Any opinions on the feasibility of foot-operated water jet propulson for a
small boat like a canoe or kayak? I was thinking of mounting twin water
pumps on the (out)sides of the hull to suck water in the front of the
pumps and squirt it out the back through a smaller diameter pipe to make a
jet stream. The water pumps would be foot operated through levers and a
pivot. Got the idea from reading a book on ancient Roman engineering.
Could the legs and water jets produce enough propulsion to move the boat
at, say, walking speed? I think a separate pump on each side, powered
independently by the two legs, would allow the operator to steer the boat
by pumping one harder than the other to turn.
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