Subject: Re: [baidarka] finished!
From: kirk olsen (kolsen@imaginelan.com)
Date: Tue Oct 02 2001 - 16:24:40 EDT
At 03:34 PM 10/2/01 -0400, Kcorkey@aol.com wrote:
>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.
Is this the MAE-593 96? http://www.arctickayaks.com/LinesAleutMAE593-76.pdf
I've paddled 2 of these replicas. One built by Ron Franklin and one built by Paul Labrie.
Both found they preferred the boat with 25 pounds of ballast. Ron used dive weights strapped to the floorboards. Paul used shotgun pellets inside electrical conduit, with the
conduit slid under the ribs between the stringers, be sure to secure the end caps!!!
A 220 pound paddler isn't going to have the same effect as ballast. Ballast will move your
center of gravity down. A larger paddler will "sink" the boat more but won't change the center of gravity much (depending on the paddlers shape versus yours).
Assuming you followed the plans the boat is fun to paddle once you get used to it.
While playing in Paul's boat I intentionally rolled it a couple of times, without the ballast in place.
I'm not saying the Aleut boat is stable, the ones I tried were definitely usable.
kirk
-- > 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 > >- >Baidarka Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be >reproduced outside Baidarka or Baidarka archives without author's permission >Submissions: baidarka@paddlewise.net >Subscriptions: baidarka-request@paddlewise.net >Searchable archive: http://rtpnet.org/robroy/baidarka >- Baidarka Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside Baidarka or Baidarka archives without author's permission Submissions: baidarka@paddlewise.net Subscriptions: baidarka-request@paddlewise.net Searchable archive: http://rtpnet.org/robroy/baidarka
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