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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: Q700 - Handling/skill level question
Posted By: Kris Buttermore In Response To: Re: Q700 - Handling/skill level question (Jim Kozel)
Date: Thursday, 25 September 2003, at 8:42 p.m.
Missing Info (at least for me): Where are you paddling your Q700? In what range of conditions?
Here's my impressions of it in what I usually paddle in:
I find it fine on relatively flat water (what isn't), but much better if you purposely wiggle it regularly and do some leans to as far as you are comfortable. Don't just let it sit flat as any twitchiness will begin to magnify as the day goes by. Don't know why, but the more you try to be smooth and completely vertical the more the hull wants to dance. It reminds me a bit of a 3 year old thoroughbred just off the race circuit. Can't stand to be still. Has to be given a good run at least daily and walked all the time when it's not running or it goes nuts. Hold the reigns and just stand there with it and you'll get stomped or bitten. Q700 is much more well mannered than that, but still needs to move).
Most attention getting for me has been simple moderate chop. Hull gets a very lively feel that is particulary unnerving if your already a member of the white knuckle club. Makes me feel I need to counter all of it, so I am constantly twitching back against every little motion and getting very stressed and tired in the process. Mind you this is in pretty harmless stuff. About a foot of chop with fairly frequent small to mid wakes from various angles. If I would just relax the boat would easily handle it with minimal input from me!
In a little bit bigger stuff, like a 2-4 foot seas and light chop it feels much better. Less little twitchy stuff to deal with. The less frequent (but constant), larger, and thus smoother corrective body and paddle movemnents are less taxing on nerves and easier for muscles to cope with. More work, but real work, not nervous work. Easier to go with the flow - even though the flow is bigger and more irregular. As fatigue increases though, so will the nervous feeling.
I also find I don't like paddling with others when I'm in the 700. They go too slow. Putzing around, and having to wait for someone to catch up every few strokes, means a lot more bobbing around which makes it feel worse in chop. As conditions pick up - so does my speed. Seems others want to slow down then. Bad mix.
The Q700 is smoothest under power, cruising at 5mph or more. I know I need to feel comfortable at all speeds in various conditions, but for now I still like it better cruising. Yes, I know I'm leaning on the paddle as a crutch a bit. But there's more too it. The faster you go the more wavelets you bridge with the hull, the more points of contact the hull has with the water, and the less any particular one has time affect you. Does a lot to balance things out.
Ski paddlers should understand the moving required for stable feel comments - can't drop your legs over the sides in a SINK. After my comfort grows a bit more I'll go back to working on my social skills!
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