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Dagger Kayak Advice
On 29-Jul-2003, (Ki Ayker) wrote:
A longer boat will be faster (more efficient) then a shorter boat will be.
[...] If you get
a boat which you are comfortable in which is longer and narrower then your
husbands, then at least theoretically, you will not have to work as hard to
keep up.
These statements about lengths are not completely true. The longer kayak will have a
greater wetted surface than the smaller for the same displacement. Hence, it will have
_more_ resistance at low speeds than the smaller one. If you take a person who is
inherently slow and put them in a longer kayak, they will likely slow even more.
If you take two kayaks and plot their speed vs resistance curves, you'll see that the
longer one will have its sharp rise in resistance occur at a higher speed than the shorter.
However, the shorter one's resistance at low speeds will be below the longer one's. If
you routinely paddle at a speed below where the two kayaks' curves cross, you should
use the shorter. Otherwise, get the longer. (this data is published with kayak reviews
in Sea Kayaker).
Another way to look at it - for every paddling speed and displacement, there is an
optimal length of kayak. Shorter or longer than this will take more effort at that
speed.
Longer kayaks have a higher potential speed, but you have to work for it. If you are
comparing powerful paddlers who always go fast, the length statements above are true.
Mike
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