Subject: Re: baidarka bow/prow design of a kayak
From: wolfgang brinck (nativewater@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Feb 16 2001 - 18:37:48 EST
I think boat geometry just like car geometry is always
a mix of function and fashion. Some designs just look
cooler than others.
Secondly, when making boats out of wood, you are
limited to what sort of shapes you can twist the wood
into. Variability is still infinite, but less infinite
than what you can achieve with plastic, just like
there are half as many even numbers as even and odd
combined, and yet the total number of even numbers is
infinite.
Also, for any given geometry, the more extreme the
tilt, the sharper an entry line it creates. For
instance, if you tilted a cylindrical shape, its
intersection would create an ever more elongated
ellipse the more you tilted it.
The shape of the deck and bottom and transition from
bottom to deck are also factors. East Greenland boats
which have almost flat bottoms and very sharply raked
sides also have the most steeply raked bows and
sterns. They also have flatter decks when compared to
West Greenland boats which are apparently operated in
rougher waters.
Wolfgang
--- "Peter A. Chopelas" <pac@premier1.net> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> The steepness of the line of the prow varies quite
> dramatically and I do
> not understand why there is such variation because I
> do not see the
> advantages with the very steeply sloping prows.
> They make nice and sexy
> looking kayaks with real pointy bows that look like
> they are ready to slice
> through anything the ocean can give. But all I can
> see this does is
> shorten water line length since a very narrow prow
> would do the same thing
> without losing water line length. Do these steeply
> sloping prows help cut
> chop or deflect splash and spray, or help keep the
> bow from diving in heavy
> seas by moving the buoyancy forward when it dives?
>
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35
a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
-
Baidarka Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be
reproduced outside Baidarka or Baidarka archives without author's permission
Submissions: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions: baidarka-request@lists.intelenet.net
Searchable archive: http://rtpnet.org/robroy/baidarka
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b27 : Thu Mar 01 2001 - 01:30:03 EST