[Paddlewise] FW: Stability & comfort - was Evolution Kayaks

From: Robert Livingston & Pam Martin <bearboat2_at_comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 20:23:25 -0700
> Would the point of secondary stability be when section CDE is
> roughly aligned with the wave surface.


The fact is that secondary stability does not have a universally agreed upon
definition.

I am not a fan of the word for this reason. The best I have seen a
"subjective" feeling of "comfort" with regards to stability when leaning a
boat.

We have stability curves for hundreds of kayaks. I have seen many of them.
Secondary stability can not be identified as something on those curves or at
least there is no agreement on what that something is.

My favorite statement is " the primary stability was low but the secondary
stability good. " I have seen variants of this statement hundreds of times
in reviews of kayaks.

But on stability curves, the initial stability correlates highly with the
rest of the curve for the majority of kayaks.

So secondary stability is something mystical that cannot be "measured"
objectively by a stability curve or anything else for that matter.

Basically is  a subjective "impression" and thus cannot really be refuted.

Yet secondary stability is one of the favorite concepts of the kayaking
world.
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Received on Wed May 11 2005 - 20:23:48 PDT

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