Subject: [baidarka] finished!
From: Kcorkey@aol.com
Date: Tue Oct 02 2001 - 15:34:34 EDT
okay so I finally finished my 18'4" by 18" Aluet baidarka. It looks beautiful! It pained me greatly to cover up such a gorgeous frame! But now it's done and last night I put it in the water for the first time. Proof that you can't float on looks alone. I can' t even sit in it because it's so unstable! Both primary and secondary are non existant. I paddle high performance boats a lot, I'm not being a wimp, it's impossible. I only weigh around 120 so I put someone in it who weighs 220. It was better, but still not possible to paddle so ballast won't work. Where did I go wrong? The only thing I can come up with is that I had been thinking that it was going to be a really tight fit (depth wise) and it appears that I have more room than I should. The keelson on this boat is really deep, almost 2 inches, but that's what Zimmerly's plans show. I chose this particular boat partly for it's length and partly for it's softer chines. I've never liked hard chined boats much and never wi!
shed for more stability.
Now I'm looking for suggestions on how to fix it. Although, Guy Foxxe night is comming up and it would look nice in flames out on the river..........
I'm thinking about shortening the ribs and/or reducing the keel, in effect reducing the depth of the hull and the depth to width ratio. I don't know a thing about hull design though.
Meanwhile I think I'll take the skin off and hang that beautiful frame from my cathedral ceiling untill I figure out what to do with it. At least it looks impressive ;-)
any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. A crying towel might be nice too!
Kirsten
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