>> Though I use a boat with bulkheads, I supplement the floatation with dry/float bags in the bow and stern compartments. I had heard that in some extreme circumstances, bulkheads can act as a "stress riser" which actually weakens the deck or hull if it's being pounded or bent. However, I heard this from a maker of non-bulkheaded (but "sea-socked") boats. Besides, I suspect that very very few of us kayak in the sorts of extremes where this would matter. I'd welcome comments, especially from those of a "Wintery" persuasion. Cheers Philip >> ************************************************************************* FWIW, at the last Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium, Sam Cook, a member of the unsupported 500-mile Nordkapp expedition of 1975, said that Frank Goodman was reluctant to put bulkheads into the Nordkapp kayak for this very reason (up till then no British kayaks had bulkheads). But during preparations for the Nordkapp expedition, the expedition members found swamped kayaks without bulkheads to be very difficult to rescue, so they insisted that the expedition kayaks have bulkheads, watertight hatches, and built-in pumps. Cook had some very interesting slides showing different methods of sealing the hatches that they tried. I think most British kayaks since then have had bulkheads. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** 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 Oct 08 1998 - 13:44:21 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:00 PDT