Kayak Access - Parking Restrictions on Long Island

 I want to go paddling on Long Island….but I’m afraid I’ll get a parking ticket.

The paddling is beautiful out east, but I’ve been burned by expensive parking tickets in the past.  Years ago I got a big ticket for parking on a dead-end street in Montauk for just 10 minutes to check a launch site ($150, likely higher penalty now). Just seems nonsensical to me, Harrumph! So this time I'm doing some research to avoid getting fined.

Gaining access to the shore for paddling has become increasingly difficult.  The British Canoe Union (BCU), the organization where I got my kayak training, used to have an entire committee devoted to the issue of improving and maintaining public access to British waters. Currently I see two campaigns running in England, the “Canoeing is Not a Crime Campaign”, and Canoe England’s “Rivers Access Campaign”.  Unfortunately, I don’t see anything similar in the U.S. run by the American Canoe Association, perhaps due to the “home rule” mindset we have here that puts such issues in the control of local municipalities.  Sorry if this sounds like whining about a first-world problem, but ideally coastal access should be available to all, with reasonable fees and limitations to prevent crowding or damage to coastal land where necessary.  Anything more restrictive is too much.  I’m talking about restrictions on public lands and roadways here, not private property which is another matter.  This really is a fairness, even a moral issue when you think about it - in a democracy, can the coastline be so thoroughly walled off to the common man?

My focus this spring is the waters between the two forks of Long Island, launching (hopefully) somewhere in Southampton or Easthampton.  Good luck, right.  But with the help of StreetView in GoogleMaps I scanned the roads for “no parking” signage at some promising spots. Then I checked the town codes online to be sure parking was OK.  Unfortunately, getting assurance that parking is or is not allowed at any given spot is very hard to do.

The mouth of Accabonac Harbor in East Hampton has two “kayak launches” labelled in Google Maps and recognized as such by the Town that intrigued me – Gerard Drive Nature Park and Louse Point Park. Both are dead-end streets with small-boat ramps. However, signage on the street says “Parking by Permit Only”. [It did occur to me that someone at Google could be going a little “kayak launch” label-happy at his desk in Silicon Valley without vetting these “kayak launch” spots at the municipal level …]

Town regulations are available online via eCode360 - and just as the street signs say, the Town of East Hampton’s parking regulations confirm that parking at Gerard and Louse parks is not allowed without a permit:  “In accordance with the provisions of § 240-34, no person shall park a vehicle without a permit at any time upon any of the following described streets or parts of streets…” And sure enough, Gerard Drive and Louse Point Road are both listed along with dozens of other streets encompassing the entire town!  So, how much is this parking permit?  Speaking to the Town Clerk the old fashioned way (by phone) reveals that there is a $600 non-resident parking permit. No way am I paying $600 to go paddling for a single day, who would?!    What’s more, the distracted Town Clerk I spoke to wasn’t sure if this permit is only valid at designated public “beaches” in Southampton, or if it’s also valid for the many waterfront parks, roadways, and landings located elsewhere in the Town.  So, even if I paid this extortionate fee of $600, I’d have no assurance that the permit would allow parking at these two kayak launches on Accabonac.  Getting straight answers from busy town staff can be challenging…so next I called the cops.  A friendly Easthampton policeman basically said “if there’s a sign saying no parking don’t park there.”  Although good advice, it didn’t give me the assurance that parking at landings without signage is risk-free.

With uncertainty lingering after my telephone calls, I searched further and found several nearby roads that are also marked as “kayak launch” on GoogleMaps!  For example, one launch shown on the aptly named “Landing Lane” had no visible “no parking” signs on Google Streetview.  Great legal parking on the water!  But reading the parking regs says otherwise - and this is where it gets wacky...  The Town of East Hampton Code § 240-15 says that parking is prohibited “from Old Stone Highway along the west side of Landing Lane ...to the launching ramp and water access”.   OK, so maybe it’s legal to park on the other side, the east side of Landing Lane?...   Not so fast - digging further into the code uncovers ADDITIONAL regulations at § 240-79 which say the following for Landing Lane, “... no person shall park a vehicle without a permit...from the dead end at the launching ramp and water access point to 300 feet along the east side of Landing Lane.”  Crap, really?? So the code prohibits parking on BOTH sides of Landing Lane in separate code sections depending on which side of the street you’re concerned with!!   Who, besides me, is going to go to the trouble of digging deeply into the parking regs for a day paddle?!  It’s sufficiently difficult to get the full story that it seems purposeful to me, as if the town is being cryptic so that it can collect parking ticket revenue.

