John Winters wrote: >>>>>No one type of stability will suit all paddling needs or preferences although (from my experience) a large range of stability, a smooth parabolic stability curve, with its maximum roughly at or just past the angle that one can easily lean the body seems to appeal to most people.<<<< I like this better than what I just wrote. It even leaves room for individuals varying preferences. I especially like the part about the preference for maximum being just beyond the angle that the paddler feels comfortable (I might add--leaning without a bracing stroke). If that maximum point were to be moved too far to the right one would just be losing a steeper angle (better stability) to the curve to increase the angle of leaning the kayak at the maximum righting moment (putting the maximum in a range where few folks will ever use it and making the kayak less stable for no good reason). At least with relatively shallow stability curves, it's better to increase the rate of picking up the stability as much as can be done without making it too easy for an expert to go beyond the maximum righting moment. If however the stability curves are relatively steep on the front face it would be better to shallow that curve out by moving the maximum righting moment to a greater angle of lean, reducing initial stability. That way the kayak won't be too hard to lean when you want too (and possibly causing you to drop your drawers while trying to lean;-). Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Nov 14 2000 - 22:34:59 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:34 PDT