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Need canoe advice.
Michael Daly wrote:
On 6-Aug-2003, (William R. Watt) wrote: longer canoes are faster. Self taught in canoe performance too? Here's a _free_ lesson and it's not from a professional: (from a previous post on r.b.p.t) This statement about length is not completely true. The longer kayak/canoe will have a greater wetted surface than the smaller for the same displacement. Hence, it will have _more_ resistance at low speeds than the smaller one. If you take a person who is inherently slow and put them in a longer kayak/canoe, they will likely slow even more. If you take two kayaks/canoes and plot their speed vs resistance curves, you'll see that the longer one will have its sharp rise in resistance occur at a higher speed than the shorter. However, the shorter one's resistance at low speeds will be below the longer one's. If you routinely paddle at a speed below where the two kayaks'/canoes' curves cross, you should use the shorter. Otherwise, get the longer. (this data is published with kayak reviews in Sea Kayaker). Another seat-of-the-pants observer of canoe dynamics (me). You are correct on this I think, however a couple of other key design items make a lot more difference than simply length and wetted area to how much effort it takes to move a boat thru the water: - Shape of the hull. A number of canoes widen quickly in the bow and stern to provide better bouyancy in waves. Great, but it makes for a slower boat than a hull designed with a very fine entry, and more flare above the waterline. Also, the bow shape for a composite boat is usually a much finer entry into the water than a royalex/poly boat - you can't make as narrow a bow on a molded boat. If it looks like a johnboat, it will paddle like one as well. - Depth of the water. Once you get past 10' or so, it isn't an issue. The real difference comes when you are in 5' or less (suck water). The faster you go in any condition, the bigger wave a given boat makes until you get past displacement hull speed and climb over the bow wake. In shallow water, the bow wave moves further back on the boat and the back end sucks down and you paddle uphill. (Every boat - even freighters). Shorter boats hit this point faster, since the wavelength is mostly a function of the boat's length. The wave amplitude is a function of speed and depth of the water. Stability - it takes more effort to make a boat go if you are fighting for balance. Boat design, load placement and seat height all affect the center of gravity. However, the higher the seat, the better leverage you can get paddling. Paddle style and type. Without starting a J-stroke vs. Sit&Switch war, any time you aren't pulling the boat up to the paddle, you are slowing down. Any time you rudder, the boat is slowing down. Any time the boat slows down, it takes more energy to accelerate it back to speed. Any time the paddle face is past vertical, you are slowing the boat down. Now all that said, it doesn't make a hill of beans if all you want is to throw 2 packs, the dog and your son in the boat and head into Rangley or the BWCA for a week's fishing and you really don't care about getting there fast or working hard. It's all OK. *Pick a boat you really like to paddle and feel comfortable with.* That's the best boat for you. BTW, if I could only have one 'all around' boat, it would probably be a Penobscot 16. As close as I've paddled to doing it all reasonably well - in fact, I just sold our older 16 (and bought a MinnIIG). Marsh Jones Minneapolis |
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