Re: [Paddlewise] advanced sea kayak

-----Original Message-----
From: Kirk Olsen <kolsen_at_imagelan.com>
To: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net <paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net>
Date: Wednesday, May 06, 1998 12:25 PM
Subject: [Paddlewise] advanced sea kayak


>
>A friend asked me what the difference was between an
>"advanced" sea kayak and a beginner/advanced beginner sea kayak.
>
>I'm having trouble coming up with an explanation.
>
>Is it width, volume, length, outfitting?
>Initial stability?
>
>If it's outfitting does that mean a fully outfitted Chinook is
>an advanced boat? ;-)
>
>I would expect to classify sea kayaks with a beam under 21 inches (53 cm)
>as advanced.  But width alone seems like a very weak way of defining an
>what makes an advanced boat.  Besides that would make my 22 inch beam
>VCP PinTail a beginner boat ;-)
>
>kirk
>


An Advanced Sea Kayak is any boat that is difficult to handle in rough
conditions and requires an Advanced Kayaker.   Therefore all boats that
weathercock badly, broach quickly and uncontrollably, bury their bows
surfing, etc., are Advanced.

Also, any boat that is Twittery is necessarily advanced, no matter what its
beam.  In such a boat an Unadvanced paddler will not be able to lean
properly.  There is the well known Coefficient of Twitter associated with
each sea kayak which I have measured with my specially designed instruments.
By my measurements the following boats, all of beam near 22", have the
following Coefficients of Twitter, normalized to the range 1 to 10.  Mariner
II [2],  Solstice GTS [3], Arctic Hawk [4], Seda Glider [3], Arluk 1.9 [8],
Arluk 2 [7].  Therefore the Arluks are Advanced while the others are
Unadvanced.

Note that Advanced is not necessarily better than Unadvanced.  Or is it?
All other things being equal, are there any advantages to a high Coefficient
of Twitter?

Jerry

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