Dan Hagen posted that paddling his Caribou, and by extension any boat, without rudder or skeg is more fun than with. I have to agree under the condition that you don't have to fight strong winds for control. Duane Strosaker wrote: >I also have a Looksha IV in plastic, and I have paddled it a lot in rough >weather, on crossings and in the surf. I really love the kayak, but it >doesn't behave in even a mild crosswind with the rudder up. .... But the price for the >maneuverability is reduced tracking and increased weathercocking. >I love the kayak so much that I am willing to deal with the weathercocking. >When a beam wind hits me, I just flip the rudder down. ...I'll tell you though, I hope that >rudder doesn't break when the nearest land on a crossing is 10 miles and I've got a >nasty beam wind. Nick Lyle posted that he demo'd the Caribou and found it greatly affected by wind, and decided in favor of an Express which is completely neutral in side winds when the seat is adjusted properly. It is interesting to me that people can have such divergent opinions of the same boat. I haven't tried the Looksha but Duane's description makes it sound awful, rather than fun, in winds. I have tried the Caribou in winds and it wasn't fun for me at all, rather a big effort to go in the direction I wanted. (Dan, I know we had this argument some time ago. I still don't get it.) Jerry *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Sep 04 1999 - 19:33:29 PDT
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