Re: [Paddlewise] Graphite for Bottoms

Try this experiment, paddle your kayak for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week
for, say, 6 months and see if there is a difference in your ability.

:-)

When I was driving a harbor patrol boat at Catalina Is., many people would
comment on how they wished they could handle their boats the way I handled
the patrol boat. I would tell them to just practice for 8 hours a day, 5
days
a week and see how quick they get there.
In my job I was constantly putting my boat next to either a boat or a dock
and
moving away again, I was not just cruising around. Also it was considered 
very poor form to ever let the patrol boat touch a guest boat.

At the Isthmus, the main job of the harbor patrol is to assign moorings
and
collect fees, you had to get within arms reach of the guest boat to get
money,
and return change and receit. 
Lots of great boat handling practice.

The skin of many aquatic creatures seems to be very well adapted to moving 
through the water with minimum drag.
There may very well be real advantages to using real skin for boats.
There are also disadvantages, like getting the skin, processing it,
attaching
it to the boat, and maintaining it in working condition.
Most of us don't have the time for that level of commitment.  :-)(
Anybody here have the sewing skill to sew the pieces of skin together 
without making needle holes through the skin?
I don't. I think I could get there with a few months of practice, but I
hesitate to even use the animal skins for my boat, let alone the practice.
OTOH If I were hunting the animals for food and other materials as a
matter
of life, then it would be natural to use every bit of the animal in some
usefull way.

BTW Are there any Aleuts living fully in the old traditional way now?

The kayak is a better hunting vessel only as long as you consider the
materials used to make and operate the boat as well as the actual hunting.
Outboard motor powered, aluminum boats are better, but require outside 
materials that come at great cost, both in money and environmental terms.

michael

kwhilden_at_u.washington.edu wrote:
> 
> 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. :)
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