RE: [Paddlewise] Wet is bad: was Stiffness

> -----Original Message-----
> From: R. Walker [mailto:rww_at_mailbox.neosoft.com]
> Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2000 9:55 AM
> To: PaddleWise_at_lists.intelenet.net
> Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Stiffness

snip
 
> Why is "wet" bad?   Is it just a regional thing with yalls 
> cold water up 
> there? To me, wet is about the only way I can keep from 
> overheating, and I 
> often manipulate the boat to punch the bow into a wave so 
> that I can get 
> wet.    Also, dry to me, means that the boat has way to much cross 
> section exposed to the wind. Wind is bad, wet is good.
> 

  Matt Broze gave a pretty good response to this question (well okay, a
great one, as usual), but here's an additional thing to consider along with
his comments.
  Getting wet is OK as long as you control it, as RichW said, he can
"manipulate the boat to punch the bow into a wave so that I can get wet."
The problem that I see with this, (my Seaward Ascente' is this way) is that
if you can easily drive the bow into a two foot wave so that you can get
water coming over the deck (fun), you might very easily encounter wave
conditions that are big enough that the bow starts getting buried without
any effort from the paddler (not fun).  Uncontrolled wind acting on an
exposed bow can be a pain to deal with, but it can generally be countered
via skeg, rudder, weight shift, paddle stroke, etc. without too much
trouble.  Uncontrolled water acting on a buried bow can make things real
squirrelly real quickly.  I can see it coming already - "squirt" sea kayaks.
<grin>

Dave Seng
Juneau, Alaska
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