With DW #3 under his belt Dougal needed a new adventure. The Round Britain had been set by Joe S in 67 days. It was there to be challenged. On the first day Dougal crossed the Thames estuary, and never looked back. Straight lining wherever possible, using his experience and instincts honed from his European Epic Adventure he flew along the south coast faster than anyone dot watching could believe, and surprising a basking submarine, the tone was set. Crossing the River Severn estuary in mere hours and barely pausing in White Sands he set off across the Irish Sea, setting that record along the way. 40 days later he landed on the beach he had launched from.
Dougal carried everything he needed in the GT hatches, camping where he beached or enjoying the kindness of strangers after powering round the coastline, past expectant supporters. He enjoyed the company of wildlife of more days than not, and the occasional companion paddler (if they could catch him they could rarely keep up for long). With canny reading of tides, winds, and local conditions Dougal drew on his experience and instinct, and surprisingly complementary weather conditions, to set a record which we believe is going to be extremely hard to beat.
Find out more in Dougal's' Epic Adventure
Dougal's V8 GT
The original GT, made by Kirton Kayaks Ltd. Kirton write"
Congratulations to our very own team paddler, Dougal Glaisher, for completing his round Britain challenge in a truly ridiculous 40-days. That’s an average of 50 miles a day (let that sink in a minute), and the fastest time ever, which shows incredible athletic and mental strength, and that’s before we mention his additional challenge of Type 1 diabetes. We’ve known Dougal since he started paddling, his unwavering apetite for adventure and commitment to bring awareness to Action4Diabetes, not to mention his gift for writing has kept us riveted to his daily updates. Not to mention he’s an all round wonderful human being and that’s why we made him an extra special Epic V8 GT in our Devon factory.
Made under license for Epic Kayaks, we’ve been producing this V8 GT for a couple of years now exclusively for Epic Kayaks UK and have perfected a couple of constructions that we feel really suit this sort of boat, not too heavy and not too fragile, with loads of carbon fibre and generous oven cure to get the maximum strength form the Epoxy resin.
Dougal’s boat was a bit different though, as we knew this hull was going to be put through it’s paces, with unknown treacherous beach landings, and more than the average load of kit, so we decided to take our top-spec GT laminate and give it an upgrade. We did this in two ways, first we increased the Carbon weight all over for extra toughness, and second we thickened up the core for extra stiffness and strength.
Taking learnings from Dougal’s previous impulsive adventure around Europe, (‘A surfski adventure with no destination’) in which he took our original prototype, we included two extra deck fittings near the rear hatch so the boat could be rigged with a perimeter line. This allowed Dougal to bungee more kit on top of the deck, expanding his carrying capacity if needed. Other than that modification, the deck was made in our standard carbon layup, for overall weight savings.
The finished weight for the build was 17kg which is just 1.6kg over the typical weight for this model in a carbon fibre construction, but still at least 5kg lighter than a similarly sized sea kayak. We’re super-chuffed to have been able to build a boat that matches Douglas ambition to exploration. Thank you Dougal, you’ve done us proud.
The V8 GT is unique in its class. Fast, yet extremely stable, this is a surfski that most kayakers should be able to hop right onto and paddle off. The deck feature bow & stern carry handles, side handles and a water bottle holder in the cockpit. The Epic bailer, footrest and breather tube and Epic surfski rudder configurations are standard.
