: Afterthought: I took another look at the boat i question and it
: appears to me there is an awful lot of clutter on both decks
: that would disturb the smooth flow of water. It would be
: preferable if any water taken onboard could leave as soon as
: possible without slowing down which seems unlikely from the
: picture.

: So is this a poorly designed boat, was it intended strictly for
: flatwater, or has the boat been modified from its original plan?

: A boat with all that stuff should handle some cargo under hatches
: and on deck for which there should be added buoyancy. The
: paddler is light (by my standards) so it hardly seems the boat
: is overloaded. It's a lovely looking boat, but either there's
: something wrong or the boat is being used inappropriately.

Used inappropriately in that it's being used in conditions for which it isn't optimized or in some other way? I guess the question is can it be easily modified to improve it in these conditions? Between bungees, perimeter line and hatches there is a lot to catch the water. I could strip off the lines and bungees and see if that makes a difference. I suppose the wells created to recess the hatches also adds to turbulence. That falls on me if those are design changes. I also think the shape of the deck in the bow, built to plans, may be contributing. The upswept bow with the flat deck creates a good bit of cavitation when the bow is buried in a wave and that may be where a good bit of the drag originates. I could possibly just cut out the deck foreward of the front hatch and rebuild it with a rounded top....add a bit of volume, eliminate that cavitation, and make it shed water better. But loose a compass rose :-( Maybe I can shape a piece of foam that would mimic that shape and attach it to the forward deck to test out that theory.