[Paddlewise] high performance sea kayaks

On Tue, 6 Oct 1998, John Winters wrote:
> It would be interesting to start another thread that defines what
> characteristics a high performance sea kayak would possess. I wonder if
> ease of capsize is one of them and wonder if the rest cannot be achieved
> with more stable boats.

Ok, I'll bite on this one.

There are two kinds of high performance sea kayaks in my view:

First, the kind that already exists, with characteristics in order of
importance.
 1. Does not weathercock
 2. High secondary stability, low initial stability
 3. turns easily when edged
 4. tracks well when not edged
 5. Carves turns when edged without any input from paddle strokes
 6. Easily controllable on a wave (most sea kayaks are not good at this,
so it is a low priority relatively
 7. Solid footbracing and thigh bracing.
 8. Holds bulky items easily such as my dutch oven and Djembe.
 9. no rudder or skeg required for the above, because these items can
break or get jammed, can take up room in the holds (e.g. skegs).

I would imagine the ideal length here would be around 16-17'. Also note
that rollability is not an issue for me. My roll is good enough that I
don't worry about missing it. I always wear proper thermal protection,
often to the point of a fully sealed drysuit, so getting wet is no big
deal. I have not rolled unintentionally in the ocean in a long long while,
which I find somewhat depressing -- next solstice, I might take a trip out
to Boiling Reef... :) 

As far John's ease of capsize question regarding more stable boats, do you
mean the boat has relatively more initial, or more secondary stability? If
the former, I would say that in really rough water, a higher initial
stability boat results in a boat more likely to capsize -- initial
stability tends to keep the boat parallel to the local water surface
regardless of whether that surface is horizontal or vertical. If the
latter, then all high performance boats in my opinion already have high
secondary stability. These boats also have low initial stability because
many of the performance characteristics (edged turns, etc...) require a
boat that is easy to put on edge (low initial) and hard to fully capsize
(high secondary).

Now the kind of sea kayak that doesn't exist, at least to my knowledge:
1. Does not weathercock
2. Surfs like a surf kayak (the most important performance aspect)
3. Holds enough gear for 2-3 days of minimalist camping
4. Tracking is irrelavant
5. Turning is very very easy
6. The "usual no's" (no rudder, no skeg, no bulkhead)

Ideal length here is proabably around 12-13 feet.

Well, these are my opinions/dreams. What are yours?
Cheers,
kevin


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