Matt said : > data from a slide ... at Freya's slide show in Seattle > average speed for the trip was ... a little over 2.8 knots Matt Very good observations on Freya's speed & the trade-off between kayak capacity and efficiency. When speaking of Freya, I think Winston Churchill's comment (on education) is most apt: "The most important thing ... is appetite." With her level of focus and desire, I believe she would have succeeded in the Australian circumnavigation with any collection of gear that didn't kill her. But it is, of course, fascinating to examine what she selected (and why) from the vast range of kayaks & paddles available to her. By contrast, Paul Caffyn (now 27 years ago) had very few available kayaks or paddles to choose from for his trip round Australia. But he had that same key ingredient. For those of us in New Zealand, a legacy of Paul's trip is the complete dominance here of ruddered kayaks. Paul was still experimenting with skegs at the start of his Australian journey, before finally (mid-way) embracing the rudder. He uses one still and I don't think you can find an NZ-made sit-in kayak without one. (At Coastbusters, next weekend, we'll actually put a couple of skeg kayaks on-show as 'thought-provokers' and spend some time pushing attendees to develop their un-ruddered paddling skills. Because, of course, those skills are worth having and we all get lazy ;-) It is interesting that Freya did our South Island in 2007/8 in a rudderless kayak and then went ruddered for Australia. Has she referred to that choice in her recent slide shows ? Best Regards Paul Hayward Auckland, New Zealand *************************************************************************** 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 Feb 21 2010 - 16:01:37 PST
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