At 10:47 AM 02/18/2000 -0600, Peter van den Hurk wrote: >This made me wonder: is there a maximum hull speed for kayaks? >Peter Peter, Of course there is. It is figured by the same speed formula as for any non-planing hull. I forget the exact formula, but the rough approximation is about speed in kt = 1.6 * sqrt(waterline length in feet). For many sea kayaks that makes it around 6.4 kt. You have to be aware that effort doubles from 3kt to 4kt, and doubles again from 4kt to 5kt. Tiny speed increments above that result in fearsome increases in effort required. If you race on a lake or slough note that water depths are important too. Anytime the water is less than about 4x the depth of your keel, resistance increases. If you race close to shore and you are on the shallower side, you can increase the effort required substantially. Sometimes you have to balance this against the greater wind and waves and current further out. To me, the difference between 3 feet depth & 1 foot depth is like that between calm & 5 kt wind. jerry. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Feb 18 2000 - 15:45:47 PST
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