On 16-Jun-2005, Peter wrote:

boats that are 18' long overall will almost
always have waterline lengths greater than boats that are 14'

Fine, but we were comparing kayaks that were only a foot and a half or
so different in length. Of the 105 kayaks on the web page of Sea
Kayaker data, the average length is 5.2m (17 ft) with a standard deviation
of 41cm (16 in). 78% of the kayaks fall within one standard deviation of
the mean length. We're not talking about huge differences in length
typically, especially since the standard deviation is comparable to the
differences in LOA and LWL.

but it is very high (correlation coefficient is probably around 0.95).

Instead of pulling these numbers out of your ass, how about some facts?

Based on the data I posted on 18 kayaks (showing percent differences
in LWL and LOA), the actual correlation coefficient is 0.79. Not exactly
tight. In terms of performance, that is a significant difference. Thus
it is not reasonable to make sweeping statements that one can predict
performance based on LOA instead of LWL.

You guys are pulling out extreme examples based on hand-waving about
theories that few of you actually understand. I'm talking about
real kayaks in the real world. In the real world, we can't reduce
performance estimates on vague physical characteristics.

Mike