[Paddlewise] Reenviar: Re: gyroscopes for kayaks

You really triggered my attention and would be very happy to know the outcome.

Is the gyroscope going to be alligned with the axis or perpendicular.

If it is alligned, it will not be too useful for tipping purposes because you
can easily move around the direction of the gyroscopic axis.

If it is perpendicular it will tend to stay horizontal. If tipping sideways the

effect would be to turn right or left, but keeping the horizontal.

Thinking loud I imagine that one of the good things about narrow kayaks is that

you can keep balance by means of letting your hip move sideways with the kayak
and waves while your body stays vertical.

If the gyroscope is longitudinal, you`ll be able to do that, but then I don`t
see the need for the gyroscope. It would help in stabilizing the boat in the
forward and backward rocking. But if the gyroscope is big enough to give a
noticeable effect, it might be heavy and affect the weight of the system.

An advantage I can see would be the tracking. It would try to stay on course
all the time.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if you want to turn by edging.

Big ships had gyroscopes but didn`t depend on leaning to keep balance or to
turn. They had a high ballast.

I am sure you have more ideas than what I can think right away and would be
very curious to know your ideas and progress.  Good luck with your tests. I
would love to try some of them for comparisons purposes if you so wish.

Best Regards,

Rafael
Mexico
www.mayanseas.com

> My daughter and I are thinking of doing a science fair project on
> gyroscopic
> stabalization of kayaks.  We are building small models for this and
> testing
> them in a wave tank.  Has anyone ever done this before or have any ideas
> if
> it would work?
>
> Robert and Margo Werner
> cryocycle_at_hotmail.com
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