Re: [Paddlewise] Paddler's weight

At 08:10 PM 3/30/00 -0500, David Seales wrote:
>I'm looking to move up from my SOTs to a decked kayak. I've been looking at 
>a lot of boats and  keep running into the same problem. That is that kayaks 
>are small and I'm big...6'-3",  240lbs with size 13 feet. 

I'm close to 300 pounds, and only a touch shorter. It is tough to find an
adequate boat for guys our size range, but there are some out there.

>One of the first 
>things I look at is the weight of paddler the kayak was designed for. I 
>know about buoyancy and displacement and why a boat floats but don't 
>understand some kayak capacity specs. 

Join the club. At the risk of setting off a long lecture from some of the
techie types, I have to say that no one else really understands capacity
specs either, or at least that's the impression I get from looking at them. 

Take my Old Town Heron. Up until this year, the capacity was given by the
manufacturer as 275 lbs. (It's now 325, I think.) I frequently paddle it at
about 325 lbs, and have had it as full as 375. I will admit, it gets a
little sluggish at that weight. OK, the Heron is 16'5" by my tape measure,
and about 24" wide. You look at the Eddyline Wind Dancer -- one of the best
boats for big guys -- and at 17'1" and 24 inches, with a freeboard an inch
deeper than the Heron, it's listed at 450 lb. capacity by the manufacturer.
I fail to see where a boat that's only slightly larger than the Heron can
have that much more capacity differential. So, from that alone we can see
that capacity figures can be full of gas and wishful thinking. Many
manufacturers don't give capacity specs at all, because of the amount of
gas in so many of them. 

So, what determines manufacturer capacities? Probably not the designers,
who know how much load the boat can handle, but the marketing and legal
people. The WS Sealoution II XL is considered one of the better big guy
boats by some, yet WS only lists it at 250 pounds capacity -- there's a lot
of reserve there, but probably they want to leave themselves some liability
leeway, I say cynically.

>Take the Northwest Synergy RM or 
>others like it...a 16'+ boat with a load capacity of 340lbs but their specs 
>say it's ideal for a 120-200lb paddler. I would assume a good kayak would 
>have the paddler sitting at or very near it's CG. So except for all the 
>effects that any weight would have on it...like riding lower in the water 
>and maybe handling sluggishly...why would the boat care if the weight is 
>the paddler or 100lbs extra pounds of gear?...assuming it's distributed 
>evenly. 

Again, we run the risk of bringing out the slide rule types, but in general
boats do handle better if their weight is spread out, rather than
concentrated. A small difference in balance can make a big difference in
handling. In the case of my boat, I keep a drybag full of spare clothes
much of the year, just in case I need something dry. I can notice a
considerable difference in tracking in windy conditions by moving that bag
from the front hatch to the rear. But, in general, having the weight
concentrated won't make that much difference.

>Should I not even consider a boat like this and look only at those 
>rated to carry a 240lb paddler? There are not many that do...I don't want 
>to paddle a 20' double by myself.

Most important is fit, if the boat appears to have adequate capacity. There
are a few rotomolds out there that have enough capacity for guys like us
and still have a cockpit that's adequately comfortable. I like my Heron --
there isn't much better, in my opinion, in rotomolds, and the more I look
at the plastic competition the less thrilled with them I am. I was really
unimpressed with a CD Storm I tried on recently; my possible replacement
list in plastic is now down to two boats that I haven't tried, an OT
Millenium and a Necky Narpa. I'm not familiar with the NW Synergy. But, I
don't think my next boat is going to be plastic.

There are several more big guy boats available in fiberglass. I have to
suggest that you should take a look at the bigger Neckys -- Looksha IV HV,
Tesla NM, etc. Mike Neckar is another one of us big guys, and he has boats
that are friendly to us. If all else fails, there's the Necky Pinta, which
certianly has capacity and then some, without being a 20' double -- but
that boat is probably on the big side for either you or me. 

There are others. You might like to look at the comparisons of boats for
big guys on my web page:

http://www2.dmci.net/users/wesboyd/bigguy.htm

I should probably note that the list of boats on that page needs some
updating. Prices have changed, at least one no longer appears to be
available, and there are a couple of new ones out there.

Rest assured that there are a few of us big kayakers around. We have to
stick together.

-- Wes


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