: One thing you'll find is you're going to give up some stability (at least
: primary stability) to gain speed. No such thing as a fast sea kayak that's
: 23" wide. The fast ones are skinny, you just have to learn to like it
- :

: Bill H.

Bill,

I have downloaded the Free!Ship program. It has the predicted drag calculator using the KAPER formula.

I have plugged-in numbers for several different kayaks, and also played a little with the input parameters.

What I am going to say next assumes the KAPER calculates the drag correctly and considers all the important factors.

Anyway, I found that these boat parameters have significant influence on the predicted drag at the **high end of the speed spectrum** (as opposed to the low end which did not interest me for obvious reasons)

-Length waterline
-Wetted surface area
-Prismatic coefficient

-Longitudinal Center of buoyancy does have some effect-as the swede form increases the speed improves.

These parameters appear to have much smaller effect:
-Beam waterline (a surprise, isn't it)
-Draft

Again, this is a very "eyeball-measurement" opinion, try it on your own and see what you read out of this.

-Tom