> Whenever you don't have a detailed answer you seem to have a difficult
> question.

I know that you, and others love the challengeof answering those questions and I pay for those answers as best I can. That is the joy of this BBS. People are very free and sharing, and I thank them all.

> It appears that what you are suggesting is that by sitting back further
> you are increasing the speed at which the bow rises through the water by
> increasing the moment arm (between your weight and the lifting force at
> the bow). That may be true but it may not be relevent.

> I believe that a bow is buried in a wave by sliding down a wave face and
> pushing the bow into the trough. A straight bow as on the CLC will push
> straight into the trough and be pulled up just by the bouyance. The curve
> of an upward curved bow may assist in this pulling by
> "following" its curve when submerged.

I had not thought about the speed at which the bow would rise above the wave. I had thought that with the weight shifted aft more of the bow would already be above the water. Perhaps a LOT more of the bow.

I am reminded of a Boy Scout canoe trip in an aluminum canoe with a big hole in the hull by the bow. My partner and I resorted standing in the stern, like a pair of Venetian gondoliers, in order to keep the front half of the hull above water. (This was after my partner destroyed a pocket watch I had loaned him by jumping into the river in an unsuccessful attempt to find the pot from my mess kit which had slipped from his hands as he used it to bail out the boat. With no bailing bucket and no patch material, we had to take drastic measures.) While canoes and kayaks share many aspects, there are more than enough differences.

> I know that in my surf boat leaning back (as I slide down a wave face)
> will often pull the bow out of the water and save a tumble.

That sounds a bit like what I was thinking, but since your surf boats are shorter than this, I'm unsure if the technique is universally adaptable. Anyone who has tried something like this with a longer boat?

> The easier solution is to select a different angle to the waves and tack.

Thanks for that tip. It is proably faster than redesigning a boat.

Paul Jacobson