One has to wonder, what is the intent of such restrictive parking regulations - and who are they targeting exactly?  Nonresident kayakers are clearly not the reason for these regulations - there aren't enough of us to clog Southampton’s waterfront streets.  Maybe it’s other users causing the problem?  Consider for a moment the relative priority of the potential users of these two Accabonac Harbor “pocket parks”,  or similar dead-end streets appropriate for hand-launching small boats.   New York State uses the terms “water-dependent uses” and “water-enhanced uses” in its coastal land use guidance documents (Local Waterfront Revitalization Program) which apply to the planning, development, and use of waterfront properties.  Kayaking is clearly a “water-dependent” use, you can’t do it anywhere else. As such, it’s given priority over non-water-dependent uses in this State guidance.   In simple terms, the State requires that communities prioritize water-dependent uses, like marinas or public beaches or kayak launches, on lands adjacent to water rather than shopping malls or parking lots that could be located elsewhere.  At these two parks on Accabonac Harbor, such users as paddle sports enthusiasts, sailboat operators, or swimmers should be given priority over non-water dependent users.  Second priority under this State guidance are “water-enhanced” uses (and users).  A park that provides water views to motorists or pedestrians would fall under this category.  Maybe it’s folks sitting in their cars looking out at the water that are the problem motivating the Town to prohibit non-resident parking? If so, the Town should differentiate between water users who must have access (kayakers) and those who may benefit from access (car-sitters) and provide signage or regulations to preserve access to water-dependent users regardless of residency…  Sadly, that’s not the case, as evidenced by my difficulty finding a place to launch my kayak!

A counter-argument to this is that residents who pay via their taxes for the maintenance and policing of the parks and roads should be given priority over nonresidents.  But how much priority and who’s exactly paying for these parks and roads? 

There is an oft-cited court case from Connecticut involving a jogger, Brenden Leydon, who was preventing from accessing his favorite beach because he was a nonresident. The 2001 decision in that case declared it illegal to bar nonresidents from Greenwich beaches. And there are earlier precedents. In 1973 the New York State Supreme Court struck down an ordinance in Long Beach that excluded nonresidents from the beaches there. These cases cite the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment which requires that States treat individuals equally under the law.  And while I see that State law does require that municipalities provide permit parking for nonresidents, it’s typically limited to specifically-demarcated areas of specific towns as laid out in the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law (Article 39). And as far as upper limits on what towns can charge non-residents, I’m not seeing much in my limited online research.  So, charger high fees seem a currently “legal” way to dissuade nonresident visitors.  Another wrinkle in this legal arena is Federal Funding.  If a municipality gets (or got) federal funds to buy, develop, or maintain a park or roadway, then that means it can’t legitimately treat nonresidents differently than local residents at that park or roadway, at least that's part of the legal discussions in these cases. Ugh, this is getting complicated. 

The Town clerk I spoke to mentioned that local hotels often have day-passes they give to their guests for parking, but again those are typically for a limited number of Town swimming beaches, not kayak launch sites.  Not super helpful.

Maybe this post will result in some comments that will enlighten me about this topic further…I expect my digging into this subject will be ongoing.

G/Flex epoxy for kayak repair – review

I had to re-seat the plastic hatch rims on a 30-year-old Romany kayak a few months back. The original adhesive had completely dried up and the previous owner had simply installed a few rivets to hold them in place (Photo 1) – suffice to say they leaked a lot.  So, I used a West Systems epoxy product that was new to me, G/Flex 655 Thickened Epoxy Adhesive.  West Systems describes G/Flex as “a bit more flexible than standard epoxies and polyester but much stiffer than adhesive sealants,” and, “ideal for bonding dissimilar materials.”  Sounded perfect for my needs.  I’ve used standard epoxy and polyester resins for past kayak projects, for laying up fiberglass cloth and hull repairs.  But I’ve never had the need to permanently bond plastic to fiberglass.  In short, G/Flex worked great.

Years ago I used 3M 5200 to glue some plastic rings inside the cockpit of a kayak – but that 3M stuff is a different class of sealant composed of polyurethane. It worked fine, but 3M 5200 is mainly used for bedding hardware on motor/sail boats in areas subject to engine vibration and such.  It’s a one-part sealant that doesn’t have quite the strength of epoxy.

For the hatch repair, I roughed up the plastic hatch rims a bit with sand paper to help the epoxy adhere. Whatever adhesive used when the boat was made was a rubberized type that could not be easily sanded away from the boat without cutting into the boat itself (Photo 2). So, I just left the boat's hatch recesses as-is without sanding.  

