Udo Beier (and now others have joined in the effort) keeps a list of mostly European kayaks. He lists the volume dimensions of the bow/cockpit/day/rear compartments. I'm not sure of the accuracy of the figures or how they were obtained. He has published the list about once a year in the Spring in the German Seekajaker (Club) Magazine. I have seen the list in English as well but I can't remember where or if it has the compartment volumes (I think it was a British magazine or Anorak). Somebody can probably fill in the details here. I have added that info and any other I have been able to garner from dozens of sources to my database of single sea kayaks worldwide. If you only want to compare a few kayaks send me an E-mail of what they are and I'll give you what info I have on them. That all said there is often lots of storage room that is not behind a hatch or a bulkhead and depending on the placement of bulkheads more or less appears to be available but the total remains about the same. Total volume is probably the better measure of actual gear capacity. You can find this for a lot of kayaks in back issues of Sea Kayaker magazine although they calculate the entire volume inside the outside of the skin. This is about 5% more than most manufacturers get who take the trouble to fill their boats with water and measure how much it took. Maybe a standard volume should be subtracted to cover the average unusable space around the average paddler. That way a 80 gallon kayak compared to a 100 gallon kayak would not appear to have 80% of the gear capacity. After subtracting 40 or 50 gallons for the paddlers space you could get a better ratio of how the storage volumes really compare. The 40 to 50 gallons is a very rough guess on my part. Anybody want to calculate this more precisely and tell us how they determined the result? When Sea Kayaker magazine first started measuring volumes, back in 1986, I suggested they stand a kayak up on end and measure the volume to the rear of the cockpit and in front of the footpedals of a paddler with a standard inseam length and foot size. Any compartments could be measured separately. Even then a kayak with useable storage space next to the seat or more cockpit behind the paddler than usual would be penalized. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com -----Original Message----- From: Michael Daly <michaeldaly_at_home.com> Cc: PaddleWise_at_lists.intelenet.net <PaddleWise_at_lists.intelenet.net> Date: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 7:24 PM Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Pro's and Con's of the "Swede Form" >Hank Hays wrote: > >> John Winters wrote: >> >If measurements have no importance why do we put the dimensions of our >> >boats in our advertising? >> >> Manufacturers and boat designers, lazy souls they are, only put the easy >> ones. I don't see hull thickness, a very important item. Or strength >> moduli, also quite important. You mean they're often different from boat >> to boat? Thought this was measurable, repeatable, quantifiable stuff...... > >What I want to know is the volume in the hatches. More important that >the total volume, in my view. Except for Boreal Designs ads, I never >see this info published. > >Mike > >*************************************************************************** >PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List >Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net >Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net >Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ >*************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Jun 09 1999 - 20:55:06 PDT
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