[Paddlewise] volume and safety

I'll second everything Kevin said about this - though I have no personal
experience with the Mariner Coaster - have seen it, but never paddled it.

There is no inherent safety in large volume boats, as such. Some boats are
better designed for some purposes, that's all. My subjective impressions have
been that shorter boats are easier to control in following seas, **all other
things being equal**. Also, I've thought that very long boats may be harder to
control in surf. Boats with very finely drawn out bows (like many of the
Current Designs boats) will bury their noses in a sea, "pearling". Boats with
finely drawn sterns and/or built-in skegs may be somewhat harder to control in
following seas. But I don't know enough about boat design to predict how a
particular  boat will handle in following seas. I would just have to try each
one. - Bill Hansen
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