Found this at "Katabasis", Ray Killen's website, as part of BCU 3 star requirements: "Turn the kayak quickly by means of a low brace turn and by a bow rudder." I'm OK with the low brace turn, but my impression of using a bow rudder on a long sea kayak is that it is not very effective. No doubt I need to learn the technique correctly. Anyone find a bow rudder a useful stroke? And how do you do a good one? "Move the kayak sideways in both directions by means of a sculling draw, draw on the move and a hanging draw" Just what is a hanging draw? I occasionally use a stroke to move the kayak sideways while on the move, by placing the paddle blade vertically in the water beside me, and slightly angle the leading edge away from the boat, drawing the boat sideways. Is this a hanging draw? It's a useful stroke when paddling under piers and jetties, to avoid leaving gelcoat on clusters of mussels. PT *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
PT, when the boat has started to turn the direction you want to go reach forward and put the blade in parallel with the boat, as in your hanging draw (aka sideslip) and open the blade's leading edge a bit. The shaft should be vertical. The more you open the leading edge the more draw action you will get. Of course if you open it up too much the stress will be on the connection joint between the boat and the blade, your body! OUCH. Boat tilt helps a bunch as well as body rotation toward the turn. You got it on the hanging draw (IMO a dumb name as draw describes motion and hanging doesn't). A cool trick is to first start the boat turning the opposite way you want to draw and then counter the turning action of the hull with the opening action of the blade. A cool balance. steve *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
At 10:16 AM 7/26/2002 +1000, Peter Treby wrote: >Found this at "Katabasis", Ray Killen's website, as part of BCU 3 star >requirements: > > >"Turn the kayak quickly by means of a low brace turn and by a bow rudder." > > > > > >I'm OK with the low brace turn, but my impression of using a bow rudder on a >long sea kayak is that it is not very effective. No doubt I need to learn the >technique correctly. Anyone find a bow rudder a useful stroke? And how do you >do a good one? I love doing bow rudder turns. It's a very graceful stroke and, depending on the boat, can be used to turn the boat 180 degrees or nearly that. The nice thing about bow rudder turn is that it doesn't slow down your momentum much. If I'm paddling through a narrow, windy section of water I often use a bow rudder. To do an effective bow rudder, initiate the stroke with a forward sweep on the opposite side of the direction you want to turn. The paddle is then placed such that the power face is almost parallel to the side of the boat just in front of the cockpit.. There are two schools as to where the offside hand should be. Some say that the offisde hand should cross your face so that the paddle shaft is entirely on the same side of your body as the direction your turning . Others say that keeping the offside near your offside shoulder is sufficent. The top edge of the paddle blade should just slightly be tipped outward. Tip it too much and the blade will pull away from the boat and slow you down. If you don't tip it out enough it can dive under the boat and cause a quick capsize. The key to an effective bow rudder turn is the edging of the boat. You should edge the boat in the opposite direction of the paddle. As you can probably tell, this puts you in a fairly vulnerable position if you edge too far as you're not in a good position for a brace with the paddle in the opposite side. On the other hand, if you work on deep high braces where you're putting in your head in the water, it's still doable. A couple of friends of mine and I were intentially edging too far on bow rudder turns the other night so that we fall to the opposite side, then high brace back up. It's important to make sure that you're not opening up your shoulder if you do this. BTW, you can practice deep high braces by doing what is called a "queen annes salute". Assuming you're going to brace on the right., hold the paddle as if you're getting ready to high brace then bring it over to the left side so that paddle shaft is vertical. The offside blade should be in the water on the left side of the boat. Now capsize to the right. When your body hits the water, do your hip snap and brace back up. When a lot of people are first learning to brace they don't really commit to a capsize before bracing. A queen annes salute pretty mcuh forces you to have a strong brace or you're going to be upside down. > >"Move the kayak sideways in both directions by means of a sculling draw, draw >on the move and a hanging draw" > > > > > >Just what is a hanging draw? I occasionally use a stroke to move the kayak >sideways while on the move, by placing the paddle blade vertically in the >water beside me, and slightly angle the leading edge away from the boat, >drawing the boat sideways. Is this a hanging draw? It's a useful stroke when >paddling under piers and jetties, to avoid leaving gelcoat on clusters of >mussels. Essentially what you're doing is a hanging draw. To do it correctly you should rotate your torso such that you're facing in the direction of the draw. The paddle shaft should be almost vertical and very close to the side of the boat. With a vertical shaft and the blade very close it also puts you in a vulnerable position. If the leading edge isn't tiltled outward it's easy to "trip over" the paddle. A draw on the move is basically just reaching out to the side, placing the blade in the water, and vigorously pulling the paddle straight toward you. If you need to quickly avoid something directly in your path it's the stroke to use. It's also a good idea to practice a sculling draw with the paddle shaft vertical and close to the hull. Like the hanging draw you should also be rotating your body so that you're facing the draw. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Treby" <ptreby_at_ozemail.com.au> : > > > "Turn the kayak quickly by means of a low brace turn and by a bow rudder." > > I'm OK with the low brace turn, but my impression of using a bow rudder on a > long sea kayak is that it is not very effective. To turn any sea kayak quickly, you need to use a LOT of edging. There's no way around this. The low brace turn (or "hockey stop") works so well because of the extreme amount of edging you can produce by laying your body sideways on the water. And by the way, this turn is even better if you use a high brace, because then you can get waaaaay over and then recover using a reverse or back-deck roll. And as much as the BCU boys hate the high brace, it can be done perfectly safe so long as you keep your off hand touching your chin. And you can even add in a little paddle blade bite during the back deck roll portion to further turn your kayak. It's a lot of fun. To turn the boat using a bow rudder, you also need to edge quite a lot in addition to the bow rudder. As with most sea kayaks, you edge away from the turn, and place in the bow rudder. Us whitewater folks call it a duffek when crossing an eddyline. But no matter what you call it, the technique is the same, and I often see it done incorrectly. The key is to obtain skeletal linkage between arms and spine, so that the forces are transmitted to a part of the body that can handle it. To make this linkage, wrap your upper arm directly across your forehead, and tuck your lower elbow into your waist. Now you've got skeletal linkage! The only thing is that it takes most people a while to get comfortable with this position, as it is awkward at first. Also, the balance of edging away from this awkward paddle position is DELICATE to say the least. But once the balance is mastered, you can carve short radius graceful turns that will amaze your friends. I have seen Nigel Foster do a 180 turn with a diameter shorter than the length of his kayak. Also, this is one of the very few times that I will ever admit that a Euro style paddle blade is more effective than a greenland stick when performing the maneuver. A larger paddle blade and the wider grip make the difference. Write it down, because you won't hear me say that very often.... Have fun! kevin *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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