The subject of 'prior knowledge' (spontoons) rises and interesting question over the statement by Kajak Sport - http://www.kajaksport.com http://www.kajaksport.com/englanti/perasinlaitteet.html Their statment is - ~~~~~~~~~~ KS Navigator rudder System The Navigator Rudder system is so unique and innovative that it is patented. It is ultra light, elegantly designed minimal moving parts, trouble free and easy to use even in difficult conditions. ~~~~~~~~~~ Their 'innovative' rudder system has been in production by 2 firms in New Zealand for about 10 years. A third company built one and gave up on it and the original designer used his for a while. His dates back to about 1989. So it is not just the "inflated air bag man" patenting old ideas. BTW the web site shows the rudder being retracted and one great advantage of the stowage system is that the pull-up string locks the rudder in the stowed position and there is no need to try and centralise the rudder during retraction. Alex . . Alex (Sandy) Ferguson Chemistry Department University of Canterbury New Zealand *************************************************************************** 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 Mon Nov 11 2002 - 16:22:59 PST
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