HTERVORT_at_aol.com wrote: > > In a message dated 4/8/99 6:46:17 AM Pacific Daylight Time, > rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com writes: > > << but they shine when it comes to a paddler suddenly rendered ill or > injured. Since the (folder) boats stability is inherent to their design and > not > a function of the skills and alertness of the paddler, an ill/hurt > paddler is in a lot less danger of capsizing while being towed >> > > Ralph, > > A *bit* sweeping, that comment. Perhaps true for folding *boats*, but not > for folding kayaks. If I were towing someone in a Klepper, I'd just throw > them in the bilge with those famous rocks and they'd be stable as a spider > with its stomach on the ground. But if they were in the Khats or one of the > other performance kayaks, I'd post someone nearby. I am not sure how you distinguish kayaks and boats. It the vessel has pointed ends, a person sits in a hole somewhere that is spanned by something called a sprayskirt and uses a double bladed paddle it is a kayak. Or as Webster Dictionary says : "1. an Eskimo canoe made of a frame covered with skins exceopt for a small opening in the center and propelled by a double-blade paddle; 2. a portable boat styled like an Eskimo kayak. I would think that a folding kayak is closer to either definition than other vessels (skin covered over a frame and truly portable) The Khats is the only "performance" kayak of the foldables whatever that means and yes it is tippy with some of the same precautions about needing to have someone alongside if the Khats paddler is incapacitated. > The stability of folders, > like other craft, comes from the sum total effect of their hull designs and > dimensions, not from the inflatables inside the skin. Only when *swamped* -- > when the internal sponsons have water on both sides of them (giving them > buoyancy and helping to right the boat when tilted), does the sponsons make a > folder any more stable than a rigid craft of the same external shape. Or is > there some benevalent blue fource I've never heard of that only acts on skin > boats of Euro manufacture? :-) People get confused on this and it is understandable that they do. How can something holding compressed air (sponsons) that is located internally help stability? It would not if the kayak's sides were rigid but it works if the sides are soft, i.e. made of a skin or skin type material such as hypalon. On all folding kayaks that I am aware of the sponsons are either a) between the frame and skin pressing outward on the skin and creating, in effect airtubes alongside or b) are external to the skin itself, Nautiraids, in which they are even more like external sponsons. If the sponsons were inside of the frame (I don't know why they would be, then it would be like having them in a hardshell. The sponsons absolutely do come into play in stability over and above the broadness of the folding kayak. It is almost the effect of trying to submerge a balloon. Unless you have tried to tip over a folding kayak to experience the phenomenon it is hard to believe that it works but it does, to a degree, i.e. it ain't really fully like trying to submerge a balloon but rather in that direction. I don't want to exaggerate the claim. ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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 Apr 08 1999 - 09:25:17 PDT
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