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Comment by Simon McGuire on October 29, 2009 at 11:55am

My comment was purely tongue in cheek by the way :). I

Comment by Owen Walton on October 29, 2009 at 9:11am

This runs the risk of raising the old, rather tired, silly, skeg vs rudder argument on sea kayaks. The simple truth is that skegs are best for some design of boats, rudders suit others. This is primarily dependant upon the main intended type of use the boat is designed for.

If you want a highly manouverable boat, one that can spin in its own length etc, that is perfect for tight manouvering in rock gardens, sea caves etc, you need a shorter, highly rockered boat (eg my Valley Avocet, Rockpool Alaw etc). Because of their shape, (predominantly hull rocker,) their length is shortened dramatically when heeled (edged or leaned) allowing them to turn much easier on this shortened waterline. (Simple example: Put you boat on the grass flat on its keel then try to turn it - hard! Now tip it over to (say 45 deg) onto its edge - turns easily!) With this manouverabilty you do not want anything hanging down at the back to interfere with this ability to spin - hence you do not want a rudder (or a fixed skeg for that matter). The downside to this shape of hull and its inherant manouverability is that it will not track in a straight easily, especially in wind or waves, so you need a rear skeg to "lock" it into the water. To achieve manouverability plus tracking, the retractable skeg was developed; skeg up for manouvering, down for straight lining, and somewhere in between depending on the angle of the wind/waves.

However, if you want a boat to be as efficient as possible (ie move the maximum distance and/or maximum speed through the water for a given amount of paddle effort input) you want a longer, straighter waterlined boat (eg my Mirage 580, Valley Rapier etc) This style of boat is more suitable for travelling long distances (less effort per given distance) or higher speed touring/racing (more km/hr per given input). The downside of this type of boat is its lack of manouverability and its inherant trait of going straight ahead. It takes a vast amount of heeling (edging or leaning) to get it to turn, and then at a much greater radius. It needs a rudder!

It all comes down to "horses for courses". Long distance, high speed travellers (eg Paul Caffyn, Freyer Hoffmeister) advocate the use of longer/straighter ruddered craft; even Lawrie Geoghan (of the highly respected Nadgee Kayaks) recently stated that after many years without them, his next expedition craft will have a rudder. Alternatively, the wild water, tidal race, rock garden experts from the UK (Olly Sanders, Aled Williams etc) stick with the manouverable, adjustable skegged boats. I guess the optimal solution is to have one of each type for your given activity on the day. However probably the most practical is to maybe chose a boat which fits in somewhere between the extremes of the 2 styles, considering the type of activity you mainly wish to persue and accept its shortcomings in the ease/speed/manouverabilty compromise.

Comment by Simon McGuire on October 29, 2009 at 6:12am

.....and people that use ruddered boats don't know how to edge or lean a kayak properly ;). (Remember I own a ruddered boat).
What is wrong with swizzle sticks anyway?

Comment by Phil Thompson on October 28, 2009 at 8:48pm

A GP? I had a play with Owens and it made me fall in! It was swizzle stick. Interestingly you could still roll with it.
To be truthful I wonder if the tired arms are sometimes a result of using arms instead of torso in paddling. Maybe a GP is a way of dealing with a technique that could do with more waist and hip rotation. Time to duck for cover!

Comment by John Anderson on October 28, 2009 at 6:24pm

Yes, a GP figures prominently in my letter to Santa this year :) In the meantime, I've just hacked a few inches off my current one, which will bring it back from 225 to 210. That should pick up the cadence a bit and help me accelerate onto the waves a bit better.

Comment by Simon McGuire on October 28, 2009 at 6:11pm

Would look better with a GP in your hands.

Comment by John Anderson on October 28, 2009 at 4:35pm

A great shot of one of the mighty ocean going vessels plying our coastline. Oh and a ship in the background. :) I don't know how I missed this one Graeme. Damn that's a nice looking boat.Would you mind if I copied this one ?