"riverman" typed

The interesting thing about western ratings is that there is no numerical
classification for 'unrunnable'. Class 10 often is described as "an
inexperienced boatman in a good quality boat has less than a 50-50 chance of
making it right-side up." I like the 10-step breakdown, too, since it
clears up some of that vast grey area between Class III and Class IV on the
traditional grading scale.

Myron, I think you bin away from home to long. As far as I know there
is no "western" 10-step scale in the US any longer. The only 10-step
scale I know about is the "Grand Canyon Scale", applied only on the
Grand Canyon, as an historical artifact.

The Class 10 you describe could only conceivably apply to rafts and
dories (only guessing about the latter, since I have no experience
with dories). I would say that, in the 6-step International Scale of
River Difficulty, which we and the Europeans try to follow, an
inexperienced kayaker or canoeist in a good quality boat would have
less than 50% chance of making it through a Class III rapid right-side
up. (In fact, the ratings map very closely to skill levels:
I-Beginner, II-Novice, III-Intermediate, IV-Advanced, V-Expert,
VI-God).

Which brings up a problem, and perhaps the reason the 10-step scale
has fallen into disuse: if the rating of the rapid must be changed to
suit the craft, then you are not actually rating the rapid, *per se*,
you are rating the rapid/craft combination. By contemporary thinking,
the difficulty of a rapid should be intrinsic to the rapid, measured
by objective criteria, and irrelevant to the nature of any craft that
might attempt the rapid.

I think.

-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
--
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Richard Hopley, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net 1-301-775-0471
Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll.
rhople[at]wfubmc[dot]edu 1-336-713-5077
OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters.
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