On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 23:21:52 -0500, KMAN wrote:
in article , Michael Daly at
wrote on 12/1/05 5:08 PM:
On 1-Dec-2005, "Rick Donnelly" wrote:
I have paddled in full storm 50+ mph winds, waves chopped off from those
winds, w/o a rudder. That said, I had a boat that performed reasonably well
w/o a rudder.
Under those conditions, a rudder can work poorly. If you are on short
wavelength waves, the rudder can spend a lot of time out of the water.
I've watched ruddered kayaks zigzag under those conditions while I
tracked straight in a non-ruddered kayak.
Quite right...
I will never buy an automatic transmisson again - not from any manufacturer.
At best, they make driving dull. At worst, they dictate when shifting should
occur (even when it is unsafe), are slow to respond to demands for power,
and they waste fuel.
I'd almost agree, but CVTs, now available on hybrids and some other vehicles
(like the Freestar) can be a significant improvement over conventional
automatics
and provide better fuel economy. I'll give up my standard for a good CVT...
someday.
Mike
Put whatever transmission you want in a Freestar and it's still a piece of
**** (aka a Dirtstar, as those in the biz like to call them).
I'm with Rick, standard all the way. And no frickin' rudder either.
Hi Kman, I was glad to see your post, and had missed your presence in
these parts recently, and I hoped that we had not hurt your feelings,
and that you were still well. I figure you have maybe been busy with
your friend Keenan selling the tickets to some shindig up there in
OTT, that is coming up soon. Sounds like a lot of fun! Is it a New
Years celebration, or just a fund raiser for his charity work? Seems
he has done this program in previous years. Is this your first year?
Anyway to the subject of this post, I will endorse what your friend
Keenan says about his rudder time. At least as far as it appears from
his website stories about paddling trips. All of the pictures show, to
the best I can determine, that the rudders are there, but up. If you
paddle together very much, I assume you probably follow suite.
Of course you would not be able to use a rudder in some of the
shallower streams, or risk having it torn off. Especially in the
swifts and hell holes that you explored, and swam in! That was what a
class III or IV?
You would not want to do a wet exit and then have to self-rescue with
a rudder in the way, as any of the WW specialist here would attest to.
None of their play boats have rudders that I know of just for that
reason. Using a seakayak in the narrows must be tricky to steer in
fast water though, since I am sure they do not turn on a dime, as they
say! Though you apparently have mastered the art having survived to
write numerous stories.
I also realize that some of the pictures are in big flat water, but
again do not show a deployed rudder, so you must be accomplishing your
turns with something other than a rudder! Unless of course you use
them only during storms and rough weather when you are too busy for
picture taking. Most all the pictures were taken on very placid water,
beautiful, smooth, where you would not need a rudder to control a
barge, and certainly not any tsunami conditions, or breaking surf, or
storm surge. Do they have tsunami in OTT?
As for myself, having started kayaking in a WW kayak on flat water,
and found how frustrating that it is to go anywhere, though I did get
a lot of bracing practice, I will continue to use my rudder on my
bagboats. My Folbot and Klepper, are maybe more like the barge I
mentioned. I figure I can always lean and brace to accomplish a turn,
a rudder just makes it easier. Then it also allows me to hoist a sail,
and sail along, taking a few paddle strokes now and then! A nice quiet
form of motor sailing.
Concerning Auto trans, I often drive 100 miles per day in traffic, and
yeah it may use more gas, but then so does the AC unit, that I use to
keep cool in rush hour parking lots! I don't hear any of the macho
types saying they don't use their AC in summer! Or for that matter up
in the cold north country, where you come from, saying they just turn
off the auto heater, so as to toughen up against the cold!
Actually I did see one picture where the rudder was deployed, but that
was several years ago when the journal indicated you all had first
started kayaking. I won't count that against you though, since I can't
see that it is you in the bright yellow kayak. And besides since you
had just started, you were probably under the impression as a newbie,
that if you had a rudder, you were intended to use it. Especially
since you had probably not master all the paddle and bracing stokes
yet!
Now if I could just figure out how to put a motor on my kayak! Oh
yeah, I did try one this last summer, but that is another story!
RkyMtnHootOwl 0vQ