: It seems to be a common theme in the responses that you can make a
: longer boat go well if you have the power. If not you should
: find out how much power you have and build to that with some
: expectation of how much you intend to improve.

: I think it's interesting that international surfski racing has no
: limit to boat length or width (that I know of) and they settle
: on 21 feet x 17" plus or minus a bit. There are probably
: marketing pressures considered otherwise the larger elite
: paddlers would probably design custom 23' x 15" surfskis.
: There aren't any yet so that tells me the surfski dimensions are
: close to optimized.

: For me 21 feet is too long for anything but a short sprint and I
: hear of quite a few good paddlers winning races with 19 foot x
: 19" so called beginner surfskis. In local races if a K-1
: (17'?) survives the waves they always outsprint the longer
: surfskis which is counter intuitive but the surfski paddlers
: don't have the power to take advantage of the waterline after 10
: km of racing.

: There seems to be gap in availability of commercially available
: short and narrow boats (19' x 17").

: My unfinished strip surfski is 21' x 18" and i wish it was 19'
: so you're on the right track in my opinion. I haven't even
: paddled it yet but I'm sure it's too long. (Vancouver = less
: swell than Bellingham).

: With respect to Bill Hamm's comment about 'sit on tops' placing the
: paddler above the water line you'll find the seats are only
: about 1/2" (1cm) above the keel (I measured) so Surfskis
: with a lot of rocker actually put the paddler deeper than a
: minimal rocker boat. I think that explains how they stay
: upright.

: I raised my seat to 1" above the keel to keep my butt above my
: feet but my boat is beamier and flatter than most surfskis so it
: may be OK.

: I like this discussion. I hope some designers with some racing
: experience give their opinions.

Btw, I know a few people that race completely round bottom skis and am amazed that they manage to keep those things upright, not me :)

Quite a few do better with wider skis with more moderate bottom shapes because they arn't wasting as much time balancing and can instead concentrate on paddling.

Bill H.