RE: [Paddlewise] Children as Skegs (was Ginger vs Skeg)

From: Leonhardt, William J <wjleonhardt_at_bnl.gov>
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 15:32:30 -0400
Wasn't this covered somewhat in the book "101 Uses for a Dead Cat"?

Bill 

-----Original Message-----
From:Craig Jungers

>
> Lets get back to Paddlewise basics and start an argument about rudder
vs skeg. I'll start.
>
> It depends.
>

It just occurs to me that I may have worded the new subject poorly. Oh,
well.

I can testify that when Hailey was 3 and sat in the rear hatch (we took the
hatch cover completely off) we discovered that she liked to trail one or
both hands in the water as I paddled along. Since she was behind me, her
activities made a good experiment. I did notice a few changes in the
handling of the Nimbus Telkwa; to wit:

1) Tracking was excellent about 66% of the time;

2) Turns toward a single hand in the water were easy while turns away
from a single hand in the water were not so easy;

3) Stopping was much easier when both hands were in the water;

4) Going was much harder when both hands were in the water;

5) Performance peaked at 30 minutes after which time the skeg began
making
shrieking noises immediately after yelling, "are we there yet?"

Not recommended. I believe that the rudder would be a vast improvement
over a child as skeg.

We have not yet tested a child as a rudder. Frankly, I'm a little afraid
to bring it up to her mother.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake Scientific (sort of) Test Center
www.nwkayaking.net
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Received on Tue Jul 07 2009 - 12:52:44 PDT

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