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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: DISTANCE TO PADDLE
Posted By: M. Hamilton In Response To: Re: DISTANCE TO PADDLE (David)
Date: Tuesday, 24 October 2000, at 12:07 p.m.
David, You must deal with total beginners, but I think your advice is sound.
I deal with folks who have some paddling time, and 3 knots an hour is easy. I have watched over the years many guided groups who are very very slow. I've noted as well very little education re: an efficient stroke. Folks get 10 minutes of on shore demo, then it's off. By the way a statute mile is 5280 ft. while a nautical mile is 6076.12 ft. So, as previously stated a knot is 1.15 statute miles, not 1.1. Splitting hairs perhaps. As for speed there are lots of debates etc., about how fast a given boat will go. A kayak is a displacement hulled craft with a weird power supply. Some think that the longer the boat the faster. While hull speed is a function of waterline length
(sguare root water line length times 1.34 = max hull speed) it takes a strong engine to make a bigger boat go. For example a small person of 110 lbs. will likely go faster in a shorter low volume boat than they would a Mariner II, whereas a bigger stronger paddler could cruise in the Mariner II at higher speeds. Likewise a smaller beginner will do far better in a Coaster in big water and wind because they wont be fighting for control of a large boat. I mention Mariner's only as examples, and raise this point because I often see small people getting stuffed into long boats with the thinking that they will be able to go faster when in fact the effort to move these longer boats at touring speeds is often greater. By the way when navigating it is appropriate to use nautical miles as they represent a minute of latitude, and distances on the chart are measured in knots. Take care, MH
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