"D. Scanlan" dscanlan_at_shaw.ca <mailto:dscanlan_at_shaw.ca> wrote: <SNIP>>>>>>>>One of my paddling buds said he thought my boat could have been looking a bit nose heavy. I might have had a little more gear than usual up front ( 10 lbs) but it didn't feel any different in the water.<<<<<<<<<< Yes it did feel different. You described that difference as the weathercocking problem your post was about. It is very easy to load a kayak too bow heavy. Aim for twice as much gear weight behind you as in front of you in order to maintain a level trim. The space available often makes this hard to do so always load heavy dense items in the back and less dense items in the front. Imagine you are sitting on a teeter-totter with your center of gravity (about at your bellybutton when sitting in a kayak) over the fulcrum with your feet to one end and back to the other. Because your feet stick out so far on the teeter-totter to one side of the fulcrum any weight you add in front of you will be placed further out on the teeter-totter (just like the bigger guy has to move in further to balance the lighter guy). The same weight in front of your feet in a kayak will do more to sink that end than weight just behind your back closer to the ^Ófulcrum^Ô. Even if you manage to keep your trim level a gear load is likely to increase weatherhelm because the added sinkage also likely changes the wind/water couple in a way that increases the weatherhelm. Steve wrote: <SNIP>>>>>>>>>>>>>My experience with the Narpa is 20 knots from abeam with even a perfectly balanced load and you'd be using your rudder for exactly what it was designed for. Helping maintain balance. It is NOT a sin! Most boats weathercock _at_ 20k. If they don't then they are very stiff trackers and *probably* hard to turn, unless edged.<<<<<<<<<<SNIP> It may not be a sin but it is not a free ride either. Dragging that rudder along at an angle to correct for either a weather or lee helm is costing you energy but to my mind tolerating the rudders added drag is better than having to paddle excessively on one side to maintain the correction that way. While it is true that a kayak can be made to not weathercock by making it a very stiff tracker this is only one of many ways to counteract weathercocking (and to my mind probably the least desirable). Contrary to your implication, a kayak can be made to weathercock less and be more maneuverable at the same time. Also, I find a kayak that is stiffer tracking when level and much easier to turn when leaned a very desirable. It allows one to gain the best of both tracking and maneuverability whenever they want it combined in the same kayak. This is especially nice if the kayak can be leaned easily so you don^Òt have to work much or lean your body out into a vulnerable (over the water^×hanging by a knee) position. "Michael Daly" michaeldaly_at_rogers.com <mailto:michaeldaly_at_rogers.com> wrote: <SNIP>>>>>>>>>>The last time I had a significant wind on my beam I played with the skeg until I had just a hint of deployment. That and paddling on one side at a low tempo let me move in the direction I wanted with minimum effort. My speed in the direction of my destination was somewhat slower than the others in my group, but I caught them once we rounded an island and made for the final destination with a tailwind. Using the weathercocking in this way makes me wonder why so many folks complain about it so much. I honestly don't think I'd want a kayak with no weathercocking; I find it works for me almost as much as against.<<<<<<<<< I^Òd say ^Óyou weren^Òt using the weathercocking, the weathercocking was using you^Ô. Your technique slowed you down and had you paddling only on one side. I hate having to do both those things to control a kayak. About 5/8ths into the paddling skills manual on our website www.marinerkayaks.com <http://www.marinerkayaks.com/> I list a dozen ways to deal with weathercocking to avoid having to paddle just on one side and fall behind your paddling partners. They are pretty much in order of easiest to more work in terms of energy expenditure and paddling evenly on both sides. "Michael Daly" michaeldaly_at_rogers.com <mailto:michaeldaly_at_rogers.com> wrote: >>>>>>>>>>>Basically. I didn't want to cancel out the weathercocking too much, so I just set the skeg down a bit. That made it easier to hold a fixed angle to the wind with a paddle stroke on one side. With more skeg in the water, there was too much correction and I had to paddle on both sides with irregular strokes (either more frequently on one side than the other or with a sweep on one side and a straight stroke on the other). That would have resulted in faster speed, but my arms were tired so I preferred one side only.<<<<<<<<<<< Wouldn^Òt it have been nicer to have paddled evenly balanced on both sides and also easily kept up with your group? I^Òd say you performed an interesting experiment and applaud you for being creative and giving that technique a try. The results of your experiment don^Òt seem to show any advantage (that I can detect) to the technique. Still it is valuable to do the experiment. Mike again in another post: >>>>>>Absolutely - same effect and result whether it's wind or current.<<<<<<<< The direction you actually go (as PeterO suggested with his question) is all in the vectors of the different directional forces, such as, current, wind, and paddling direction. Unfortunately for those that would hope to use wind and current to their advantage, any force not in the direction that you want to go is a force which must be overcome with an equal and opposite force on your part. Worse still, a rotating force (such as weathercocking, broaching, or a whirlpool along an Eddyline) must also be overcome as long as it is acting on you. The fundamental difference is that the eddyline only acts to rotate you as you are crossing it but with weathercocking is due to a rotating force (caused by your kayak^Òs imbalance in its wind/water couple in that condition) is acting on you constantly in beam winds and a broaching rotation is acting whenever traveling at an angle to waves that the moving hull won^Òt maintain by itself. Therefore you must constantly work against the rotation causing imbalance in addition to all the directional forces such as wind, current and friction that must also be overcome to reach your destination. The kayak that is able to stay the most neutral in the widest variety of conditions will be the easiest to handle. A neutral kayak