This may be one of my rather uninformed questions: I am looking at the KAPER spreadsheet as well as the beta version of Bearboat SP, which has comparative numbers for a number of current kayak designs.

Now, if I were to compare the designs looking at the predicted drag graphs, my takeaway would be that for a given target speed, I should pick the design that has the lowest drag. Perhaps, I could choose between designs, which trade off the lower speed drag against the higher speed drag (comparing the Epic 18X Sport, Kayak Pro Marlin, and Stratus 18 you can see they all have the same predicted drag at 5mph, but different drag at lower and higher speeds).

Now to my question: I know the design parameters used in the drag predictions are dependent on the target displacement. These happen to be 295/290/298.
Is the assumption a 200 lbs paddler with 50 lbs cargo and then we'll leave the rest of the displacement to the weight of the kayak itself? The Sea Kayaker description doesn't seem to dwell on this.

If the above is true and you are a 170lbs paddler going for