William R. Watt wrote:

I'm looking at last season's "Boats and Paddles" booklet put out
by Mountain Co-op. They give the list price for every boat. That's
useful information for the buyer to have.

No kidding.

They give the weigth for
every boat. That's uselful to know becaue all these boats will be
picked up and carried, some portaged.

Obviously.

They give the capacity for
about half of the boats (weight and volume) which might be useful
to a buyer. It would be better to have it for all the boats but it
looks like the the manufacture (designer) didn't provide it.

Right. Are you going to get to the point eventually?

They
also give the length, beam, depth, and cockpit dimensions, none of
which is very useful to the buyer.

This statement shows how little you know about kayaks and kayak buyers.

For many people, length is critical due to storage and transportation
issues. It's also a good general indicator of a boat's suitability for
various types of paddling. For example, you wouldn't buy a 18' kayak for
poking around tidal estuaries with their narrow winding creeks. A 12'
boat is not going to be ideal for taking out on long open water
crossings. Length is also a decent indicator of maneuverability, at
least in gross terms.

Likewise beam width is a good basic indicator of stability. A 28" boat
is going to be more stable than a 22" boat. Beam width is also a
reasonable indicator of performance potential. Using the same example,
the boat with the 28" beam is going to be significantly slower than the
boat with the 22" beam, all else being equal.

When you combine length and beam, it tells you a fair amount about the
general nature of a kayak and whether it's likely to be suitable for a
specific application.

The depth and cockpit dimensions tell quite a bit about how a boat will
fit the paddler.

Here is where the personal
information would be useful, ie the power vs speed graph for
different body weights, the body size, and perhaps the draft so
the buyer knows if it is a shallow water hull for his or her body
weight. Since Mountain Co-op is going to the expense of printing
the booklets they could use the same amount of money to provide
more relevant and meanignful information for the buyer.

While providing such information would certainly do no harm, it's
actually much less useful (and understandable) to most people than the
information you so easily dismissed.