Rob wrote (or was it Kevin?) : (SNIP) > > I guess there could be a point where too much stability becomes a problem, > it's just that I have never witnessed it. I have lead people in double > Folbots in conditions that I never would have taken them in in even > moderately beamy singles. Stability can be an advantage. > The point where form stability (wide and shallow vs narrow and deep) becomes a liability occurs in breaking beam seas. My web site has a rudimentary discussion of this and you can get the full lowdown in Marchaj's "Seaworthiness: The Forgotten factor". The form stability increases the capsizing moment in breaking seas and can overpower the ability of the paddler to counteract it. I would guess that most capsizes of folding boats occur during attention lapses. When paddling canoes (36" wide) in the open ocean I never once had even a mild concern. Mind, we had fairly heavy loads but the conditions reached the "impossible to make headway level". So long as one remains head on to seas, form stability does not cause many problems. For this reason, those relying upon form stability usually make use of drogues or sea anchors to keep the boat normal to seas. This of course, does not mean that narrow boats work a whole lot better in these conditions except in the hands of skilled paddlers. John Winters *************************************************************************** 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 Tue Sep 12 2000 - 12:30:34 PDT
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