Re: [Paddlewise] Boat and People sizes

On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 6:29 AM, Darryl Johnson <darryl_johnson_at_rogers.com>wrote:

>
> There seem to be boats out there for the tall people, and boats for us
> svelte types (ignoring what I see in the mirror in the mornings!), but not
> much for the the medium height, 'stocky' builds.
>
> Okay... I'll take a shot at this. The "Illusion" by Sterling's Kayaks (
www.sterlingskayak.com) was mentioned in my original post on this thread and
it is well worth looking at. Sterling has created a novel cockpit simulator
where a potential paddler can see if any combination of volume will suit
his/her body type. This is not a measure of how the kayak will paddle, mind
you, but simply a way to determine which version of boat will fit your body
type best. Once that's dialed in you can try a boat that's close and see how
you like the way it performs.

Failing that, there is always the SOF route. Brian Schulz, who created the
F-1 in SOF from his virtually identical copies of the Mariner Coaster in
SOF, is very good at creating a boat that fits the customer. You don't
actually *have* to build it yourself as Brian can build the boat from your
measurements (for a sum of money over and above the class "kit" version).
When I took his course one of our class members was building what amounted
to a Mariner Express in SOF but designed around his own body measurements.
He seemed very happy with the finished product, too.

It's no secret that I like my F-1 a lot but I've been a long-time fan of
Mariner kayaks anyway. Many of my ideas about SOF kayaks were completely
blown away by the F-1 but the biggest one was that it would feel like a
folding boat. In stark contrast, my F-1 feels solid and stable in the water.
I suppose it must be flexing somewhat but I certainly don't feel it.

So there are two ideas.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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