On Mon, 19 Oct 1998, Mel Grindol wrote: <snip> A couple of thoughts on what Mel wrote: > > > Now I'm going to tread onto a touchy subject. I personally think that > part of her problem with the Shadow weathercocking on her is self induced. > She likes to paddle at a very slow pace (I outpace her even with breaks to > let her catch up). When I paddle at her pace my Looksha IV starts to > weathercock too (very little forward motion to offset the weathercocking). I have an Arctic Hawk and had a lot of problems with weathercocking. I found that the best thing to offset it was to lean back, not forwards. My usual paddling style has a lot of forward lean. But in a beam wind if I lean back, while it makes for less efficient paddling, the boat tracks much better - so overall it's an advantage. But perhaps it's different in other boats. > I will grant her that she is small and no where near as strong as me (no, > I'm not buff). > > Another problem that she has that is only partially her fault is that > she won't lean to counter the weathercocking. This is probably more due > to the fact that we need to seriously pad out her cockpit. She has no > contact between her hips and the boat/seat (I said she was small). She > claims that she doesn't have enough control to effectively lean. Padding > out our cockpits is high on the agenda (I just backordered the Sea Kayaker > with the article on how to do that). Being tight in the boat makes a huge difference in the ability to lean it and prevent weathercocking. I paddled a Sea Lion for a year. I'm 5'3" and not slim, but not tall enough or top-heavy enough to lean the boat at all well. In bad conditions I had to use the rudder to avoid really getting tired trying to go straight. The Arctic Hawk is a lower volume boat and therefore tighter and easier to lean, but still not perfect. Recently I've begun paddling a Recluse, which is a _very_ low-volume boat and it's definitely tight. It's a breeze to lean and make it track in any wind. That is probably also related to other features of boat design, but it does suggest that padding your wife's boat a lot so she is tight in it will help. Joy Hecht Arlington VA *************************************************************************** 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 Mon Oct 19 1998 - 15:08:18 PDT
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