[Paddlewise] Tracking

In an earlier post I said;
For example the comment that "....tracking is 80% paddler and 20% boat" can
easily be disproved. For example, sprint canoes must track straight with
minimal attention to turning. Thus, the boats are designed to do just that.
In short, the boat is designed to suit the need. The same principle, when
applied to sea kayaks, can produce a straight tracking boat that, when
coupled with a shape that turns easily when heeled, achieves both
objectives - manoeuvrability and straight tracking. More over, I suspect
even Clark will agree that some boats are difficult to control and if he
hasn't yet paddled one I would be happy to point him in the proper
direction. :-)

Dan took issue with that saying my example proved nothing regarding the
relative importance of paddle technique versus hull design influencing
tracking. Here I would like to elaborate so as to clear up any confusion.

Imagine a boat with a hemispherical shape. Such a boat would have no
directional stability and only strokes could influence its direction. For
all practical purposes one could say that, for this boat, tracking derives
100% strokes from strokes and  0% from the boat. Now let us imagine the
other extreme. In this case the boat might be say 26' long and roughly 18"
wide. Its design might be such that it draws quite a bit of water being "V"
sectioned and having a rectangular profile underwater. In short, your
classic I-want-to-go-straight boat. Now, for such a boat strokes in the
middle have little effect on turning  and the best way to turn the boat
would be by rudder acting at the end of the boat. For practical purposes
tracking could be said to be 0% strokes and 100% boat.

Obviously most sea kayaks will and can be anywhere between the two
extremes.

To further elaborate, Clark asked us to take a look at racers to learn
something about short strokes. This seems to be good advice. One might pay
close attention to the sprint kayak stroke that starts close to the boat
and then sweeps out and away from the boat instead of being drawn straight
aft. From this we might learn something about strokes and stroke
efficiency. When racing sprint paddlers do not want to be bothered with
steering with the paddle. As much effort as possible must go into
propulsion so they use boats that track well and steer with rudders and use
a stroke that produces the greatest power for a given input. Not exactly
kicking back and taking it easy. Obviously this is one group of experts who
see things differently. Some of you may recall that one writer pointed out
a while back how he used a different power stroke for different purposes.
It made a lot of sense then and still does now (at least to me).

Finally, Dan mentioned that my position (advocating for the importance of
design) was to be expected since I am a designer. I must disagree. If I
designed a boat that was directionally  unstable I would be far better off
to adopt the opposite stance and tell complaining paddlers that the problem
was theirs and that everything would be fine if  they improved their
stroke.  In fact, I would be wise to say that all the ills of paddling are
due to paddlers and the boats are all just fine. Why, the argument works
both ways and the designer can't lose. If you can't make the boat turn it
is also the paddler's fault since turning is 80% paddler and only 20% boat.
It doesn't matter what the designer does. At least 80% of all problems are
paddler related and all boats are pretty good.  :-)

I only wish I could get away with that. Some of the people who buy boats
expect more.

Cheers,
John Winters
Redwing Designs
Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft
http://home.ican.net/~735769/








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