Re: [Paddlewise] Check it Out Man

From: Kirk Olsen <kork4_at_cluemail.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 06:10:52 -0500
On Tue,  1 Jul 2003 01:22:05 -0400, "Jennifer Pivovar"
<kayak_at_headwinds.org> said:
> I never noticed the similarities before, but if you turn the seating
> arrangement around and add a little rigging for oars, this looks a
> whole lot like my Alden.   Also a fairly plumb (yet long, narrow) bow,
> also zero storage, but longer and perhaps even marginally faster due
> to the larger 'engine' muscles employed.  Not that I surf this one
> often :).

The regular recreational alden is scaled close to a regular sea kayak
at 18' with a 24" waterline. The Alden Star is the local favorite for
a fast open water shell.  It's 21'6" with and 21.5" beam/18"
waterline.  The star is a foot and a half longer and  several inches
wider than my surf ski.

In open fairly calm conditions I definitely can't generate the
power/speed that a good rower on a star can.  But if it gets rough,
there's a huge advantage to not having those oars and rowing rig slamming
into the waves.  Plus I can see where I'm going...  Although in a race a
local woman, on a star, was willing to be closer to an island than I was
and I could see where I was going.  She was planting one oar into the wet
sand on the island on each stroke....

I hadn't realized Alden now had a rotomolded shell
http://www.rowalden.com It's under $1000.
-- 
  Kirk Olsen
  kork4_at_cluemail.com
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Received on Tue Jul 01 2003 - 04:11:13 PDT

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