> The low volume bow issue seems to be a common point that I hear
> most about. Maybe I'll re consder that. I don't think I actually changed
> that much from Nick's S&G in that regard. It may look small because
> of the lack of upward swept bow. When I get time I'll post a comparison
> picture. I wish I knew the exact bow and stern termination points for
> Nick's boat.

It may not be so much of an issue, but the stern is also lacking in volume. While it won't plow into waves, unless you are going backwards, it also won't give you any bouyancy. If you look at the panel layout for Nick's boat you'll see that the upsweep at the bow is accomplished by making one of the panels wider near the end than it is in the middle. With yours, all the panels would get narrower as they approach the ends of the boat. You could arc the things so that you had an upsweep, but all it would accomplish is to have more of the boat out of the water -- some really extreme rocker!

> Don't ask me to calculate volumes and coefficients, I'm waaay
> too lazy for that right now! I'm just having fun. When I get in one
> of those analysis moods (I just noticed about the first 4 letters
> of that word) I'll sit down with paper and slide rule to investigate
> such numbers.

Before you get to the analysis stage just take a ruler, or a straight edge, and slide it up on your drawing. Start with it parallel to the hull/deck joint line (which seems to be the only horizontal line) and just barely touching the bottom of the cockpit. That is the only point you will be sitting on if you enter the kayak on land. With balance like that it will be a great rocking horse for your kid. Now slowly slide that straight edge up until it covers the bottom 4 inches of the hull. I'm guessing the hull/deck joint is about 10 to 12 inches above the bottom, so by going up 4 inches you should be up about 1/3 of the depth of the hull. Draw a line at this point. Now take a look at what you have. When you are drawing 4 inches of water, most of the boat is in the air.

Now, imagine what this would look like from the top. What is the hull shape when the boat is immersed 4 inches. Since the hull is assymetrical, it appears that instead of having a long, narrow, hull line, the imprint of this boat will look like an egg's.

Slide that straight edge up another third of the hull height, or the equivalent of about 8 inches. When the boat is immersed to this depth which is about what you would have when it is heavily loaded, you still have a lot of your boat that is not in the water at all. While the amount above the water is not a very big sail area, it is not providing bouyancy, or aiding tracking, so you might as well cut the boat off at this length. That would give you a shorter, lighter, boat with the lines more closely resembling a white water kayak.

Having all the lines come to a point at the joint between the hull and deck means that part of the deck must be submerged before you get any bouyancy from that part of the boat. Unless you are very heavily loaded, this is not going to happen.

> I actually think there's less rocker than the S&G I started
> from. This just reinforces Nick's notion that when you start tweaking
> you end up with a different boat that may not work well.

Huh? That's one heck of a tweak.

It might help if you could put some numbers on your drawings. Just from the look of things, as I sight along the apparent horizontal line where hull and deck meet, it appears that you have 10 to 12 inches of rocker. Design that much rocker into a canoe and it would look like a banana. To see this, copy the bottom line ( where the keel would be) of your hull and move it up 12 inches -- the typical side height of a canoe. It will look like two, stacked, horizontal parentheses. ----> ) ) <------- turned sideways.

Your design comes to a rapier-like point, or like a slice through a cone. Think more of the shape of a machete or a saber. While the tip is upturned, the blade on those has a good amount of thickness all the way to the tip.

To keep some length in the water, for speed and balance, try tapering the width of the boat to a point, but not tapering the depth quite so much.

All the same, great drawings. It looks like it might fly.

Paul Jacobson