Re: [Paddlewise] Sea-sock vacuum

In a message dated 11/14/2003 6:06:05 PM Central Standard Time, 
mjamja_at_earthlink.net writes:


> I think it was Peter who had a question on the vacuum behind sea-sock
> interfering with draining water by turning sea-sock inside out.   There is
> a slight vacuum in my kayak that helps keep the top and sides of the sock
> from falling back down on my legs.  I am not sure how it affects turning
> the sock inside out because I never do that to drain water.  With the sock
> in place all the sides seem to angle back to the cockpit opening.  Lifting
> the front of the kayak even just slightly while upside down drains all the
> water.  It drains more out than just about any bulkheaded kayaks I have
> seen.  If you did want to turn it inside out and had a problem  you could
> break any vacuum by pulling a small section of the sock bungee off the rim.
> I do this after entering the kayak to make it easier to push the end of the
> sock forward and to push the sides of the sock out against the sides of the
> kayak.  On my sock I can create a small opening about 1 ft back from the
> front of the cockpit without really affecting the overall tightness of the
> sock on the rim.  Check your sock's fit to see if you can find a spot where
> you can get a small opening for "vacuum breaking" without loosening the
> sock to the point that it might come off the rest of the rim.
> 
> 

Mark raises a good point: I do not pull my khatsalano's sock out to empty 
water, either. In re-entry and roll practice over a period of 2 weeks I performed 
appx 2 dozen of the maneuvers in conditions ranging from 4 knot races, 
headlands with swells and clapotis up to 7 feet and of course, flat calm. Usually 
the amount of water needing to be evacuated can be done by a hand pump in 10-20 
strokes. Only one occasion did it require more. All but 2 of the re-entries 
were unassisted.

On one occasion my instructor asked me to pull back the spraydeck to see how 
much water I was carrying. I only pumped about 10 strokes. He was impressed. A 
standard re-entry, with no water dumping by the rescuer will have a larger 
volume of water to evacuate, but that should be done by the rescuer before 
re-entering, when using an assisted re-entry, such as the T rescue.

A reentry and roll in typical swell and clapotis was quick to get upright and 
the spraydeck on. The pumping was easy through the side of the neoprene spray 
deck. One of my classmates exclaimed, *you sea sock guys suck!* He was trying 
to empty his hardshell with a handpump. 

Peter's thread is interesting. As he must conform to a club standard by 
evacuating water *hands free*, he might want to do so with the Attwood Water Buster 
and run the out take hose through the bale hole on a Chillcheater spray deck. 
They make a neo spray deck that has a rollup bale hole. In this manner he 
won't need to cut and paste his Feathercraft. If it were me I'd use a low volume 
Lendal foot pump in the sock and run the out take through the same spray deck. 
Just my humble 2 cents. don't want to spend anyones money on my fantasies ; 
).

Rob G
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