume that it would also work well for lighter paddlers. It is meant as a day tripping boat for larger paddlers, and would not have the capacity for extended trips, but if you are a smaller paddler there is enough interior volume to carry a fair amount of gear.

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La famille des Night Herons (Nycticorax) n'est représentée en Europe que par le Bihoreau (Nycticorax Nycticorax), connu sous le nom de "Black Crowned Night Heron" aux Etats-Unis. Nycticorax signifie "corbeau de nuit" en grec.

Ses noms grec et anglais font référence à ses habitudes plutôt nocturnes. C'est un héron trappu, au cou et aux pattes courtes. Il se nourrit de petits poissons et crustacés, de grenouilles, d'insectes et même de petits mammifères.

Il chasse à l'affut, debout immobile au bord de l'eau, la nuit, et se repose le jour. Il est menacé d'extinction à cause de son habitude de coloniser des îles dépourvues de prédateurs, où il tend à abandonner le vol... La vie peut donc être trop belle !

Etrange choix de nom de la part de Nick Schade pour cette famille de kayaks ! Un oiseau trappu, chasseur à l'affut, hédoniste et dégénéré...