G/Flex 655 comes already thickened, no need for adding thickeners like most epoxies, and is easy to work with. Just mix the two parts together (comes in two separate tubes), smear a liberal amount on the hatch rims, then press the rims in place. I strapped the hatch rims down during the 24-hour curing time (Photo 3) as a safety precaution because the boat was stored in a communal boathouse where it might get pushed around. But that wouldn't be necessary normally – the G/Flex is so viscous/tacky that the rims weren’t going to move around during the cure.

The result – the rims are Rock-Solid, no leaks and the bond seems super strong.  I’d use G/Flex again if I have to do any adhesive repairs of dissimilar materials (metal/plastic to fiberglass).

Photo 1: Pre-Repair, rivets - someone's misguided attempt to secure rims

Photo 2: Rims removed (rivets drilled out) showing original dried rubber adhesive

Photo 3: G/Flex curing....

Battle of the 16-foot "British-style" kayaks – Stellar “Nomad” first look

Not a review, just impressions from plan/profile photos of the new (soon to be released) Stellar Nomad kayak. In short - the seat is located closer to the bow compared to similar 16-foot "British style" kayaks. 

Stellar is a company that makes light-weight kayaks in carbon for less money than other manufacturers. 16-foot sea kayaks occupy something of a sweet-spot, they can be fun in rough water and are ideal if you mostly day-paddle and don't care much about maximum hull speed.   It's great to see another offering in this category. 

Using the term "British style" loosely, i.e. narrow, rockered sea kayaks with skegs, the Nomad fits right in with the rest.  Looking at the comparison photos below, the hull of the new Nomad (the green boat at bottom of Photos 1 and 2) looks just as rockered as the others, so should be nice for playing in rough water.  And it appears a bit more Swede-form (widest just behind seat) which could make it more efficient in the forward paddling department.   But the main difference I see is its seat position – the cockpit (and center of mass of seat) is located noticeably more towards the bow compared to other boats in this category.  That’s intriguing.  It’ll be interesting to see how that affects the way it paddles - center of mass towards the bow usually increases weather-cocking making a functional skeg important.  Lastly, compared to the other boats the Nomad has less upsweep at the bow and stern, which reduces windage and appears to add some waterline length (both helpful for speed and efficiency) but might make for a wetter ride in rough seas...time will tell. 

Here's an early video review of the Stellar Nomad by Alder Creek a retailer based in Oregon, and you can pre-order the Nomad from Offshore Marine, a retailer located in Illinois. (I'd personally test paddle of course before ordering a new boat.)

Photo 1

Photo 2

West End Boat Basin - Kayak Launch, 40°35'22.0"N 73°33'15.0"W

Launching a sea kayak from the east side of Jones Inlet is an option that minimizes paddling in the sometimes-fast current of Reynold’s Channel where I'd typically launch from the Marina in Point Lookout. Launching from the east side of the inlet also allows you to hug the eastern jetty, protected from the swell that usually travels from SE to NW.  

The West End Boat Basin, located on the east side of the inlet by the USCG Station Jones Beach, offers parking and is free in the off-season.  You have to pull your boat with a cart for a ways along the paved bike path, maybe 100 yards, to the officially designated “State Park Kayak Access”.  But it’s an easy walk-and-roll.  The paddling is glorious, just have to stay a bit off the shoreline to avoid the fishermen who line the jetty so you don’t get tangled up in their lines. The launch area can get shallow (see Photo 4.) but the bottom is sandy-ish so easily walkable with your boat until you reach deeper water.

This site is among the many listed on Elizabeth O’Connor’s website “Sea Kayaking Skills and Adventures, Ltd”. She’s a big kayak racer out on Long Island who started the website, a great resource: 

http://www.sksaltd.com/launch.htm#jonespkwestend

Photo 1. West End Boat Basin - Jones Beach

Photo 2. Launch area is 100-yards past parking lot.

Photo 3. A kayak cart is necessary but paved bike path is easy.

Photo 4. Launch area can get shallow, jetty on East Side of Jones Inlet looking southwards

Photo 5. Off-shore breakers that can be fun to mess with if you're adventurous, since no fear of a beach-dumping injury

Lee-Cocking in Big Winds

 

Figure 1. Weather-cocking vs. Lee-cocking

Yes, lee-cocking (turning downwind) in beam winds is a thing.  Some kayakers haven't experienced lee-cocking since most skeg-equipped sea kayaks are designed to reliably do the opposite, that is weather-cock (turn towards or into the wind).  Sea kayaks are made to weather-cock because this effect of turning into the wind can be countered by dropping a skeg located at the stern of the boat.  In this way, paddlers can keep their boats going straight in a range of conditions.  No wind – minimal use of the skeg. Increasing wind – increasing amount of skeg deployed.

