At 8:44 AM -0700 5/14/00, Rob Cookson wrote: >Could someone please explain to me why tippy boats are more seaworthy. I >hear this a lot. Thanks. The obvious answer you will hear is that a stable boat will lean to match the angle of the wave face. However, this is not a complete answer. It is strange but true that on the angled face of the wave "down" feels like it is perpendicular to the wave face (apparent gravity is always perpendicular to the wave face). In other words if you held a plumb bob out in front of you above the centerline of the boat, when a wave comes by, it would continue to point at the centerline even when the boat is tipped at an angle. Strange but true. This being the case, "normal" waves don't do much to tip you regardless of the width of the boat. What generally tips people over in normal waves is their reaction to them, not the boat's. When the stability starts to make a difference is when the waves are breaking. In this case the top of the wave breaks free and slides down the face. If the kayak also breaks free and slides down the face, trouble can start. The force of the water moving sideways past the bottom of the boat adds rotational forces to the mix. These rotational are best overcome by leaning the boat towards the on coming waves. This is easier to do with a less stable boat. Being able to lean the boat aggressively also lets the paddler place a brace into the more solid water above/beyond the break. I suspect it is the greater ease of the paddler to perform an aggressive brace that improves the appearant seaworthiness of the less stable boat. With an unskilled paddler, the more stable boat is probably more seaworthy. So I think it is not the tippy boat that is more seaworthy, but the tippy boat with a skilled paddler. Nick Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 824 Thompson St, Suite I Glastonbury, CT 06033 (860) 659-8847 Schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ >>>>"It's not just Art, It's a Craft!"<<<< *************************************************************************** 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 Mon May 15 2000 - 06:22:29 PDT
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