PG wrote:
"Jaakko" wrote in message
...

stuff deleted

A hint: watch your kayak´s bow. As long as it stays steady, you are doing
fine. If you paddle too fast for your ability or pull too long strokes,
your bow starts going either up and down or moving sideways. Then it is
time to slow down/shorten the pull.

Jaakko

o~
(____/____)
/


Since the bow of my kayak is curved rather strongly (I guess to allow it to
go over waves), I get a nice bow wave appearing once I get to about 4 mph.
As I go faster, the wave gets bigger. The bow does go up on the wave as I
go faster, but what I find most noticeable is the size of the wave. Lately,
I've been using that as the indicator of speed and every time the wave
starts going down from its "usual" height, I know I'm slacking off.

It also means that you're near the maximum hull speed for your boat and
that you're probably wasting energy trying to push past it. It's a very
inefficient way to paddle, as once you reach this point, the energy
requirements to increase your speed go up exponentially. Here's a link
to an explanation and a calculator:

http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/technic.../hullspeed.htm

There is some debate at to whether the formula is accurate for kayaks,
since racers routinely exceed the theoretical maximum speed for their
boats, but fundamental premise is still applicable.

It sounds like you need a higher performance boat that's better suited
to your paddling style. Worrying about the most efficient cadence is
rather pointless when you're throwing away massive amounts of energy due
to an inefficient boat. It's the functional equivalent of riding a bike
while towing a parachute. "Penny wise and pound foolish", so to speak.
The most efficient way to paddle your Squall is to slow down to below
the maximum hull speed where the wavemaking drag on the boat is
dramatically lower.

Don't get me wrong, the Squall is a fine boat for what it is, it's just
not what you want if you're serious about efficiency and going fast. You
should be looking at racing boats or "race-inspired" touring boats.