can be nudged more in the direction you want it to go without also having to fight a tendency to go where it (not you) wants to go. Weatherhelm does not compensate for drift due to the wind unless it has turned into the wind just the right amount to be on course when it reaches that balance point in the wind /water couple where there is no longer a rotating force being generated (note: this can happen because the end of an object most angled into the wind experiences the strongest force (so if the weatherhelm is not too strong a balance point could conceivably be reached at a still useful angle). With a neutral kayak you point it not at the object you are trying to reach but at an angle that compensates for the forces and it will be easy to keep it on that course. Incidentally, unless you are in a fog, over the horizon or in the gloom of night you don^Òt need a GPS or compass to hold the most direct course to your target. Simply line up a landmark on shore with a distant landmark beyond it and keep them lined up as you paddle. If there aren^Òt two separated landmarks ahead of you stay lined up between a landmark behind you and the target. Note when visibility is poor the target should often be to one side of where you want to go. You want to make it easy to find your target so knowing which way to turn on reaching a shoreline is possible if you are sure you missed your target to one particular side. Even with visibility, erroring to a particular side of the target may be the best bet because the consequences of an error to one side are far more mild than to the other. For instance I^Òd rather turn and paddle down current to reach my goal than to have to turn and fight the current to get to it. Your goal should be to make your kayak be as neutral (to forces causing your kayak to rotate) as possible on the course you intend to take. Don^Òt believe in fairies or ferries (unless of course the ferry is restrained by something like a cable crossing the river (or down wind if the wind is the force you are using). Sure you can paddle mostly into the wind and current and get your ^Óferry^Ô angle to provide some side force that moves you across the river or lake. Except in the case of a current flowing almost as fast as you can paddle, it is probably a lot easier to take a more direct route and as a result spend a lot less time paddling mostly against the wind or current to gain the small side force pushing you toward your goal. Steve wrote: <SNIP>>>>>>>>>I helped develop the Tempest to excel in this environment. I'm working on another boat design that will take FULL advantage of the wind and current vectors. How loose can a sea kayak get and still be controlable. It's a BLAST! <<<<<<<<SNIP> This sounds like great ad copy to me. Where might we buy this WONDERFUL kayak? Gee, I^Òve heard it paddles well in a teapot too. Consider the case of a very strong wind blowing upstream hard enough to cancel out the currents force and keep you from flowing downstream with the current. Would that work like the cable above and allow one to ferry glide across the current while held into it by the wind?. Wouldn^Òt the ferry angle to the water be opposed just as strongly by the opposite ferry angle to the wind in that case so that the kayak would just stay in one place? If so, what^Òs the advantage gained that we can take FULL of? After many paragraphs in which I totally agreed with Chuck Holst, he concluded: >>>>>>As Mike implied, weathercocking turns a kayak in the same direction needed to compensate for drift. Your kayak's natural weathercocking angle might not be exactly the angle you need, but at least it is in the right direction, so forget about *completely* neutralizing it, and learn to use it to your advantage.<<<<<<<<< Unfortunately, as long as your kayak wants to turn off your chosen course you must constantly spend energy to neutralize that tendency *completely* (at least if you want to stay on your chosen course) therefore weathercocking is not to your advantage in that situation. This is true whether that energy is applied through extra paddle strokes on one side or to overcome the extra drag from an angled rudder (Note: this drag this is in addition to the 5 to 10% extra drag caused by the rudder just being in the water). Even if it is a small correction that is necessary the correcting force may need to be applied constantly for mile after mile after mile and over time that small correction has a way of adding up to a lot of extra work. To all the good information Chuck wrote on using a GPS and Compass to hold a course, I^Òd like to add a little more: Unless you are in a fog, over the horizon, or in the gloom of night you don^Ò t need a GPS or compass to hold a direct course to your target. Simply line up a landmark on shore with a distant landmark beyond it and keep them lined up as you paddle. If there aren^Òt two separated landmarks ahead of you, stay lined up between a landmark back where you started and the target. John Down suggested sighting down your paddle but I don^Òt think you must be that precise, just correct if you find yourself drifting much to one side of the line between the points. Note: when visibility is poor your target should often be to one side of where you actually want to go. Do this to make it easier to find your ultimate goal because knowing which way to turn on reaching a shoreline is possible if you are sure you missed your target to one particular side. Even with good visibility, erroring to a particular side of your goal may be the best bet because the consequences of an error to one side might be far less severe than an error to the other. For instance I^Òd rather turn and paddle down current to reach my goal than to have to turn and fight the current to get to it. Next imagine a waterfall just downstream of your goal. In conclusion, your goal should be to make your kayak as neutral (to the forces causing your kayak to rotate) as possible when traveling on the course you intend to take. You don^Òt have much control (other than choosing the time) over the gravity powered directional forces (be they working for or against you) but the rotational forces are due to your kayaks interaction with the other forces. However, how your kayak interacts with them can me changed. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com <http://www.marinerkayaks.com/> *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Dec 04 2002 - 04:27:44 PST
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