: I don't think hand size or hip width is weight dependant. There are heavy
: people with narrow hips and light people with large hands. Sure, as a rule
: larger people will have larger hands and hips, but it is a rule with a
: huge amount of variance. Weighing yourself is so easy that I am not sure
: why you would want to try to use your hands as an estimate for your
: weight. It just seems kind of silly. If you want to know how much
: displacement your kayak needs, hop on a scale and you will know. It is
: extremely accurate. Yes, it is hard to calculate the volume of a kayak,
: but it can be done with excellent accuracy.

: I certainly don't advocate ignoring the width of your hips and length of your
: legs. Obviously, they are important for a good fit. but use your hip width
: to determine the fit of your hips. If you want more width then add enough
: to satisfy your needs. If this happens to be similar to your fist width,
: then that is a good measurement. 4 inches, 10 centimeters, one hand width,
: whatever they are all arbitrary units. But I don't think there is any
: useful correlation between hand width and boat performance.

: Luckily it is hard to design a really bad kayak so using a system that works
: for someone else will probably result in a decent boat for you. Anyone
: starting out in kayaking will have to make some arbitrary decisions based
: on little experience and choose a boat. Choosing dimensions of a kayak
: based on a system developed by some folks in Greenland will probably
: produce a better boat than average if you want to do paddling similar to
: those Greenlanders. If you are lucky it will be perfect, but be prepared
: to make some changes on your next boat.

So are you saying the best way to "size up " a boat is soly by a person's weight
and how much water that weight will displace? Size of person does't matter? What about area of displacement? How do you figure design from just useing weight?
I am confused again, sorry.

lost in the fog,
Dave M