In my quest to design a sea kayak, this seems to be the first key decision. "Begin with the end game in mind" as Stephen Covey would have us do, if we are to be truly effective. This makes me question what aspect of sea kayaking really excites me and what is it that my current sea kayaks can't/won't do. I already own a Nigel Dennis Romany which is a fantastic boat, and I hold a demo Island Expedition LV sea kayak on behalf of Brookbank Canoes, another excellent boat.
Looking at sea kayak design in general, I could go longer, shorter, faster, slower, more manouvreable, less manouvreable - you name it, it's possible.
I'm not a keen long distance paddler, I prefer to get my kicks from 'mixing it up' a bit in tidal flows, following seas and surf. I guess that's the whitewater and surf kayaker in me coming out. For me a tidal race is another playground, and one of my regular haunts is Peveril Race at Swanage. I can launch and be stuck into it in around 5 minutes, and spend a couple of hours playing there, before paddling back for 5 minutes.
I think my first boat, therefore will be a highly manouvreable, quick to accelerate 'play' sea kayak, designed to carry minimal load (enough to keep you safe, but little else).
As it's going to be solely for me, I'm not too fussed about designing a secondary, overlapping, purpose - in other words, I won't care how this handles on a long open crossing, or be worried that I can't fit camping gear + food and water for 10 days into it.
Already, I have a mental picture forming. Relatively short, highly rockered, low initial stability, lots of secondary stability, whitewater leg/knee positioning & cockpit, uncluttered decks, etc..
Take a look at Ginnyak fromt the US. (U'll need to Google it - I can't remember the address!)
It's just an interesting design, ending in an unusual shape because it's been done without compromise to be paddled by the designer.
Also I've got Anus Acuta stitch n glue plans that would be easy to tweek to suit. (It's gonna be a lot easier - and safer - to tweek someone elses ideas the first time!)
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1 Comments:
It's just an interesting design, ending in an unusual shape because it's been done without compromise to be paddled by the designer.
Also I've got Anus Acuta stitch n glue plans that would be easy to tweek to suit. (It's gonna be a lot easier - and safer - to tweek someone elses ideas the first time!)
October 06, 2006 5:27 PM
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