PeterO asked: >>>>Something I'm still struggling to understand is why the Pittarak turns more easily upwind with a reverse sweep and more easily downwind with a forward sweep. The centre of rotation (if that's the right term) must be quite different between the forward and reverse sweep. <<<<<< And when I asked, Peter clarified the way he leans for me: >>>>>>....I can say for sure is that I lean forward and edge away from the turn when using a sweep and edge into the turn when using a reverse sweep. I think I lean towards the stern for a reverse sweep and that the effect is similar whether turning on the spot or moving forward, usually I'm turning on the spot when going upwind, but its worth checking again....<<<<<<< I'll bet, like most folks, when turning into the wind you are more comfortable leaning/bracing more into the wind doing a reverse sweep than leaning downwind to the outside doing a forward sweep/high brace. As I said earlier, the more you lean the kayak the quicker it will turn. I suspect turning into the wind you are willing to lean further to the inside (and into the wind) while low bracing on a reverse sweep than you are willing do to the outside (leaning downwind) doing a forward stroke. Turning downwind you are in the opposite situation where you get to lean into the wind with the outside lean and must lean downwind doing a reverse sweep. Since you naturally lean into a wind some to compensate for the wind strength (to maintain balance) you aren't so far off balance when leaning into the wind than when leaning at an equal angle downwind. With forward speed an outside lean with a forward stroke is most effective in turning a wider kayak (and most kayaks) into a wind because maintaining speed means you are being helped by the weathercocking tendency and for an equal lean angle the stern keel will shed water better when the kayak is tilted to the outside. You also gain the advantage of the side "lift" I talked about earlier helping drive the turn. Everybody should practice fast outside lean turns while maintaining good bracing. The reason is that when the wind is strong you might still be able to turn into it if you are willing to tilt the kayak away from the wind but might not be able turn into the wind at all if you are afraid to tilt the kayak that way. Practice this in strong winds when in a safe place. Being able to turn into a stronger wind can be a real safety advantage. At speed, most sea kayaks can turn nearly twice as fast with a good outside lean as they can with the kayak level. I'm not making this up. When testing kayaks I time turns both leaned and kept level, I do this comparison both when moving forward at cruising speed and when spinning the kayak in place (in place the difference is not as great but you can't normally turn a kayak into a strong wind as easily in place as you can when getting some speed up accross the wind first and just using forward sweep strokes). I have collected this data from most of the 1000+ kayaks I tested on some spreadsheets (that include dimension data on some 4000 one-person kayaks I know about--not including WW kayaks, surf skis, wave skis, or downriver and flatwater racing kayaks). In a strong wind with steep wind waves what happens is you make a turn into the wind in the trough and then lose ground (water? angle?) when the bow rises over the crest and is caught by the wind. The more angle you can gain in the trough the more you can lose at the crest and stillhave made some progress by the next trough. Turning speed is an important variable in this situation. The length of the bow from the paddler (lever arm) and the windage at the bow are some other variables that matter then as well. Weight in the bow (or the whole kayak) is a big help and the weight and strength of the paddler are also big helps when the wind is strong. *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Jun 10 2010 - 22:20:56 PDT
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