Re: [Paddlewise] [lead shot?]Eat more

At 08:50 AM 2/14/98 -0500, John Winters wrote:
>Kenneth wrote;
>Lead weighs aprox. 700 lbs. per cubic foot. Thus 64 pounds of lead will
>only take up 157 cu. inches of space. Since this can be mounted much lower
>in the boat and centralized fore and aft much less of it can be used to
>achieve the desired increase in stability or change in trim.  A simple
>calculation of the moments involved will show that 50 pounds of lead
>mounted on the bottom of a kayak will almost make it self righting. If
>faired into the hull it will have no noticeable effect on hull resistance. 
>

>The important thing to recognize through any of these discussions is that
>circumstances alter needs. One can alter stability in several ways and each
>method has its virtues and vices. The wise paddler and boat designer will
>recognize this and use each method in the appropriate manner. To
>arbitrarily adopt one over the others is to invite problems. 
>
>
>Cheers
>John Winters
  

My 2 cents worth

Most of the time I see people in kayaks that are to big for them, 150lb
person in a sealution,100 lb paddler in a sealion, and so on. I it rare to
see a person in a kayak to small , 200lb in a picalo. Most kayak
manufacturers will say that a kayak with a ____ paddler and ___ amount of
gear will be at the right trim the kayak was designed for. Most people buy
a kayak to camp in and only camp 10-20 % of the time. My opinion is they
should buy a kayak for what they use it for 80-90% of the time , day
paddles , and suffer when they camp or buy a second kayak for that purpose.
A lot of the kayaks out there seem to be made for a expedition and not day
paddling. So eat more to trim your kayak and forget the ballast because you
will be the ballast.

Dana

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