Re: [Paddlewise] Graphite for Bottoms

I have done a little research lately into Aleut boat design, and there is
no doubt in my mind that...
 1. The Aleuts were stronger and better paddlers than practically anyone
living today. Imagine a race of Greg Bartons...
 2. Their boats were capable of extremely high performance due to special
technological innovations developed over the course of several thousand
years of R&D. 

 The aspect of decreasing viscous friction of the water because the boats
were made of oily sealskin makes perfect sense. George Gronseth and I once
theorized of creating a special oil-dripper that could be mounted on the
front of a kayak. We decided that it would be neat to test speed gains
used by this method. Even better, this might be a good way to get jet
skiers to switch to kayaking. Imagine...
 "This kayak pollutes almost as much as your jetski. You'll love it."
Of course, then we would also have to add a leaf blower on the back deck
to make it almost as loud. :)

Kevin

On Tue, 10 Nov 1998, Nick Schade wrote:
> 
> The Aleuts were extraordinarily strong and skiled. There is no doubt that
> they were consistently able to make their boats do things that most of us
> modern paddlers can only dream of. It would be mistake to assume their
> performance was primarily due to some magic property of their boats. The
> Aleut paddlers were quite capable of taking advantage of favorable
> conditions.
> 
> 
> >Bill wrote;
> >(SNIP)
> >
> >>So why do I bring this up?  A year or so ago I was having a conversation
> >>with Robert Morris of Brewery Creek Small Boats, who teaches the
> >>construction of skin covered baidarkas, Greenland kayaks, etc.  Robert
> >>claimed that traditional baidarkas paddled faster than many people would
> >>think.  We discussed the fact that the original seal skins might have had
> >>an effect like adding some oil (or whatever) to the boundary layer and
> >>working like a visco-elastic fluid.  Does anyone have any definite
> >>knowledge of this?  Have there been any efforts to use visco-elastic
> >fluids
> >>to increase the performance of human powered vessels?  Does anyone know if
> >>there are coatings that might "ablate" and effect the drag performance of
> >a
> >>kayak or canoe?

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