Re: [Paddlewise] question on hull speed

On Tue, 20 May 2008 22:44:12 -0700, "Craig Jungers"
<crjungers_at_gmail.com> said:

> There is an organization in the Puget Sound area that has rated kayaks
> for a
> long time. Look at
> http://www.soundrowers.org and check on their boat classes. They have
> divided kayaks into three basic classifications: Sea Kayak (SK), Fast Sea
> Kayak (FSK) and High Performance Kayak (HPK) and use the L:W ratio. 

We used the sound rowers categories this past weekend for a
Massachusetts race.  I like the system over the other systems that I
looked at.

We'll be using it for the blackburn challenge (a 20+ mile open water
race in July on the massachusetts coast)
http://www.blackburnchallenge.com

What I found interesting was the change in the number of entries in each
class for the Essex race.  We had 27 high performance kayaks, about 10
fast sea kayaks and about 10 traditional sea kayaks.   We've had a lot
of people moving to the high performance boats in the last couple of
years.  Up until this year the largest class would have been the
traditional sea kayak class.

To figure out handicaps I would look at a certain number of seconds per
mile/kilometer for fast sea kayaks and high performance kayaks over a
standard kayak.  Find what would be the most typical boat in your area
for each class and do a couple timed paddles in the boat use yourself as
the measurement for how much slower you are in each boat on the same
course.  I know far from perfect but you want to keep it as simple as
you can.  3 classes with 2 handicaps won't that bad to manage or
explain.

Kirk
"kayak classification specialist" for the cape ann rowing club - 
also known as the guy with the measuring jig.
-- 
  Kirk Olsen
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