Self paddling kayaks? Big deal! :-) I extended the rudder on my Looksha IV (making it a Looksha XIV) and inserted a miniature paddle wheel similar to those found on the Mississippi River Boats. A small square Chinese junk rigged sail provides initial momentum in moderate winds, which in turn provides adequate thrust to overcome the inertia of the paddle wheel. In light or no winds, a can of cold beans, ingested, quite adequately replaces the need for the sail. By combining the paddle wheel, sail, beans and a moderate tail wind, I've achieved sustained speeds of 12.4 knots. And that's in open water with no assisting current and waves in excess of 19 feet. I'm now working to hook my GPS so it will download information to the laptop which will then feed directions to the autopilot. I will then be able to read a book, watch TV or take a nap as my self paddling, self steering, self navigating kayak whisks me off to my desination. Next week I'll add voice recognition so I can simply tell the components to "go here" or "go there". After I attach a canopy to block the sun and weather it will be almost as good as watching someone else paddle on TV. I can't talk anymore right now. I have to go pee. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Sep 17 1998 - 07:01:22 PDT
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