Re: [Paddlewise] What's what? Canoe or kayak?

From: <KiAyker_at_aol.com>

>    I have been having an argument about just what makes a canoe verses what 
> makes a kayak? I thought I knew, but now I'm confused. I know there are a lot 
> of you on this list which know a bunch more about this stuff then I do, so I 
> thought I would appeal to you for help. What's a kayak, and what's a canoe? 
> Isn't a C-1 a racing canoe? And a K-1 a racing kayak? But then I have also 
> heard C-1 being applied to a squirt boat. If you paddle it on your knees 
> doesn't that make it a canoe? I checked some web sites and found one that 
> called C-1's kayaks. So what's the real scoop here?

C-1 means canoe for a single paddler and K-1 means single kayak.  You can make 
either a C-1 or a K-1 squirt boat - a squirt boat is simply one that has 
little reserve bouyancy and is barely afloat.

Calling a C-1 a kayak makes as much sense as calling a kayak a canoe (umm, wait
the Brits do that...).  Anyone that calls a C-1 a kayak probably doesn't realize
it's a decked canoe.  People usually differenciate a decked from an open canoe
by using the designation C for decked and OC for open canoe.

Ultimately, if you kneel, it's a canoe, if you sit, it's a kayak.  That makes
baidarkas hard to classify, because traditionally, they can be paddled either
kneeling or sitting.

Someone will probably disagree with some or all of this.  

Mike

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