Kayaks should be designed around people instead of designing for
isolated boat performance. I don't know of any kayak designers who
do this. Instead of concentrating on hull resistance, designers
could concentrate on paddler horsepower requirement. A low cost,
mass marketed kayak should be designed to suit a range of
horsepowers, paddler weights, and paddler dimensions. A kayak
produced for a more limited market can be designed to suit a
smaller range of horespowers, paddler weights, and paddler
dimensions. An expensive one off kayak can be custom designed to
suit the power, weight, and dimensions of an individual paddler.
It would cost no more to custom design a plywood kayak built with
computer cut panels than to design a mass produced plywood kayak
built with computer cut panels. The design ranges should be listed
in the sales information for each model of kayak. Design
performance graphs could be included, and for some boats actual
test data plotted. Such an approach to designing would answer the
buyer's perrenial question "which kayak is right for me?". The
approach is particulary appropriate for kayaks because they are
are primarily transporters of people using the person's own power
resources for propulsion. The cost of the design is small compared
to the cost of materials, labour, distribution, marketing, and
sales. It would not cos much to do a more complete job of the design
and provide better information for the buyer.
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