Kayak and Canoe Design Bulletin Board

building for speed

Posted By: Patrick Sawyer
Date: Sunday, 19 December 1999, at 7:02 p.m.

I have been looking at the ICF sprint kayaks to see if I can improve on the 20 or so year old design for the down river marathon kayaks. This latter boat is a couple of feet shorter and a few inches wider than the ICF boats. In '88 the Eagle came out in the ICF class and it changed the boats. It had volume in the ends and very little in the middle. It proved faster, though tippy and hard to handle. I want to imitate the design in the smaller down river boat. I am wondering why it is so fast. Is it that the volume is distributed through out the hull, or should the ends be actually wider than the middle? I don't see that the middle is more narrow, but I don't know how subtle the contours are on these boats. I also don't know how I'll have to change the design to accomodate the shorter hull in keeping enough volume to make it float (for say a 175 pounder. Thanks for any comments. Patrick Sawyer

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