On Fri, 11 Aug 2000, Tina wrote: > What troubles me most about Mark's unfortunate accident is the fact that he > was paddling a 14+ foot touring kayak on a class 3 - 4, 825 cfs, rocky > whitewater river. When queried, he responded that he'd taken it on class 2 i also paddle it with some regularity on class III rivers ;-) > rivers, and his friends paddled the same boats through the Grand Canyon, > (8,000 to 40,000+ cubic feet/ second). from the website for this boat: The perfect touring boat design, legendary for its versatility: the Yukon Expedition is a full-volume touring kayak capable of functioning in a dynamic long or short river environment as well as on lakes or oceans. Carve, glide and track with the Trihedral hull. Its features include raised decks for more volume, sleek kayak expedition lines and whitewater capabilities. The flush-to-the-deck hatches eliminate water/wind resistance and the possibility of snags, while fixed internal foam bulkheads provide extra stability in any river-touring environment. > Please forgive my limited knowlege, but I thought that touring kayaks are > designed to optimize paddling speed in straight lines, while whitewater > boats need maneuverability and responsiveness. (In fact, whitewater boats > have evolved into very odd watercraft, with some models under 7 feet, flat > planing hulls and hard chines that look like handrails, and scallops on the > bottoms that would work as a cross country ski pattern.) don't confuse "touring" with "sea kayak" ;-) > I've heard several sea kayak on ww river disaster stories over the years, > (a Folbot totalled on a class 2 run, Boy Scouts badly bashing up a troop > of borrowed glass sea kayaks on the Deschutes), but haven't heard any > successes. Is this a common practice in some areas? > > Tina the rocky mountain sea kayak club run regular trips on some of the easier rivers, have had several members show up on the loma to westwater run [ruby & horsethief canyons] during the spring run-off, and the club runs it a couple times a year, during lower water. again, it is mainly a matter of semantics, but in colorado, where there is an extreme variety of water available to paddle, we recognize 3-4 types of kayak, recreational [kiwi's etc], whitewater [sub 12 footers], touring [12-16 ft], andd sea kayaks [16 foot+] ... the prijon yukon expedition is an extremely popular boat in colorado. http://www.wildnet.com/yukon.htm from the last membership roster from RMSKC, it was _the_ most common boat!! and when i paddle lakes with the club, they leave me behind much of the time [so now i have a glass yak to use ;-] solo whitewater canoes fall into the 11-14 foot range, so this kayak is no longer than some of these boats, plus, a factor you may not have taken into account is _my_ size ;-) at 6' [1.8m] and over 200lbs [95kg] when i bought the boat, it isn't all that big!! did i mention also, that i'm a certified canoe instructor? so i have a little bit of an idea whether a boat is appropriate for a given run. again, no affiliation w/prijon, just like their products mark -- #-canoeist[at]dotzen[dot]org------------------------------------------- mark zen o, o__ o_/| o_. po box 474 </ [\/ [__| [__\ ft. lupton, co 80621-0474 (`-/-------/----') (`----|-------\-') #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~ http://www.dotzen.org/paddler [index to club websites i administer] ---- A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner. -- English Proverb *************************************************************************** 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 11 2000 - 11:58:43 PDT
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