Subject: Re: baidarka Red cedar, gunwales and grain orientation
From: James Mitchell (mariner@seanet.com)
Date: Sun Jan 02 2000 - 01:37:15 EST
Back from Juneau... catching up on the email. Harvey, when I first launched
Raven (my first baidarka) I was scared stiff of her 20.5" beam. I stayed
with it, though, and within a few paddles was decently comfortable. That
was four years ago; now I take her in open ocean. The problem obviously was
not the boat...
I am intrigued with the use of flare in the Bering Strait boats (King
Island, Cape Espenberg). They seem to be going for a deep vee hull,
certainly so forward of the cockpit. I will have some photos up on the web
site soon so you can see what I am referring to. The pattern seems to be to
accept the lower initial stability of the deep vee in favor of its higher
speed when lightly loaded. Also have to remember that they used rocks for
ballast when the hull was empty. Still, that flare must have given
tremendous secondary, especially looking at their 25" beams. You've built a
King, haven't you? How does it perform? Thanks!
----- Original Message -----
From: Harvey Golden <qayaq@pacifier.com>
To: <baidarka@lists.intelenet.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 1999 7:42 PM
Subject: Re: baidarka Red cedar, gunwales and grain orientation
Hello all,
James Mitchell <mariner@seanet.com> wrote:
> > 2. 22" is plenty of beam. Wolf, you agree. . .
I assume he meant 12. 22" beam.
I regularly paddle kayaks 26" wide and as narrow as 15-5/8". . . the 26
inchers are generally more stable of course, but MANY factors apply: For
example I have a kayak 19" wide, and it is much more tippy, i.e. less
initial stability than the 15-5/8" kayak. Hull shape is so much more of a
factor of initial stability than maximum beam-- which really has little to
do with overall stability.
Dusty has mentioned that he finds his 'tippier' baidarka to be more
seaworthy than his wider one. This much the same in my experience with
kayaks of low initial stability, and/or overall narrow chine base (e.g. in
hard-chine kayaks). I think the reason behind this is the fact that when
the water gets steep, a stable boat gets 'steep' with it, and is liable to
pitch violently to the point of upset when riding paralel to waves
(beam-on). A kayak with low initial stability can be kept up-right fairly
easily when riding beam-on in steep waves.
I fear that people rely too much on high-initial stability when paddling in
rough conditions; it feels solid on flat water, but you're looking at
getting quite a tossing if things get really rough. ( Be in control of your
kayak. ) I think another danger is that wider kayaks are often difficult to
up-right.
It may be interesting to note that most of the wider kayaks that come from
the Arctic Tradition have quite rounded bottoms-- especially King Island
types. I think this was done to ensure lower initial stabilty despite the
broad overall beam. (Their decks are steep-pitched and are therefore very
easy to roll.)
Has anyone experimented with narrower-than-average kayaks, and/or learned to
use a kayak that was at first very uncomfortably tippy? I'm curious about
other persons' experience with this.
Harvey www.pacifier.com/~qayaq
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