Imagine a tug-of-war between 2 bicycles one a high-performance race bike set in the top gear (fastest) vs the other a Walmart special in its lowest (most powerful). Put Lance Armstrong on the "fast" bike and your favorite couch potato on the Walmart job. Who do you think would win? The Mirage unit is "geared" quite low. A customer installed the Hobie unit in one of my boats. He could effortlessly move at 4 knots but, try as he might, the boat would not go faster. The angle of attack of the fins on the unit is such that it is not effective at high speeds, but does very well at lower speeds. Back in college my brother did a study of old steam powered tug boats. Typically their engines produced about 100 horsepower, but they turned large props quite slowly. They would easily win a tug of war against 500 hp speed boat because the tub boat is "geared" for slow tugging where the speed boat is gear for fast running. Greg Barton is trained as a mechanical engineer, if he didn't understand what he was getting into, he only has himself to blame. I suspect that with a change in his paddling technique he may have been able to win. Slower strokes straight back would probably be more effective than the typical wing stroke out to the side. Nick On Aug 28, 2004, at 9:00 PM, Matt Broze wrote: > > What do Paddlewiser's think? Do you have any other speculations as to > why a > two time Olympic gold medal winner lost the tug of war to the flipper > boat > or what would happen in an identical hull race? > 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 Mon Aug 30 2004 - 06:21:22 PDT
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