The so called sponsons (inflatable tubes inside the hulls) that nowadays are quite common on many folding kayaks and other bagboats have their origin in the practice in the 30's to tie an inflated rubber tube along the gunwhale, to improve the Klepper's (and persumable other folders') ultimate stiffness (aka secondary stability). An example can be seen at: http://www.faltbootbasteln.de/fbb-mehrrumpfboote.html (rather far down the page, under the heading "klassische Kenterschlduche") The rig is very similar to the S4 rig (maybe a little taller, and with more and longer battens - quite modern!), but the text mentions that the stays are steel wires, thus a very stiff rig, compared to the S4. Anyway, these external "sponsons" were by some considered foul play, so they eventually were hid inside the skin, and by that gained a much wider acceptance! What you don't know is there for certain you can't complain about, can you? And from there to Aerius II (and a multitude of similar boats from other manufacturers) there is a very short step! Happy sailing and paddling! Tord *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Mar 30 2005 - 03:15:16 PST
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