I’ve owned kayaks that weather-cock a lot and those that only do so when winds pick up. Generally speaking, kayaks with more “rocker” (the amount of curvature in the bottom of the hull along its length from bow to stern) weather-cock more.  My Valley Pintail and Avocet sea kayaks were in the “weather cocks a lot” category, and sure enough had a lot of rocker.  My NDK Explorer and Romany were in the “weather cocks a little” category, and in truth I rarely used the skegs in these two boats since a little edging and sweep strokes were typically all that was needed to stay on course in winds. 

Kayaks that don’t weather-cock strongly can sometimes do the opposite when wind and waves get big – they lee-cock to varying degrees.  This effect cannot be corrected with a skeg, deploying a skeg will just increase the lee-cocking.  If you’ve experienced lee-cocking you know it can be annoying or alarming depending on your situation!  Edging and sweep strokes on the down-wind side only go so far to combat lee-cocking.  What contributes to this problem? 

Center-of-Mass and cockpit location:

First about weather-cocking. Kayaks weather-cock because the act of paddling forward creates higher water pressure on the bow as compared to the stern.  The bow is locked-in by this higher pressure and the stern is loose (or looser) due to the lower pressure.  Wind can then push the loose stern more than the locked-in bow causing the kayak to effectively turn into the wind while underway - weather-cock.  

The location of the center-of-mass can have a sizable effect on weather-cocking and lee-cocking as it will further “lock-in” whichever end (bow or stern) has more weight.  Expedition paddlers know all about this because balancing the weight of their gear, fore-and-aft, will affect how their boat responds to wind.  But if you’re (like me) mostly a day-paddler, your body is the main “load” in the boat and then the location of the cockpit comes into play.

I’ve experienced alarming lee-cocking a few times in two boats in particular - my NDK Romany and the Tiderace Xtreme.  Both boats are pretty directionally neutral in mild/moderate winds.  But when conditions get bigger, they both can lee-cock in a cross wind. Why?  A big factor is because both boats have their cockpits placed somewhat towards the stern. This helps them track straight in following seas and makes them fun to surf.  But with the center-of-mass located somewhat towards the stern, the pressure on the bow is reduced during forward paddling, it is looser – and lee-cocking can result.

Figure 2 illustrates this effect by imagining kayaks with their cockpits located way at the bow or way at the stern. The Romany and Xtreme kayaks are (a tiny bit) like the boat with the cockpit at the stern.

Figure 2. Cockpit (center of mass) effect on Weather-cocking and Lee-cocking

 

If you’re confronted with lee-cocking when on-the-water, the first remedy is simply to scooch forward in your seat and lean forward some to move the center-of-mass towards the bow.  Even an inch or two helps. This will lock the bow in a bit more and loosen up the stern some, reducing lee-cocking. This always worked for me in the Romany.

Another factor to consider - the lee-cocking effect will occur less frequently for strong paddlers who propel their boats faster, since the pressure on the bow generated by a 5-knot paddling speed is more than at a 3-knot speed.  More speed = more water pressure on bow = bow is more locked in place = less lee cocking.   By the same token, a paddling speed that keeps the boat going straight in 10-knot winds may not be enough to prevent lee-cocking in 20-knot winds. 

Windage:

Windage, or the surface area of boat (and gear) exposed to the wind, contributes as well. If the surface area of your kayak is much bigger in the front as compared to the back, this unequal windage may make the boat prone to lee-cocking.  More commonly, gear stored on the deck can exacerbate lee-cocking and weather-cocking. In the case of lee-cocking, move any paddles and other items stored on deck that increase windage from the bow to the stern. This will reduce the “push” of the wind on the bow and increase it on the stern.  If weather-cocking, do the opposite.  Moving deck gear around is a lot easier if you’re paddling with others.

Figure 3. Move gear to reduce Lee-cocking

Lastly, waves hitting a kayak from the windward side seem (to me) to add to the lee-cocking effect of winds. Not sure why this is but, in my experience, it seems to be true. Perhaps waves have more of a pushing down-wind effect on the bow for the same reason that forward paddling adds water pressure at the bow – the bow is locked-in by this pressure so perhaps the wave forces are transmitted more at the bow than the stern (?). That’s just a guess.

Hope these observations make sense. 

