: Next
: time out will try with and with out fin, its in a fin box. We also had
: thought of adding ballast to the bottom on those conditions, strapped
: bottles. Any thoughts?
: Don

Last year, while providing safety cover for the 1500m sea swim of the
Scarborough triathlon on England's NE coast, we had quite a swell, though
no wind to speak of. The nature of the paddle meant that we were only out
for a short time, and weren't carrying any gear, and wanted to keep the
decks clear for possible clinging swimmers - a possibility which also
meant considering the boat made top heavy. If you are providing safety cover,
you need to be sure of your balance without having to devote any attention
to it, so ballast seemed like a good idea. I filled a medium sized BDH drum
with wet sand from the beach and found this was a nice tight fit behind the
cockpit of my North Shore Mistral, and did indeed provide an improvement
in primary stability making the boat feel a lot more stable whilst being able
to devote my full attention to what those in the water were doing. I used
the same container for a short day trip rock-hopping at St. Abbs.

My Hybrid Cormorant was built as a low volume boat, with quite a narrow beam,
and it feels very tippy when paddled empty - I have added four little pad-eyes
to the area under my knees in the cockpit, and this is a convenient place to
put a 4 litre Ortlieb water bag (which can also double as a paddle float if
most of the water is replaced with air). Since this sort of water carrier
is not rigid, it probably causes less risk of entrapment than would a stiff
water bottle or the BDH drum full of ballast at the same point - though the
cockpit is a very snug fit. I am seriously considering making up a cast lead
ballast block to fit this space so as to provide stability without taking up
so much space which might impede my exit. The boat is a lot more comfortable
with two or three days' gear than it is empty. Even the Inuit used rocks as
ballast in empty boats :-)

Andy