>> Many years ago, long before the idea of doing anything with folding kayaks ever even entered my mind, I observed what happened with folding kayaks in two situations that I can only attribute to something to do with the buoyancy aids inside their soft skins. In the first one, I was on a group paddling trip. I was directly alongside a couple in a double Klepper, when the fellow decided to stand up (he later said he wanted to stretch his legs). He wasn't very well coordinated and he tipped the kayak over. I was about 30 feet directly to the side of his Klepper and all I saw was black bottom and keel strips including the ones on both chines, i.e. the kayak was almost completely on its side. He fell out and the kayak righted itself. The woman in the front had only paddled once before and hadn't the faintest idea of what a bracing stroke was...so it wasn't she that righted the kayak. The kayak wound up right side up with the woman having a stunned look on her face. I am not sure how another kayak, a non-buoyancy aided flexible skin one, would behave in similar circumstances. >> Once, on a trip in the Boundary Waters, a friend decided to flip an empty We-no-nah Jensen 18 canoe to wash out some mud. But, hard as he tried, he couldn't submerge the gunwale. He'd just fall out and the canoe would right itself. No buoyancy aids along the sides, either. I think John Winters is right about the hull material not making a difference, and in Ralph's example, it's possible the buoyancy aids didn't, either. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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