: ....how much rocker
: provides something nearing the maneuverability of a Pintail? The boat will
: probably be 15'6" long and 19" wide if I build it to my
: measurements. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!

I too am intrigued with this question. I built a CLC 17LT and it tracks dead straight but takes 6-8 sweeps to turn it around. I then designed my own S&G at 16' x 20" and put in 3" of rocker (about 1" over the 17LT), hoping among other things, to make the boat more manuverable. Alas, though I am very happy with the boat in other ways, it is no more maneuverable than the 17LT. SOF Greenland boats seem similar to most S&G single chine designs.

My guess is that in a chine boat like a SOF Greenland Kayak and a S&G single chine boat, the hull bottom forms a skeg forward and aft at the ends, making it harder to spin. I don't know what the answer is, but I suspect the center of the boat has to, in some way, provide enough floatation to get the ends more out of the water. Increased rocker is only one element of this. In the case of my new 16 footer, I think I defeated the increase in rocker by going to less length and beam so that the entire boat sets deeper in the water, thus the ends set deeper as well, resisting turning.

It is worth noting that a recent post to this board stated that the S&G version of the Guillemot is more of a tracker than the more maneuverable strip version.

The other thing I think I notice is that boats that maneuver well have more of their displacement propotioned towards the ends. That is, from underneath, they look more like cigars than elongated diamonds with long-drawn out, skinny ends. The Pintail, the Guillemot and the Wilderness Sealution, all manuverable boats have bottom profiles like this. I haven't figured out how to translate this into the hard chine model however.

I hope someone can post an example of a kayak of the SOF Greenland type or a S&G single chine that the afore mentioned boats known for their maneuverability.

Craig