: There is an old saying I love. "The best lies contain the most
: truth". Not accusing anyone of lying, but while I do agree
: with at least some of what they says, there is also a lot of
: personal preference that goes into your chose of a boat. Just
: because they like it, doesn't mean everyone else will.

: Just remember they are trying to sell you their boat.

Actually, this little essay does not tempt me; rather, it made me wonder where baidarkas fall in all of this (Etienne and I are fans of Rob Macks designs, although he's built them all, and I just one--a Shooting Star). The baidarka bow and stern do indeed seem to work well in rough water, as my boat at least seems to rise to even fairly extreme waves and chop, that, and you get a lot of waterline for each foot of overall boat length. So maybe the Aleuts and Greg and the Epic laddies have come to a similar conclusion by separate routes. For such a low profile boat, the SS is a surprisingly dry ride, but it's definitely "splashy" on flat water, as you're basically pushing a spoon shape through the water when the pronounced bow rocker is not engaged.

So now I'm wondering: since the next boat for me is likely to be an Outer Island, is this going to be a "wave piercer," or what? Ebb chop on SF Bay with a strong westerly offers many opportunities for submarining. (I did a lot of sailboat racing on the Bay in earlier days and have seen entire rigs collapse when yachts are beating toward the Gate in ebb chop conditions.) Conditions around here favor some fullness in the ends to keep the green ones from coming back and smacking you in the chest.

--S