> > So Derek is still advocating that heavy boat, heavy > > paddle baloney, he did back 17 years ago. > > I can't figure that out either. Does anyone remember > the SeaMaster > paddle? Man that thing was a club, but I saw people shell > out $$ because it was what the master suggested. Maybe it is a lack of perspective or empathy. Once you have the upper body strength to toss a 60-70lb boat on and off a cartop comfortably; its hard to even visualize any benefit to a lighter boat. A 60 lb boat(A) of material X is going to be stronger than a 40 lb boat(A) of material X. Thats just the way it is. Since, to me, there is no benefit intrinsic to the 40lb part; and the additional cost of the heavier layup is not all that great; I scratch my head and wonder, "why would I prefer the 40 lb boat?" If I'm going to drop $2000+ on a kayak, I want the toughest, most indistructable kayak I can get. If I'm going to take that boat on long, unsupported trips, indistructable becomes the most critical feature. Maybe if Derek is still paddling when he's starting to turn 70 and begins to loose most of his upper body strength, his opinion on the lightweight boats will change. Then again, he could always choose to go with a shorter car, kayak wheels, and a roller on the trunk > > landings my advice is buy a kayak you can lift by yourself. > I couldn't agree more. If loading and unloading your boat > is easy you That is certainly true enough. But maybe its not the lifting part, but rather that the roof of the car is to high? I might have trouble putting a 70lb boat down nicely on the top of a tall SUV; but with my Tercel, its easy as pie. > will paddle far more often. As Matt points out it is easy to > add ballast. This is something everyone needs to at least try once; its really pretty cool. Take a dive belt and put it between your legs on the floor, lined up with the centerline of the boat; WALLA instant, massively stable boat. The difference is positively startling. Richard Walker Houston, TX http://www.neosoft.com/~rww/kayak_log.html *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Apr 05 2000 - 12:41:14 PDT
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