RE: [Paddlewise] "Secondary stability"

I found an article by Cliff Jacobsen in the Nov. 1980 Canoe magazine (the
1981 Buyer's Guide issue) that says: "Canoes usually have either high
initial stability (the boat feels steady when it sits flat on the water) and
low secondary stability (resistance to capsizing) or vice versa." So that's
now the oldest confirmed usage I now have of the term "secondary stability"
relating to boats.

In the same issue Tom Derrer (Eddyline Kayaks) writing about the design of
kayaks uses "initial stability" and "less critical turnover point" to
describe the same relationship.

Unfortunately, I only have Xerox copies of the kayak models sections of the
1979 and 1980 Canoe Buyer's Guide so I can't easily check those to see if
perhaps Cliff didn't have essentially the same article at the front of the
Canoe models section of those buyer's guides. There is nothing like that in
the Oct. 1977 Canoe (the 1978 Buyer's Guide issue) that I have.  For those
who are curious the 1975 Buyer's Guide was the first of those Canoe
published.

Anybody out there have any older issues of Canoe or Wilderness Camping
magazines that might have articles on design or ads that mention the term?
Am I the only old timer on this list who never throws this kind of thing
away?

I also went through the books I have that are older than that and found
nothing about "secondary stability" in them.  There is nothing in Derek
Hutchinson's 1984 third edition of "Sea Canoeing" so I doubt it was in the
earlier ones either. His latest fifth edition of the same book (now called
the Complete Guide to Sea Kayaking) uses both secondary and reserve
stability in it in its expanded kayak design section (while still repeating
much of the information that is in error from previous editions). Alan
Byde's (British) 1975 book about Canoe design and construction had nothing
that I could find about it either.  In his design articles in a recent BCU
handbook Frank Goodman never mentions the term (that I could find anyhow).
>From this I suspect  the term originated in North America.

Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.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/
***************************************************************************