[Paddlewise] Boat Strength, Weight and a rescue

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Treby [mailto:ptreby_at_ozemail.com.au]
"Have a look at the boat cracked in half 5 kms off shore at:
I'll make some enquiries about the picture. "


Peter I spoke to one of the fellows on that trip (Dave Winkworth) and who
had to rescue the person and I think, If I remember correctly, that the boat
was exceptionally light - 19Feet long and only 16kgs called a raiderX. 

They weren't surfing - it was big waves 5 - 6 metres but were paddling past
an outer reef. A wave broke near them and the last last two fellows weren't
quick enough to get over the top. One rolled underneath and the other tried
to sprint but wasn't fast enough and got catapulted end over end 3 times
backwards and this broke the back of the kayak

It proved to an interesting rescue scenio but luckily most of the fellows on
the trip were senior instructors. The only way to get the person back to
shore was have him sit the back on one kayak with his legs on another then
tow both these togethe. The kayak was useless for helping get the person
back. Dave thought this was such an interesting rescue scenario that he
tried it out on his fellow paddlers on a training weekend when he got back.
See the photo on the front page of www.nswseakayaker.asn.au Thats my kayak
thats taking most of the weight with him sitting on it


And a useless bit of trivia
It probably seems odd that some of us Aussies often speak half in imperial
and half in metric measurements. Australia went metric in 1972 and a lot of
us (I've seen the average age of sea kayakers) had left school by then.
There are some things I just can't visualise in metric and thats boat
lengths, peoples heights and pieces of timber.


Cheers
David
Australia

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