A couple difference I would note on the two boats. Pittarak has a high back deck and Tahe Greenland has a low back deck. When leaned to turn the high deck will tend to lift the boat slightly and the low deck will allow the boat to sink down. I notice with many Greenland style boats that the low back deck will become awash with a relatively small amount of lean. When turning this allows water to pile up on the back deck which will tend to slow down any turn. Nick On Jun 9, 2010, at 8:48 AM, PeterO wrote: > Matt wrote: >> his original post has not yet appeared in the digest at all >> so I have only a little idea of what the actual question was > > Thanks Matt, > > On Saturday I was comparing two sea kayaks: a 5m round hulled Pittarak > (similar to an Icefloe - http://www.pittarak.com.au/pittaraksingle.html) vs. > a 5m Tahe Greenland style kayak with a chined hull that extended either side > of the midsection along about half the length of the boat > http://www.tahemarine.com/?module=Product&id=49. Neither boat has much > rocker, they both rely on edging to make a sharp sweep turn. The links are > given to show what they look like, I don't have any commercial interest in > either. > > There were two differences in turning performance that puzzled me: > > 1. In conditions of low wind the Pittarak continues to turn for quite a > while after a single sweep, provided I hold the edge, whereas the Tahe > responded very precisely to the forward sweep stroke, only turning as the > paddle moved almost as if it were damped, perhaps by turbulence or some > other hydraulic resistance at the chined section of the hull? > > 2. The Tahe has a much shallower deck (and less knee room) with lower wind > resistance so its ability to turn using a forward sweep on one side or the > other was symmetrical i.e.. independent of orientation to the wind and there > was no need to consider reverse sweeps. On the other hand the fastest sweep > (forward or reverse) to turn a Pittarak depends on its orientation to the > wind and the direction in which the boat is being turned. I don't really > understand why this should be but am told it's commonplace with boats that > have high deck wind resistance. > > I'm not suggesting that one hull is 'better' than the other, but I'm curious > to understand the reasons for these different characteristics, their pro's > and cons, and whether the first inertial vs. damped characteristic, can be > generalised to most rounded hull vs. chined kayaks. Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 54 South Rd Groton, CT 06340 USA Ph/Fx: (860) 659-8847 http://www.guillemot-kayaks.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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jun 09 2010 - 07:24:09 PDT
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