!Jones wrote:
As new tandem kayak team, we recently got caught in water that was
beyond our capability. The wind and waves quickly turned our boat and
rolled us. I was able to right the boat and climb back in; however,
I'd be dumped trying to bring it around into the wind... uktimately,
the Coast Guard had to pull us out.

Forgive me for not answering your actual question, but (perhaps you
might experiment with this suggestion in a strong wind under
otherwise-controlled conditions):

With a capsized boat and two swimmers, would it not make sense to
orient the boat bow-on to the wind *before* righting it (when, hull-up,
it would offer considerably less wind resistance, thus less inclination
to remain beam-on) then, after the first swimmer re-enters, have that
person maintain the orientation by paddling, while the second swimmer
re-enters? Then, having both re-entered while the boat is awash, take
turns, one pumping while the other maintains orientation by paddling.

You could, incidently, leave one cockpit half full of water and pump
the other completely dry. The boat would settle toward the end with
the half-watered cockpit, creating a weather-vane effect where the
other end would tend to point downwind. The choice of which cockpit to
leave partly full of water would be made on the basis of which way you
want the boat to point once you have yourself all sorted out. Hmmm, I
guess this weather-vane effect would be the basis for which paddler
would re-enter first: the paddler at the end you want, ultimately, to
be up-wind.

Not a kayaker, so I'm jus' speculatin' about how to re-enter. The
weather-vane effect, though, has been demonstrated in canoes making
open crossings. Usually achieved by shifting the paddler position or
the cargo, but, well... kayaks and kayakers are different, eh?


-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
--

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Richard Hopley Winston-Salem, NC, USA
rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net
Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll
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