Re: [Paddlewise] Tradgedy Averted

From: Alex Ferguson <a.ferguson_at_chem.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 09:02:22 +1200
>Grant >
>Its amazing how many people travel and stay over night with their kayaks
>right way up and uncovered on their roof racks. I have always wondered what
>happens if a storm hits.

Quite often.

>Cockpits would hold between 80 - 100 litres of water,

So how many inches of rain fall in 12 hours? Divide that by 1/3 (cockpit 
opening vs cockpit floor area). Now what volume?

>  which added to the weight of the kayak itself would equal  120 + kg .

Doing a visual (mental) image of a bunch of wine cask liners in a cockpit 
I'd say 24 kg max.

>Not only would it effect the vehicles handling,

Less than the different between and couple of plastic kayaks and a couple 
of wooden ones.

>  but how would they get it down without bailing first? It could be a bit 
> embarrassing being seen sitting in your kayak on top of a car in front of 
> a motel using a hand pump!

So there we were in the main street of Warkworth and I'm pumping out the 
cockpits, kayaks on the roof of the van and an Asian girl (must be a 
tourist) is standing open mouthed in amazement - my partner is nearly 
rolling on the ground laughing (at the spectator's expression).

There was a thread a year or so ago (rec.boats.paddle) about kayaks filling 
their cockpits with water over night and splitting from the weight - if my 
kayaks (wooden) couldn't stand that weight I wouldn't paddle them - OK 
fibreglass (except Doug's) are fragile but still not that weak. As above, 
about 3 foot of rain over night to fill a cockpit. I'd have the boats off 
the roof rack and be paddling from the flood by then.

Alex
.
.
Alex (Sandy) Ferguson
Chemistry Department
University of Canterbury
New Zealand

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Received on Mon Mar 26 2001 - 13:02:56 PST

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