Thanks Peter, great suggestions for loading a balanced kayak! It occurred to me that once the center of mass of the empty kayak is determined, all I have to do is to slide a padded fulcrum under the boat to have a reliable trim indicator during dry loading. I could trial load the boat in my basement and trim it out with water bottles and make any location marks with masking tape. Further trim adjustments during the trip are made by feel with the water bottles or bladders. I like to load my boat in the water rather than hauling a loaded boat to the water. Another useful tip is to bring a set of slings to slide under the loaded boat. I saw this in John Dowd's book Sea Kayaking. If you have three paddling partners, you slide two paddles through the slings and four people carry the boat. Obviously this idea falls apart for the solo paddler. Cheers, Bill Birmingham, AL Website: jbchitty.8bit.co.uk *************************************************************************** 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 Feb 24 2003 - 06:07:57 PST
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