RE: [Paddlewise] Did Hobie Cat sucker punch top racers?

Dave wrote about turbulence: -
>I must confess I think any effect such as
>this would be extremely small, and
>very difficult to measure or document.

Jim wrote: -
>But I weighed 135 pounds and he weighed 275.
>His total power was lots greater than mine.


G'Day Jim, Dave and Paddlewise

Well sounds like my guess on turbulence wasn't all that relevant. Thanks
Dave for the very clear explanation. In which case Jim's answer sounds right
on the button. He was pulling 3 times his normal load while his competitor
was pulling only 1.5 times. So Jim's muscles would have been abnormally
loaded and presumably not working as efficiently. In addition as he says his
opponents net muscle power would have been greater.

Another factor could be if the boats were oscillating back and forth because
of the relatively infrequent kayak stroke vs the more frequent flipper
stroke. In that case Greg Barton would have needed to repeatedly accelerate
his kayak from zero or reverse velocity to whatever forward velocity he
could achieve. I should think this would require much more force and energy
than maintaining a velocity against the drag of his kayak in a race.

Given the combined factors of possible weight imbalance leading to
inefficiently loaded muscle, the possible recurring need to generate the
force and energy to accelerate rather than maintain velocity, a lower
density of fast twitch fibres in torso muscles compared to upper leg
muscles - it does sound like Greg was set up to fail. I'm assuming the
higher density of fast twitch fibres in arm muscles would not be so relevant
in a racing paddling stroke. Maybe there would have been a chance of success
if Greg had worked his arms as much as his torso if the duration of the
contest was short enough and the contestants had the same weight?

By the way Jim, I've experienced a similar scenario of being able to win
races against a fellow paddler of twice my weight but totally incapable of
winning a kayak tug of war.

All the best, PeterO
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