Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
By:Charlie
Date: 4/20/2009, 12:03 am
In Response To: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty (Kudzu)

Comfort level in a tippy boat has a lot to do with ability to balance. Balance is contolled by your inner ear. Younger persons usually have better balance than oldsters. If you hearing is deteriorated from age or from listening listening to too much rock and roll your balance will suffer.
My kayak lacks initial stabilty in spades. I have to be in it for about five minutes before the feeling I'm going to turn turtle goes away. But, even when I get comfortable it's rather obvious I have to be careful to keep my weight centered.

: Last night I loaned my little skinny boat to one of the faster paddlers to
: try. I find the boat a little tippy but I can paddle it, just never feel
: like I can totally relax with it but I have never dumped it either.

: I weight in around 200 lbs. Steve weights 150, a bit taller and much thinner.
: As soon as he got in the boat I could tell he was much more comfortable
: than I was. He comes from paddling very stable plastic boats, so it wasn't
: that he had spent a lot of time in a narrow boat.

: After about 15 minutes he was very comfortable in it. He started sprinting
: and see what he could do with the boat.

: So this raised the question about paddler weight. I am thinking that larger
: paddler like me maybe has a higher COG because of the extra weight. I
: assume most of our weight is in our torso so that would seem to make sense
: that the COG would be higher. Any read anything on this or experienced the
: same thing? Or is my theory just all wet?

Messages In This Thread

Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Kudzu -- 4/18/2009, 11:28 am
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Charlie -- 4/20/2009, 12:03 am
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Len Thunberg -- 4/19/2009, 8:49 pm
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Allan -- 4/19/2009, 2:21 am
The answer is..... *Pic*
Kudzu -- 4/19/2009, 7:35 am
Re: The answer is.....
Toni V -- 4/19/2009, 11:07 am
Re: The answer is..... *Pic*
Allan -- 4/19/2009, 8:12 am
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
JohnK -- 4/18/2009, 10:23 pm
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Brian Nystrom -- 4/18/2009, 3:58 pm
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Carl Delo------WebKitFormBoundaryAADJAAcYAA+2AAes- -- 4/18/2009, 7:50 pm
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Brian Nystrom -- 4/19/2009, 3:56 pm
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Toni V -- 4/18/2009, 12:17 pm
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Kudzu -- 4/18/2009, 2:06 pm
Re: Other: Paddler weight and stabilty
Terry Haines -- 4/18/2009, 9:25 pm