[Paddlewise] Hogged Falco

Personally I don't see any good reason to hog a kayak 5 cm. Back in the late
70's or early 80's I recall seeing some relatively flat bottomed and heavy
fiberglass kayaks that picked up quite a hog just being stored on a stores
racks that were too close together. You might remember this Doug it was in
your neighborhood. However, why don't your try to contact the designer of
the Falco and have a discussion about keel lines and what they do and what
is good and what is bad. If he doesn't bring up reverse rocker then you
could broach the subject and ask what he thinks of that and what was his
intent for putting it in the Falco your friend has. If he says it doesn't
have reverse rocker then it was probably a manufacturing error that your
friends kayak is hogged (even if it is in all kayaks of that model--for many
reasons kayaks don't always end up in the shape the designer intended). If
he explains why he did it that way, does the explanation make sense to you?
If you do get an explanation please pass it along to me or paddlewise. I'd
love to hear it. I know of a few short kayaks that were, I believe,
intentionally hogged slightly in the stern keel area (not in the main
buoyancy of the kayak though). This is one way of getting more fin in the
water for better tracking in a short kayak. Essentially a drop skeg or
rudder hogs the keel line too but we don't usually think of it that way.
Looking at the picture of the Falco on the website
http://www.debiesbosch.com/ it looks to have extreme rocker out at the ends.
Maybe the reverse rocker more to the middle helps its tracking some if it is
more in the keel line somewhere where it is well V'ed or fin like especially
if it is behind the cockpit). Neil, if you can send me a picture of the
kayaks bottom. I could probably tell if the hog was intentional or not.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com


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