"William R. Watt" wrote:

a few more impressions ...

Tonight I paddled a 19 ft kayak but it did not have any cargo so
it sat high and was light and unstable. The sales rep said the
only way to try one of these multi-day trip kayaks is to rent one,
load it up, and paddle it around for a day or two.

There are a lot of "barges" on the market and surprisingly, they sell well,
despite the fact that most people who buy them will never do an expedition. It's
probably due to the same reasons that people buy SUV's, the "bigger is better"
mentality, "just in case" and delusions of grandeur. Most people would be better
off with a lower volume day boat...and a small, fuel efficient car.

He gave me a
sales booklet of specs for the kayaks his store sells. Only some
of them listed load capacity. Others just stated the internal
volume. None showed the design draft or the immersion per unit
load above that. These are numbers hull design programs spit out.
They should be in the specifications for purchasers on load
carrying boats.

Most people wouldn't understand these numbers, so they're rarely published.

On the way to the beach today I visited two of the sporting goods
stores who are participating in the evening demonstrations. The
stores had a bunch of kayaks up on racks where I was able to look
over the hulls, especailly the bottoms. I was surprized to see one
of the chined boats had a convexity in a flat panel. This was in a
new boat that had never been used. I was also suprized to see a
hull distorted by a bulkhead. I didn't even need to my hand over
the hull to feel for it it. It stood out visibly like the
proverbial sore thunmb.

If you were looking at plastic boats, that's typical. There are a few out there
that use better materials that are more distortion resistant (Prijon, P&H), but
most polyethylene hulls will distort due to heat and/or pressure. They will
usually return to shape if left out in the sun.

I know enough about boatbuilding to
realize the repetitive strain boats take as waves pass under the
hull disorting the weak ones and breaking down the material they
are made of, saying nothing of loss of performance.

Polyethylene doesn't break down with repetitive stress, but it does flex.
Composite hulls are stiffer.

On some
sailboats bulkheads do not come in direct contact with the hull
but are cushioned by a foam insert to prevent hard spots.

Some kayaks use foam bulkheads, for the same reason. However, it's not as much of
a problem as some people would lead you to believe. My boats get used hard and
banged around quite a bit and I have yet to have a problem due to a hard bulkhead.

After
seeing these kayaks in the stores I'd choose a round bottom hull
because it would be less likely to have weak spots.

That's not an issue with a well-made boat. Choose the boat that fits you best and
handles the way you want, and ignore the hull shape. Kayak performance is
dependent on far more than hull cross-section shape.

The next thing I'd like to try is climbing back into (or onto) different
kayaks to see which ones are easiest to re-enter.

There's a lot of variation there, too. Personally, I prefer to concentrate on how
the boat works on the water, since that's where I am 99%+ of the time. I find
small cockpits to offer increased control and security, despite the fact that I'
6' tall.

--
Regards

Brian