http://www.wwtccnews.blogspot.com/
I'm going to borrow it for a demo next time I'm at Shepperton
Nelo now making slalom kayaks...
Those of you who do marathon and sea paddling are probably familiar with Nelo's sprint/marathon and sea kayaks - they're now doing a slalom k1 (and a c1, though I haven't seen one of them yet), apparently!
http://www.wwtccnews.blogspot.com/
I'm going to borrow it for a demo next time I'm at Shepperton
http://www.wwtccnews.blogspot.com/
I'm going to borrow it for a demo next time I'm at Shepperton
Which leads me to some questions I've had for a while :
Is the double dutch scimitar the fastest 3.5m slalom boat in a straight line ?
Would a slalom boat with the roundest hull shape be the fastest design in a straight line (seems to be true for racing K1s) - will nelo's boat be a cut down K1 with a wobble factor of 1, enough to terrify anyone that dares paddle it
For a given paddler weight say 70kg - would a larger volume boat eg.for 85-95kg paddler be faster in a straight line by being closer to the surface (although cumbersome to turn)
Its strikes me that if a boat is easy to turn then the bow will wobble more when trying to paddle straight, which would be slower.
There has to be some way I can make up for my ever increasing age..., and lack of training...and skill....and concentration....Turning fast around a gate just makes me dizzy anyway :p
Is the double dutch scimitar the fastest 3.5m slalom boat in a straight line ?
Would a slalom boat with the roundest hull shape be the fastest design in a straight line (seems to be true for racing K1s) - will nelo's boat be a cut down K1 with a wobble factor of 1, enough to terrify anyone that dares paddle it
For a given paddler weight say 70kg - would a larger volume boat eg.for 85-95kg paddler be faster in a straight line by being closer to the surface (although cumbersome to turn)
Its strikes me that if a boat is easy to turn then the bow will wobble more when trying to paddle straight, which would be slower.
There has to be some way I can make up for my ever increasing age..., and lack of training...and skill....and concentration....Turning fast around a gate just makes me dizzy anyway :p
What you are talking about here is "rocker" which is the amount of curve along the length of the hull. A boat with more rocker will be deeper in the middle of the boat. If the boat is turned flat, then a boat with more rocker will have a shorter waterline, and will therefore turn faster. However this is complicated in slalom boats as they aren't generally turned flat, the paddler will slide the stern under the surface and shorten the waterline, and good paddlers will control how much of the stern goes under the water to alter the turning characteristics of the boat to suit the move they are trying to make.
A boat with more rocker will wobble from side to side more when paddled in a straight line, and this must waste energy and make the boat go slower, but the difference may not be as much as you think. Bill Endicott, who was the US team coach back in the days of Richard Fox, did some sprint tests with Richard against the US team kayak paddlers. The bow of Richard's boat moved side to side more than anyone else, but he was still the fastest in a straight line.
A bigger kayak should in theory be faster in a straight line, but not because it will be closer to the surface. In general a bigger boat will have more rocker, since it needs to be deeper in the water to support the weight of a bigger paddler. If the boats stayed dead flat when you paddled them in a straight line, a bigger boat would be slower when paddled by a light person, as the waterline of a big boat would be shorter than in a correctly sized boat because of the greater rocker. However, the boats don't stay flat, the bow lifts and the back of the boat goes down. When a light person sprints in a small boat the stern goes under water shortening the waterline considerably, but in a big boat the stern may not go under the water so the water line will be longer. The trade off is that the paddler will have to use more strength to control the stern of the boat when turning.
At the end of the day it is down to personal preference. All modern boats turn fast compared to what we were using a few years ago, some turn extremely fast and some have very "whippy" sterns, but there is always a trade-off. These boats can be harder to control, especially on bigger water. On the other hand you might think that a bigger boat will be easier to paddle on bigger water, but that isn't always the case, a bigger boat will be pushed around more by the water, and if you catch a bad edge it can be harder to pull out of it. The weights of the cuts given by the manufacturers are only a guideline - some paddlers will have a more generous cut as they prefer a bit more volume, others will have an undersized cut as they like to be able to throw the boat around more.
A boat with more rocker will wobble from side to side more when paddled in a straight line, and this must waste energy and make the boat go slower, but the difference may not be as much as you think. Bill Endicott, who was the US team coach back in the days of Richard Fox, did some sprint tests with Richard against the US team kayak paddlers. The bow of Richard's boat moved side to side more than anyone else, but he was still the fastest in a straight line.
A bigger kayak should in theory be faster in a straight line, but not because it will be closer to the surface. In general a bigger boat will have more rocker, since it needs to be deeper in the water to support the weight of a bigger paddler. If the boats stayed dead flat when you paddled them in a straight line, a bigger boat would be slower when paddled by a light person, as the waterline of a big boat would be shorter than in a correctly sized boat because of the greater rocker. However, the boats don't stay flat, the bow lifts and the back of the boat goes down. When a light person sprints in a small boat the stern goes under water shortening the waterline considerably, but in a big boat the stern may not go under the water so the water line will be longer. The trade off is that the paddler will have to use more strength to control the stern of the boat when turning.
At the end of the day it is down to personal preference. All modern boats turn fast compared to what we were using a few years ago, some turn extremely fast and some have very "whippy" sterns, but there is always a trade-off. These boats can be harder to control, especially on bigger water. On the other hand you might think that a bigger boat will be easier to paddle on bigger water, but that isn't always the case, a bigger boat will be pushed around more by the water, and if you catch a bad edge it can be harder to pull out of it. The weights of the cuts given by the manufacturers are only a guideline - some paddlers will have a more generous cut as they prefer a bit more volume, others will have an undersized cut as they like to be able to throw the boat around more.