On Sun, 01 May 2005 17:35:27 GMT, Brian Nystrom
wrote:

The reason for the response is that Yoav is attempting to market his W
boat as a "safer" alternative to a kayak and as offering the same level
of performance, which is absolute BS on both counts. If one is a
kayaker, the differences are quite obvious, as are the limitations to
his design. However, all that may not be germaine to this discussion,
since the intent is to solicit builders. If the design appeals to you,
by all means build one.

OK, I think I get you now. I think it looks like it would compare
favorably to a poly sit-on-top kayak, but I suspect you're thinking of
a traditional kayak, with a spray skirt, etc. I can't say how it
would compare from experience, since I haven't tried either one, but
you might be right that a traditional kayak has performance
advantages. As to safety, I don't know which would be safer; an
experience kayaker who has trained to roll himself back upright might
be safer than a weekend warrior trying to get back into an open design
like the W-boat.

I have some experience with poly "sit on top" kayaks. The W boat
design would probably have more initial stability than the
sit-on-tops. He has a lot of pictures of people using it to fish
from, and it looks like it makes sense for that kind of application.
The sit-on-tops have a lot of wetted surface, so if the W boat does
reduce that for the same load, then paddling would be easier.

In any case, someone like Ookie who wants to experiment with the type
of design can get some free advice in building one.


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