"Paul Stivers" wrote in message
...
I'm new at sea kayaking. See my post last night titled "Greenland boats
for big guys."

At Jon Walpole's excellent site
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~walpole/kayaking.html I was struck by the fact
that most of the boats in the photo gallery have upturned ends and no
rudder. These are the obvious (to me) visual attributes. I think a
couple of additional attributes are a tendency, on average, toward more
rocker and lower deck, than the American designs. I would have referred
to this as the Greenland design until Brian corrected me. Maybe the
better term is British design.

I know many of the owners of the boats in the photos are experienced sea
kayakers. Probably none are novices.

I'm wondering about the advantages and disadvantages of the British
design on average, relative to the American design. Here's my thoughts,
organized by British attribute, gleaned from various reading. Anyone
care to correct my impressions, or elucidate further?

More rocker.

Adv. More responsive to leaning and paddle strokes.
Disadv. Less forgiving of unintentional variation in body position and
paddle stroke.
Disadv. More prone to weathercocking.


Just a few thoughts on this. And these are just thoughts since, after
about 3 years of kayaking, I too consider myself a novice. I have limited
experience in test paddling boats designed for use with a skeg and have done
some reading on the subject and have read similar discussions in this and
other forums.

Weathercocking: The tendency for the boat to turn into the wind. While this
is often referred to in the negative, it is not necessarily a disadvantage.
It seems to me that it would be nearly impossible to design a boat that is
not influenced by the wind in some way. The choice, by design then, is to
design the boat so that it does tend to turn toward the wind. If your
intended course is into the wind, then this weathercocking would be an
advantage, would it not? This is where the skeg comes in. Contrary to what
many believe, the skeg is not intended to increase tracking directly. It
does so indirectly by countering the boats tendency to weathercock. As you
lower the skeg, the wind's influence on the stern of the boat is decreased.
On a well designed kayak, a fully deployed skeg, by increasing the
resistance to the wind at the stern so dramatically, would change the boats
tendency from turning into the wind to turning away from the wind. A
partially deployed skeg would induce a partial change in this tendency. So
how much skeg you deploy depends on the course you wish to paddle. No skeg
keeps you paddling into the wind, which is a good thing sometimes. Full
skeg should keep you paddling with the wind and in between should allow you
to paddle sideways to the wind or at different courses relative to the wind
depending on degree of deployment.




Upswept ends

Adv. Easier to roll. Boat is less stable upside down in the water.
Adv. Bow cuts through waves rather than punching through.
(Are there other advantages of an upswept stern? Cuts waves that
approach from the back?)
Disadv. Upswept stern is prone to weathercocking. Though a skeg can
largely mitigate this.

Well. That's the idea, I think.

Everyone who reads this, if I'm wrong about this, please fill in for me.
I'm just trying to help but I certainly don't want to be putting forward
grossly inaccurate information.

Cheers!

DV