Re: [Paddlewise] Speed Trials

I thought that it would be interesting to compare the speed trials
posted by Jerry to some speed trials posted by Dave Meyers several years
ago (to rec.boats.paddle). The trials were over the same distance. For
the three boats common to the two trials, the results are reasonably
consistent in terms of relative speed (although Jerry's times are, as he
openly acknowledges, a bit on the slow side--no doubt because he uses
that low-angle stroke :-) Dave Meyers' trials were at what he
characterizes as "100% effort" and also at "90% effort".  

BOAT		JERRY	DM(100%) DM(90%)

Coaster		4.55	5.19	 4.87
Impulse		5.05	6.03	 5.32
Glider		4.99	6.03	 5.36

At high rates of effort, the Coaster is significantly slower than the
longer boats, although the difference is smaller than some might expect.
And of course as John Winters (and others) have pointed out, one should
expect very little difference at speeds between 3 and 4 knots. 

It is interesting to note that Dave Meyers also tested some whitewater
kayaks. Boats that are short or that have a lot of rocker are better at
playing. So why not combine the two--as is done with whitewater
boats--and have a sea kayak that is super-maneuverable (note the correct
American spelling--no "o").  The problem, of course, is that you end up
with too much of a "good thing", and speed suffers. The extent to which
this is true can be overstated, however, particularly if you have sound
technique and are using a whitwater boat that is not too extreme in its
design. In his tests, Dave Meyers' average speed at 90% effort for a
Perception Dancer (a relatively long whitwater boat) was 4.29 knots!
This is only a bit slower than for the Chinook (the slowest sea kayak
that he tested), for which the average speed was 4.69 knots. Again,
these speeds are at high levels of effort. There would be a smaller
difference at more modest levels of effort.

I think that the next time I go out sea kayaking I am going to bring my
downriver boat (a Dagger Animas) which has good forward speed for a
whitewater kayak, and is more playful than any sea kayak. :-) 

(Hey guys! Wait up!! ....)

Dan Hagen
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