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add a rudder to a kayak?
On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 23:21:52 -0500, KMAN wrote:
in article , Michael Daly at wrote on 12/1/05 5:08 PM: On 1-Dec-2005, "Rick Donnelly" wrote: I have paddled in full storm 50+ mph winds, waves chopped off from those winds, w/o a rudder. That said, I had a boat that performed reasonably well w/o a rudder. Under those conditions, a rudder can work poorly. If you are on short wavelength waves, the rudder can spend a lot of time out of the water. I've watched ruddered kayaks zigzag under those conditions while I tracked straight in a non-ruddered kayak. Quite right... I will never buy an automatic transmisson again - not from any manufacturer. At best, they make driving dull. At worst, they dictate when shifting should occur (even when it is unsafe), are slow to respond to demands for power, and they waste fuel. I'd almost agree, but CVTs, now available on hybrids and some other vehicles (like the Freestar) can be a significant improvement over conventional automatics and provide better fuel economy. I'll give up my standard for a good CVT... someday. Mike Put whatever transmission you want in a Freestar and it's still a piece of **** (aka a Dirtstar, as those in the biz like to call them). I'm with Rick, standard all the way. And no frickin' rudder either. Hi Kman, I was glad to see your post, and had missed your presence in these parts recently, and I hoped that we had not hurt your feelings, and that you were still well. I figure you have maybe been busy with your friend Keenan selling the tickets to some shindig up there in OTT, that is coming up soon. Sounds like a lot of fun! Is it a New Years celebration, or just a fund raiser for his charity work? Seems he has done this program in previous years. Is this your first year? Anyway to the subject of this post, I will endorse what your friend Keenan says about his rudder time. At least as far as it appears from his website stories about paddling trips. All of the pictures show, to the best I can determine, that the rudders are there, but up. If you paddle together very much, I assume you probably follow suite. Of course you would not be able to use a rudder in some of the shallower streams, or risk having it torn off. Especially in the swifts and hell holes that you explored, and swam in! That was what a class III or IV? You would not want to do a wet exit and then have to self-rescue with a rudder in the way, as any of the WW specialist here would attest to. None of their play boats have rudders that I know of just for that reason. Using a seakayak in the narrows must be tricky to steer in fast water though, since I am sure they do not turn on a dime, as they say! Though you apparently have mastered the art having survived to write numerous stories. I also realize that some of the pictures are in big flat water, but again do not show a deployed rudder, so you must be accomplishing your turns with something other than a rudder! Unless of course you use them only during storms and rough weather when you are too busy for picture taking. Most all the pictures were taken on very placid water, beautiful, smooth, where you would not need a rudder to control a barge, and certainly not any tsunami conditions, or breaking surf, or storm surge. Do they have tsunami in OTT? As for myself, having started kayaking in a WW kayak on flat water, and found how frustrating that it is to go anywhere, though I did get a lot of bracing practice, I will continue to use my rudder on my bagboats. My Folbot and Klepper, are maybe more like the barge I mentioned. I figure I can always lean and brace to accomplish a turn, a rudder just makes it easier. Then it also allows me to hoist a sail, and sail along, taking a few paddle strokes now and then! A nice quiet form of motor sailing. Concerning Auto trans, I often drive 100 miles per day in traffic, and yeah it may use more gas, but then so does the AC unit, that I use to keep cool in rush hour parking lots! I don't hear any of the macho types saying they don't use their AC in summer! Or for that matter up in the cold north country, where you come from, saying they just turn off the auto heater, so as to toughen up against the cold! Actually I did see one picture where the rudder was deployed, but that was several years ago when the journal indicated you all had first started kayaking. I won't count that against you though, since I can't see that it is you in the bright yellow kayak. And besides since you had just started, you were probably under the impression as a newbie, that if you had a rudder, you were intended to use it. Especially since you had probably not master all the paddle and bracing stokes yet! Now if I could just figure out how to put a motor on my kayak! Oh yeah, I did try one this last summer, but that is another story! RkyMtnHootOwl 0vQ |
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