Craig Jungers wrote: > Caffyn recorded a nearly-33% increase in daily mileage with a rudder > compared to no rudder. It seems to me with that kind of difference, he's not measuring the performance of the rudder so much as either of: 1) how badly designed his kayak is or 2) how poorly chosen the kayak was for his type of paddling. No kayak should require a rudder. If you want to use one, fine, but a kayak that _needs_ a rudder is a seriously flawed design. I've paddled kayaks that need a rudder - one, which I've condemned before, I launched with the rudder locked in the retracted position into a windy Lake Ontario. After a few hundred meters of paddling in every direction except the one I wanted to go, I returned the kayak to the beach and went home. This borrowed kayak was a ridiculously bad design. The kayaks I've owned have not required a rudder. My Solstice GTHV, long ago sold, was very well mannered without the rudder, so much so that I never used it. If there was any hint that the rudder would have made such a difference as Caffyn showed, I'd have sold the kayak quickly and condemned it considerably. As it was, I'd expect that the rudder would only provide a marginal difference and only under the most extreme conditions. Given that I never deployed the rudder in the 5 or so years I paddled the Solstice, those conditions would have to be very extreme indeed. Mike *************************************************************************** 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 Sun Jul 01 2007 - 22:32:46 PDT
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