Subject: Re: [baidarka] finished!
From: James Mitchell (mariner@seanet.com)
Date: Wed Oct 03 2001 - 00:08:15 EDT
Oh boy.
Number 1. The hull is too long and too narrow for you. The length should
help stability, but will hurt wind performance and maneuverability. The
beam... well.... And the depth is adding to the problem.
If you decide you want to try to fix this hull, I would recommend the
following. I did this with one of my hulls, and it worked so well I did it
to another.
First, your thoughts about pulling out some depth is good. What that does,
of course, is move the width lower. You might also be able to plane the keel
down. Our keels are only 1-1/8", and are plenty strong. I think you would
probably be safe coming down to 1-1/2".
The other thing is to rebuild the top of the frame. Take out the front deck
frame and use it for kindling. Move all the others forward one position (you
will have to shave them to fit, but they will be wide enough to re-use). Do
the same thing aft of the cockpit. Then replace the front and rear cockpit
frames. That will allow you to take the beam out by perhaps a couple
inches. You will be limited by the amount of flex you can force into the
gunwales without cracking them, and you may have to untie the keel at the
sternboard and move the stern forward a bit to keep the geometry of the
frame. You should be really pleased with the hull if you can get it out to
about 21", but that may be pushing your luck too far.
I know that some of the traditional hulls were those dimensions, but they
were born in their boats. Also, Aleut bodies were significantly different
in shape than ours, more suited to a hull like that. Also, your use of a
large friend as ballast isn't a decent test of ballast as his weight would
be way above the CG of the hull. Ballast wants to be right on the keel, no
higher. You might find that expanding the gunwales and shortening the ribs
will make the boat very comfortable with some ballast while you are learning
her characteristics. After awhile, you should be OK.
Good luck!
----- Original Message -----
From: <Kcorkey@aol.com>
To: <baidarka@paddlewise.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2001 12:34 PM
Subject: [baidarka] finished!
> 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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