Below the sig is an exchange Matt Broze sent to me -- posted with his permission. Heavily edited to improve readability. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR -- > Matt Broze wrote: > Corry Freedman of Spirit Line Kayaks > (he makes the nicest Aleutian kayaks I have ever seen and paddled) made a > fiberglass mold from one of his favorites with the idea of marketing it in > fiberglass. I paddled both the fabric kayak and the glass version. While > there was a lot of similarities (and some performance advantages to the > stiffer kayak) there was one major disadvantage. The glass version had a > very wet ride. The same shaped skin boat flexed and allowed the bow to rise > with the waves so the water didn't easily wash over the front deck. The > glass baidarka project was scrubbed. [snip] > I did not do timed tests comparing the two kayaks but now I realize I missed > my chance because one does not often find two nearly identical shapes made > of different materials. Darn. The plastic versions of glass kayaks (which > are numerous) are not the same for several reasons. The plastic shrinks > about 4% when it comes out of the mold and also changes shape. Even two > plastic boats out of the same mold are hard to compare because of this > tendency of plastic to change shape as it is removed from the mold and > cooled (and later due to storage and use conditions). While this is a > private post I have no objections to it being made public. > Matt Broze *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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