[rww & John Winters chatting...] > >1. Having over half my body inside boat+skirt means half my body > >isn't exposed to the sun. So I can wear shorts, and thus be more > >comfortable. > > One has to weigh such things against the inherent safety of an SOT. One > could easily say that wearing long Supplex sun pants are just fine and > hardly an inconvenience. Thats certainly an accomodation for this shortcoming, and I often wear a full dive skin anyway. But it is a problem that does not exist in the SINK. The less skin surface area I have exposed to the ocean and sun, the better I feel. > >2. Being hit in the chest with a big wave would knock me off of a sit- > >on-top but only be temporarily painful seated tightly in the traditional > >yak. > > The comparison won't hold up if one compares the standard kayak with say, > a Tsunami. Anyone who has paddled one knows how solidly the paddler feels > in one in the hairiest conditions. (They have some videos that will shock > you) One should not judge SOT's as a type by the toys that get sold in > great numbers. Yes, there are special SOT's which can do neet things. Surf skis are another specialized SOT example. I'm not particularly interested in such comparisons, as I'm not likely to buy a Tsunami or a surf ski. To be honest, I need to see the specs for the Tsunami before I could say anything about its usefulness for the various things that I do from a kayak... I know the surf ski would do some of my tricks very well, but others it would suck big time. > >3. My traditional yak with no forward bulkhead will store and hold > >all kinds of really long, lumpy gear inside. I hate gear on deck, > >unless its actually doing something, like a rod in a rod holder. > > I know of no reason why an SOT can't have large hatches or hatches on the > cockpit walls for long gear. Such a boat may not exist right now but that > does not mean it will never exist or cannot exist. One should not judge > SOT's as a type but rather judge manufacturers for their execution. I need to be able to store a 60" x 5"x 2" object and be able to remove it from the boat while still sitting . I know of no SOT currently made which will handle such a task. The typical solution is to secure such a thing on deck; and most people are comfortable enough with that fix. I'm not. > >4. I also *feel* much more in control of the boat, seated down low, > >thighs locked tightly against the hull. > > Since this problem has found its solution in the better outfitting systems > one should not judge the type by its poorer examples anymore than one > should judge all SINK's (Ralph, I love it. By the way, my son calls them > Sea Condoms) by their poorer examples. This all seems like ways of taking the wrong tool and jury-rigging it in order to do the same tasks as the correct tool is able to do by original design. > In this litigious society, designers and > builders live in fear of the majority who don't have your skills. We know > that when some one like yourself screws up he or she will accept > responsibility. The question is, "Will the survivors?" If one carries adequate life insurance, the survivors will have little need to risk time and money looking for a deep pocket somewhere. Besides, I doubt if any kayak manufacturer has deep enough pockets to really tempt the personal injury lawyers. And based on our boating culture down here, its unlikely that you could find a jury willing to hold a kayak manufacturer responsible, even if there was something glaringly wrong with the boats... "What! You mean this idiot went out on saltwater without a pair of outboard engines?? Why are we wasting our time here!" > I design both types of boat but always feel more comfortable when an SOT > gets sold even though I am incorporated and everything outside the > business is in my wife's name. A terminally wet paddler represented by a > sleazy lawyer scares me more than not wearing my life jacket. :-) The only way people die in kayaks down here is from being seperated from their boat. This seems more likely to occur in a SOT. > Oh yes. How to pee in an SOT. Just do it in the bottle. Most people have How bout just pee over the side, we are talking OCEAN here; not some delicate river system. Richard Walker Houston, TX http://www.neosoft.com/~rww/kayak_log.html *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Feb 25 1999 - 08:41:22 PST
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