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Whi****er in a recreational kayak????
wrote:
He gave you good advice. I've looked at the pictures and description
of the "Sparky". IMHO It'd be a disaster for any but the best of
boaters to take this in whitewater.
You're right, but not for the reason's you state.
It's bow and stearn design show
very linear cut, for tracking straight. The description talks of
double tracking channels. This is a boat that wants to go straight.
No, it isn't, it's a "puddle boat" that spins on a dime in flat water. The "tracking channels" actually have nothing
to do with tracking; they're there to stiffen the flimsy hull. "Tracking channel" is Perception-speak for "We screwed
up the design and use crappy materials, so this is the Band-Aid we apply in a feeble attempt to compensate."
You will have to fight it to turn quickly or draw it from side to
side. Similarly its linear rail will be easily grabbed any eddy line
or wave to flip you quickly. It's short size might compensate some for
these factors, but it looks like a boat designed for flipping you in
whitewater.
None of this is really true, but a Sparky is not designed for whitewater use at all.
Take a look at a whitewater boat, you'll notice rounded rockered
bottoms and bow and stearn, smooth rounded rails (transition from deck
to hull). These provide mobility and minimize tipping in waves, and
eddies. (Most beginners tip over most at crossing the simple eddy line
into the stream. You don't need waves.)
Personally I'd sooner take an inner tube. Be safe have fun.
Good advice. At least an inner tube floats. A Sparky would be useless once it's swamped. Since you'll never find a
spray skirt for one that will stay on in rough water, swamping is inevitably.
--
Regards
Brian
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