What all due respect to working out various formations, my experience is that of the old military axiom about "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy." In calm conditions you can hold those lines and diamond shape formations. But if strong wind (the enemy) hits from any direction (forget about outright storm conditions) the group will get scattered in a pattern reflecting the skills/strength of the paddlers and the shape of their hulls. In a strong side wind or current, some boats can run a straight course, others won't be able to keep that course line and wind up either downwind or upwind. It is really hard to keep a formation under such conditions unless the better paddlers slow down and let themselves drift to where the main body of boats is being driven and slowly coax and coach them toward where they want to go. (I recently saw a piece on how the word "aloof" came about meaning. Seems it comes from Dutch word for windward; without getting into all the history, a ship of a fleet that was better at going to windward would draw away from the fleet and be considered aloof, eventually meaning someone who stands apart. Happens to kayaks too when hit with sidewinds). The original question had to do with night paddling formations and groupings. Stay spitting distance close. Make certain that specific boats stay in specific spots. For example, if using headlamps, have two rear boats shining their headlamps backwards, two side paddlers on each side shining their headlamps sideways outward from the group. Two or so lead paddlers shining headlamps forward. Everyone have some sort of 360 degree light like the "C" Light from ACR or the small conical flare lights from Princeton=Tec. The head lamp direction avoids blinding any one in the group and makes the tight group seem as a moving lit-up party boat. If wind hits, it is up to the strongest/better paddlers to keep the group together by voluntarily staying with the poor technique paddlers who can't go straight and coaxing them along. It is hard at night. One of the reasons why group night paddling is dangerous in busy waters. Two or three kayaks, ok; more than that, lots of luck. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Aug 04 2000 - 14:39:22 PDT
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