: Some kayaks' shapes will allow them to "carve" a turn (leaning
: actually makes the bow move right or left). Hard chines will make these
: kayaks carve harder than soft chines or no chines, but the simple presence
: of hard chines won't affect a leaned turn either way. (They can actually
: slow a leaned turn if they're in a position to do so)

Hmm, seems to me that there are two ways in which leaning a boat can make
turning happen more easily. One is the way Shawn describes in which a leaned
boat has a shortened waterline because more of the bow and stern comes out
of the water. This sort of shape makes the boat more responsive to a sweep
stroke and indeed, this is exactly the sort of stroke you would be using if
you wanted to get the boat to spin quickly.

The sort of turn which a hard chine helps with (assuming, as Shawn says, that
the chine is in the right place) is a knee hang whilst doing normal paddle
strokes, which gives you a carved turn (usually of a fairly large radius)
without breaking your paddling rhythm at all. Which way such a turn occurs
depends on the shape of the chine - you are basically using the chine a bit
like a curved keel - although it is a little more complex than this as other
aspects of the shape also contribute. Those used to highly rockered white
water boats find leaned/carved turns in a sea kayak a little counter-intuitive
since the shape of the chines means you need to lean outwards rather than
inwards. But I have recently seen an unusual (fibreglass) kayak whose chines
are very much parallel with the keel, such that it does carved turns the
other way - the chine reinforces the rocker (these turns work the same as
Shawn's description of "moving the bow right or left"). An interesting shape !

But, as Shawn says, the volume distribution is also important - a harder
chine will not necessarily give better carved turns. For example, my soft
chined fibreglass North Shore Mistral is more responsive to a knee hang than
my hybrid cormorant - although this is also more complex, as the cormorant
tracks much better than the Mistral when not leaned - the Mistral has a much
flatter keel line and responds more readily to a sweep stroke, too.

Andy

Andy