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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: sweep
Posted By: Randy Knauff In Response To: more questions on edging (skip)
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004, at 6:40 p.m.
: I'm new to kayaking and I'm paddling a Prijon Yukon Expedition with a fair
: amount of rocker and the boat is proving to be a handful for me to handle.
: My primary problem is when it starts turning it doesn't want to stop. When
: it decides to turn it's determined to complete the turn. One sweep stroke
: isn't strong enough to correct it. Leaning the boat in either direction
: without paddling just speeds up the turn. Several sweep strokes with
: perfectly timed leans will correct it, but sometimes I don't have time for
: that. Often I have to do a stern rudder or pry to stop the boat, which is
: a pretty ugly move that basically stops the boat. The boat has a rudder,
: but I had rather use paddling techinque to control the boat.All boats can benefit from edging, but your boat hull shape doesn't help a whole lot with this technique compared to other designs. One can paddle a pure white water boat straight, so you will learn to keep your's on line.
Things to work on:
1. Catch the turn QUICKLY. The sooner and more consistantly you correct the easier. Every stroke is a combination of power and steering so the bow doesn't wander.
2. Look ahead to where you want to go, use your periferal vision to keep track of the bow as you correct. Look at the bow and you'll follow it all over.
**3. One very important thing is; as you boat moves forward, the center of rotation is no longer right under you as it is when the boat is stopped. As the center of rotation moves toward the bow as you speed up, the first half of your sweep stroke becomes increasingly less efficient and the last half becomes increasingly more effective. You have less room for your leverage to work in front of the rotation point and a much longer more powerful lever working behind the rotation point. Make your sweep almost a "V". Blade goes from the bow plant almost in a straight line way out to the side/hip position;continue to rotate your torse and sharply bring the paddle blade back toward the back half of the kayak. You can bring if back very sharply and aggressively. Pull that stern around to straighten the kayak out as well as working on pushing the bow back on line.
4. Continuous quick and small corrections are better than slower/later big ones.Pretty soon you'll be catching the wandering bow almost automatically. Like any other skill,it coorelates highly with practice effort. It's a great all around kayak!
Randy
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