In article , Peter Clinch
URL:mailto

I realise I need to go for as narrow a boat as I can fit into comfortably
(to make the regular paddling angles as easy on my arms and shoulders as
possible).

It's not that simple.
A broader boat will probably be more stable and until you have more
experience keeping it up with your hips you'll have to do more work with
braced strokes to keep a narrower, more tippy boat upright. So if the
conditions are less than perfect you may end up doing /more/ work in a
narrower boat.

Not sure that I agree with you on this point - good forwards paddling
technique is what supports paddler and boat and, in open-cockpit boats, the
hips are not used for support or boat control. With support in the water
from the blade, the effective boat-width is the same for wide or narrow boats
(within sensible limits, of course - ie those which pertain to the boats
which I know). A brace stoke indicates a failure in paddling technique in
benign conditions at least, and a larger-volume boat will be more affected by
choppy conditions than a narrow one, so can feel more unstable to an
experienced paddler.

Obviously proper paddling techniques don't transfer to closed-cockpit boats
:-)


Allan Bennett
Not a fan of braces

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