At 09:35 PM 10/11/02 UT, Kirk Olsen wrote: > >Things have been quiet lately if someone wants to resurrect the sponson >discussion, we may have someones ear. > There was quite an extensive round of discussion on this subject and about this woman and her project on rec.boats.paddle a few weeks ago. The RBP sponsonwars were quite heated a couple years ago, and there were/are still plenty of hard feelings. Old timers on this echo will remember that this is **why** there is a Paddlewise in the first place -- a certian crazy person I will not stoop to name flooded the old Wave Length listserver with so much garbage that it was impossible to discuss anything else, and the decision was made to set up a moderated listserver. While there may be some situations in which sponsons might be useful, they mostly strike me as a cure that's worse than the disease. They're hard to deploy, and impede rolling and bracing. Worse, they're a not totally reliable mechanical device -- in the Watertribe challenge on Lake Michigan this summer, one guy -- who happens to be a more or less advocate of them -- tried to deploy a set so he could take a long on-water rest break, only to discover that one of the two wouldn't hold air. I'm just glad he didn't really need them! The idea of sponsons being mandated by a "government-as-nanny" makes me sick to my stomach. (I could use stronger language but this is a family area, after all.) I'll quit paddling before I'll let some nutball and regulatory agency fiat force me to strap them onto my boat. -- Wes BTW -- Wes Boyd's Kayak Place now has a new URL -- http://www.kayakplace.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wes Boyd's Kayak Place NEW URL! -- http://www.kayakplace.com Kayaks for Big Guys (And Gals) | Trip Reports | Places To Go | Boats & Gear --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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 Oct 11 2002 - 18:55:00 PDT
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