[Paddlewise] Stability

Nick wrote:

> My responses on this have largely been pushed by advertising hype I  read 
> and conversations I hear. It is quite common to hear something  to effect 
> of "With it's AAAA chine this boat has XXXX stability." or  "I paddled X 
> hard chine boat and Y soft chine boat and the soft chine  boat was much 
> more ZZZZ". My goal is for people to take these broad  sweeping statements 
> with a grain of salt. They usually completely  ignore important design 
> characteristics that are much more important.

Nick is dead on here. When I first got into designing canoes and kayaks one 
would hear tons of nonsense. I am not sure it is better now despite the 
efforts of some designers. We still have salespeople who make extravagant 
and unsupported clams about boats.

I suppose it reveals the triumph of ignorance and superstition over science. 
:-)

Fortunately, here on Paddlewise we are smarter than the average paddler 
(well, we try) and can deal with the straight goods without sugar coating. 
Some of the discussions here have been highly educational. Some of you will 
recall such topics as whether paddles moved or not, the effectiveness of 
paddle shapes, the sponson issue (I think we can spell it out now :-) ), to 
rudder or not to rudder, etc. etc. All good stuff.

Cheers

John Winters
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