Here's a nice article explaining wind effects on kayaks and paddleboards that might be helpful too - paddleboards have fixed skegs essentially, so are more likely to turn away from the wind than towards the wind. But you can move your position, and center of mass, more freely on a paddle board so that's key. 

Fire Island Inlet and Oak Beach Park – the perfect kayak launch spot?

Fire Island Inlet was an occasional (one or two times per year) paddling spot for me, a place to easily reach some “friendly” deeper water breaking waves to surf in my sea kayak. This required a fast sprint across the boat channel, so it was not without some trepidation even in my Halcyon Days. In order to maximize the time I could spend in the waves, I’d put in at this small ad hoc parking area off Oak Beach Road which may have a name, but is unmarked – see Photo 1.  It had room for a few cars and was frequented by fishermen, picnickers and once I saw a scuba diver there.  But recently the State “improved” the shoreline here with stone riprap which would now make it a challenge to launch a sea kayak.  So, an alternative launch spot is not far away to the east – Oak Beach Park (Photo 2).  It has tons of parking but requires an additional 2 miles of paddling round trip to the inlet.  Nevertheless, it is a nice place to launch a kayak from and there’s always something fun to see, a bit of current to play in as you paddle by Sore Thumb Beach (to west) and some ocean swell once you reach Overlook Beach (a bit further west), neither of which requires crossing the busy motor boat freeway going in and out of the inlet.

Photo 1: Former Launch Site...

Oak Beach Park has two sandy areas you can launch a kayak from – shown in Photo 2. Sometimes the parking lot hosts classic-car events in summer, but usually it's mostly empty off-season or mid-week.  Be mindful of sand bars at low tide in the bay (Photo 3).

Photo 2: Oak Beach Park - parking lot

Photo 3: sandbars

Photo 4: Big cloud

Photo 5: kayak surfable waves off Democrat Point

Kayaking at Sunken Meadow State Park on Long Island, NY – mind the whitewater…really?

Sunken Meadow is a fantastic place to paddle with access to the beautiful Nissequogue River and Long Island Sound. 

Figure 1: Beautiful day on Sunken Meadow Creek

If you go, the New York State Parks Department has a great Kayak & Canoe Guide to New York State Parks that includes Sunken Meadow and presents the kayak launching and parking areas saying, “launch sites are at east end of Parking Field 3 to access Long Island Sound or the Nissequogue River: north side of service road to beach; directly east of parking lot to salt marsh.”  Sounds simple enough, and it is if you follow these directions and observe the signage displayed at the park itself!  Never having been there before, I did an all-too-brief scoping out of these kayak launch areas and decided instead that I could put in the creek right behind the parking lot and therefore a bit closer to my car than the signage indicated.  Big mistake. 

This creek, Sunken Meadow Creek, is an embayment of Long Island Sound, and a relatively small one at that.  As such, risks posed by currents and obstacles weren’t uppermost in my mind.  However, if I’d bothered to read the fine print of the Parks Department kayaking guide, I’d have seen that it also says “kayaking/canoeing in creek west of salt marsh prohibited…”    In my defense, it’s not entirely clear what is meant by "west of salt marsh", because it’s salt marsh all around – west, east, north and south.    But another bit of info that I missed is that the map in the guide (see Figure 2) labels a “Dam” where a footbridge crosses the creek…uh oh. 

Figure 2: NYS Parks map of Sunken Meadow State Park, in part

Heedless of these warnings, I launched my kayak at dead-low tide and began paddling down the creek at a leisurely pace.  Soon I realized that the creek had some current, at least then at low tide.   Looking well ahead of me at a wide footbridge that crosses the creek I noticed a bit of whitewater, “that’s unexpected”, I thought to myself.  By the time I was close to the footbridge I could see a grouping of rocks forming something of a wall/dam under the footbridge with water spilling over and through it.  Crap!  The only opening in this dam appeared to be on the left but my kayak was now moving at a decent clip to the right!  I did some emergency maneuvering but didn’t quite make it to the opening in the dam so had to fend off the rocks with my hands, levering my kayak manually into the shoot that spat me out into calm water!  Phew, mishap narrowly avoided. A reminder that it pays to read the signs and scope out the launch.

So, if you go, launch downstream of the footbridge! The little rock dam in the creek is likely only a problem at low tide since the rocks stand only a foot or so proud of the water at that time.  I had a beautiful and relaxing paddle around the mouth of the Nissequogue River after that bit of excitement. 

Figure 3: Aerial showing parking, Sunken Meadow Creek, and stone Dam