At 10:36 AM 12/28/01 -0500, Nick Schade wrote: >I'm not particularly interested in taking on the >manufacturing/marketing/legal challenge of making a better sponson >but it could be an interesting exercise for paddlewise to figure out >what the "ideal" sponson would be, and how it would be implemented. http://www.givensliferafts.com has an enlightening video on their site of their buoyed survival raft versus a standard raft. Working off that design theory I would think a better approach to a sponson would be a pair of pair of funnel shaped tubes tubes that are weighted at the smaller opening with a bouyant "ring" on the wide upper end of the tube. The two support tubes would then be deployed one on each side of the kayak. Instead of working off the theory of increasing the beam to improve stability this would add "ballast" to each side of the hull. A semi quick emptying mechanism would be needed for each support funnel, this might be accomplished by attaching a cord or strap to the lower, weighted ring, so that it could be pulled up dumping water from the larger upper opening. I haven't thought about how to secure the assembly to the kayak. It might be a simple as wrapping a connecting strap around a deck line on each side of the kayak before deploying the funnels. http://www.seaanchore.com has a discussion of drogues and sea anchors. kirk *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Dec 28 2001 - 14:14:45 PST
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