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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: more questions on edging
Posted By: Reg Lake In Response To: more questions on edging (skip)
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004, at 7:00 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.: Suggestions will be appreciated.
Hi Skip,
What is happening is normal for a ww kayak or a heavily rockered boat. One trick is to focus on a distant object and keep the bow of the kayak from veering more than two or three inches off that mark. Call this twelve o'clock. Say that the first stroke is on the right and it sends the bow to the eleven o’clock position. The next stroke needs to be just enough to stop this momentum and start it turning back to the right or one o'clock position and so on. It is an illusion that the strokes are equal on each side. Being more sensitive to the kayaks direction allows you to fine tune this side to side swing until it is barely perceptible. If a stroke sends the bow off more than a few inches it will be more difficult to accurately check that momentum and start it back the other way without over powering it. Your goal is to part the water evenly, as soon as you have more water passing on one side of the bow the turn will continue to tighten at an accelerated rate until you have more pressure on the bow than you do on the paddle blade to stop it. Another analogy would be to balance a yard stick vertical on your finger tip and watch the top of it as you move the bottom to stay balanced directly below it. Notice that once you get too much travel from side to side that it is harder to calm it down and find that sweet spot again. The equivalent action is happening with the kayak.
Once the kayak has a little speed the bow will settle in to a track and the corrections are best done with positive strokes in the rear quadrants. The edging does effect the turning but it is a much more subtle thing and will not have much effect once the momentum starts.
Hope this is helpful.Reg
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