Re: [Paddlewise] Stiff or Flexible?

Bhansen97_at_aol.com wrote:

> Interesting debate for these long winter days....If it's that hard to
> determine whether a flexible kayak is more efficient than a stiff one, how
> much difference could there be??

Ahhh... but if there is a difference, what does the difference mean? (curve)

I used to do marathon+ length cross-country ski races.  The difference there
between good wax and bad, between good technique and bad and between
good equipment and bad was measured in how you survived the _last_ few
kilometers.  (Amie wants us to do one next year - 150km in three days in
Greenland, camping out both intermediate nights)

The same thing could be true for kayakers.  The difference isn't in what it
could do for the average weekend tripper on normal length trips, it's
what it could do for the serious distance paddler doing looong days.  My
personal concern is with basic perfomance, not extreme.

That's if there is a real difference and if you're talking about performance.
Most of the discussion, however, has been around weight and stiffness and
how it relates to strength, toughness, and survivability of the kayaks.  That's
perhaps a more tenuous connection.  It does not necessarily follow that
weight means strength or stiffness or durability or anything else.  The parameters
that govern can be complicated and subtle.  We haven't been very good about
distinguishing between the capacity and performance issues, and have mixed
them up a tad, switching contexts without clarifying.  We should try to be good
in the future :-)

Mike

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