> Bought them for dual purpose: floatation and keeping gear dry. Flotation is not really the primary intent of gearbags. Most are pretty air tight if the fold over seal is folded over enough times. Leakage of a small amount of air over time would not be that unusual however. They still provide some flotation if they are stuffed with sleeping bags or other light-weight stuff. Your stuff will stay dry unless immersion is prolonged. It takes a lot longer for substantial water to move into a bag than for air to move out if the bag has been filled with enough air to be under pressure. Dedicated float bags and bulkheads are the best way of "insuring" flotation. That said, in the Northwest, the problem is that you cannot spend too much time in the water and want to figure out a good system to reliably get back into your boat. Flotation provided by slightly air-leaky gear bags would be valuable for the 15 minutes that you have to get yourself back into the kayak. But I envisage those gearbags being basically filled with gear, not inflated with air. The rest of the volume should be protected by bulkheads or floatbags. Gearbags provide some backup flotation if your bulkhead volume is violated by a crack after hitting a rock and such. I do not know if your Dagger has bulkheads, but I am not a fan of sea kayaks without bulkheads. At a minimum they require considerable discipline in terms making sure that float bags are in place, not leaking, and secured EVERY time you go out. Most people are not that compulsive so effectively these kayaks are not as safe. *************************************************************************** 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 Feb 21 2003 - 16:07:43 PST
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