I don't get this fixation with "anthropometric" measurement systems. Not to pick on the Benner Boats folks alone, but the website says: > The basic anthropometrical system uses four body measurements: Arm > span, hand span, forearm span and hand to knuckle span. From these > building blocks in conjunction with the paddlers weight and height > each wooden kayak is custom sized to “fit” the paddler. The result is > a custom kayak built for each paddler. I can not for the life of me figure out what the "hand to knuckle span" has to do with the appropriate size for a kayak. Benner Boats has gone through the effort of encoding this system into an interactive web page. I used their interactive design system and plugged in my measurements and got a boat that was 16' 3" long, with a max displacement of 301 lbs. I then increased my hand measurement and the new boat was 16' 4" with a max displacement of 302 lbs. This seems to indicates that someone with bigger hands requires a slightly larger boat. Why is that? There might be some logic to this if you assume bigger hands indicates bigger people, but what really makes it weird is when I reduced my weight by 25%, the recommend size did not change at all. So while hand size somehow effects the design displacement of the boat, the actual weight of the paddler is irrelevant. I will take them at their word that the Benner Boat folks accurately implemented an Aleut anthropometric system as they say. The measurement datums they use (arms and hands) seem to correspond with the anthropometric systems I have heard about, although most do seem to include a leg measurement in the system. Changing the leg length on the Benner Boat web site does not have any effect. So, how are these traditional systems supposed to come up with (from the web site): > Wooden kayaks built for each individual’s body type and size creates a > wood kayak that is easier to handle, more responsive and delivers an > exceptional fit. A boat floats due to the displacement principle. All aspects of performance relate back to the water displaced. Stability, speed, maneuverability are all dependent on the amount and location of the water displaced by the boat. How is it possible to come up with a more responsive boat when the design does not take into account the displacement or weight of the paddler? Benner Boats is not the first to make the claim for superior performance due to knowing hand size, but I still haven't figured out how this is supposed to work. Nick On Friday, June 27, 2003, at 10:39 AM, <Rick.Sylvia_at_ferguson.com> wrote: > "Hey" folks. Anyone in Port Townsend (or otherwise) have an > opportunity > to test drive a boat from Benner or Action Fish - a relatively new > manufacturer of wooden kayaks providing kits or fully built boats to > your specs. > > http://www.bennerboat.com/ > > http://www.actionfish.com/ Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 824 Thompson St Glastonbury, CT 06033 USA Ph/Fx: (860) 659-8847 http://www.guillemot-kayaks.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 Fri Jun 27 2003 - 11:18:23 PDT
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