I wrote two weeks about our first two visits to the Delmarva Paddlers Retreat in Delaware. We returned at the beginning of October, this year, arriving at Camp Arrowhead after a few enjoyable days catching up with friends. The paddle from Brooklyn to the Verrazano Bridge, at the entrance to New York Harbour (Harbor?) with Tim and the Red Hook Boaters, was particularly memorable.
A significant change, at Delmarva, from when we first attended in 2019 was that I had made the transition from being one of the newbies to one of the volunteer mentors. Thursday afternoon was occupied with running a training session for the mentors followed by numerous rescue sessions over the next few days. Fortunately the water was warm enough that full wet suits or dry suits were not required.
The evenings are particularly enjoyable and follow the same format each year. The Saturday evening is auction time. There is a Silent Auction for quite a varied range of lots followed by the live auction, run by Dave Sides, the owner off some memorable shirts. There was a signed copy of “Moderate Becoming Good Later”, which had been signed by Katie Carr. Nicky gave a personal description of the book, which clearly had an impact as we were delighted when it went for $150. All proceeds going to Qajaq USA. If you haven’t already bought a copy of the book please consider buying one.
There was one item, that I could have been a competitive bidder for, this stunning skin on frame baidarka. Unfortunately the kayak and myself don’t live on the same continent, so getting it home would have been a real challenge. I was surprised it that it finally went for $800. I think that it was worth at least double. I was fortunate that the following morning I did get to paddle it. Such a beautiful craft
This year, the main talk was on the Friday evening by Paninnguaq Korneliussen, the granddaughter of Emmanuel Korneliussen. Some of you will be sitting there saying “who” whereas others will immediately think, Ken Taylor’s kayak. In 1959 Ken Taylor visited Igdlorrsuit, in north west Greenland, returning to Scotland with a kayak built by a local hunter, Emmanuel Korneliussen.
Many of you will be aware of the historical importance of Ken Taylor’s kayak and the fact that a good friend of the Jersey Canoe Club, Duncan Winning was the person who measured it, with the plans dated for 1964. The history behind the kayak is best explained by Duncan, in an article which is published here. There are plenty of links from Duncan’s article to further resources which many of you will find interesting. Mike Hamilton gave a very quick précis (less than 5 minutes) of the development of the kayak before handing the rest of the evening over to Paninnguaq.
What followed was the most memorable talk, as Paninnguaq, spoke about her grandfather and the history of her family. This was a truly emotional talk, which left very few people dry eyed in the room. The love that she felt for her grandfather, the sad fact that he had a stroke and had to be looked after for 25 years. So much affection, which must have been almost impossible for him to express, as he could only speak 3 words in the last 25 years of his life. It was an absolute privilege to be present and I am a still trying to process some of what we heard. Hopefully, though we will in some small way have helped Emmanuel Korneliussen have a voice.
Duncan wrote his original article in May 2004, which was 6 or 7 years before the Korneliussen family became aware of Emmanuel’s influence on modern sea kayaking. They only became aware of the importance of the kayaks that he built, when they “googled” his name. Such a revelation for the family.
The Delmarva Paddlers Retreat is always a thoroughly enjoyable weekend but 2023 was particularly special. A direct link to the modern origins of our sport, it was honour to hear Paninnguaq to speak with such pride and compassion about her grandfather. A man, anybody who has an interest in the development of sea kayaking will have heard of, but who in reality we didn’t really know anything about.
Delmarva 2023 has finished, and what a weekend, so make sure that the 35th Annual Delmarva Paddlers Retreat October 11-13, 2024, is in your diaries.