: I definitely can't offer anything as technical as some of the responses,
: however, the post intrigued me so i pondered it a bit as I got in some
: distance over the weekend. My boat is 450mm wide at the beam and 6.7M
: long, so it definitely falls into the the long&skinny category.

: Yep, it feels a bit tippy particularly when a high speed ferry zips past and
: I do feel more control when I am paddling but I'm with Allan and Toni on
: this one, I beleive that the engine is responsible for the stability. the
: paddling action and the paddle itself combine to provide stability.
: I am almost certain that if i sat in my craft with my paddle out of the water
: and I was towed along by another boat in perfect conditions I would not
: find my stability increasing. More likely I would find myself practising
: re-entries.

: This is a bit of a generalisation, but when I see somebody paddling a skinny
: boat such as K1, Tk1, surfski, they all appear to have a decent forward
: stroke which must also contribute to stabilising the craft. i.e good leg
: drive, torso rotation, centralised body, etc.

: My vote is for the engine. Even the clapped out donk that drives my boats.

I keep going back to surfboards as an example of a boat that stabilzes with speed. Btw, I can't surf, can sorta windsurf and the boards are similiar. At rest the boards are horribly unstable, once moving and not having a paddle to stabilze it, they become much easier to stand on. There is some force at play here, with the board it may be because it is planing, but perhaps not.

Bill H.