[CKF Info] question on hull speed

[Will Nettles]

Hola George and Rafael,

I think every series of races should always have an open class, to  
encourage pushing design limits (or as many of us along the coast say,  
'trying to catch George and Jeandrew').
Kayak design seems stuck in the shadow of powerboats. Fish, dolphins  
(and Jeandrew) not only seem to violate the limits of hull speed they  
do it in ways that are not completely understood.  A UCLA fish  
researcher (to use the technical term) told me once "it's almost like  
fish are moving around the water molecules."

I still think we will eventually see 10 knot paddling cruising speeds  
in flexible hulled kayak/surf skis. They'll probably look more like  
fish/baidarka mashups than fiberglas epoxy.

Henk, have you solved this problem yet?

Will


On May 20, 2008, at 9:24 PM, Rafael en prodigy wrote:

> I need a solution to a discussion we have here in Mexico.
>
> There will be a Fathers Race on June 22. Everybody is invited, in  
> Veracruz, 18 kms.
>
> Basis allow for all boats to compete under equal circumstances but  
> there are some SOTs in plastic very wide and slow and some long  
> narrow boats.
> The rule and tradition calls for Tour boats. No K1 or race boats or  
> surfskis are allowed. But among those there are some less than 15’  
> and some above 19 ‘.
>
> I was going to try to use the hull speed as criteria, but since it  
> only takes the length and not the width (at waterline level), a wide  
> long boat will be slower than a narrow rounded bottom  boat.
>
> Is there some rule of thumb to take length and width and try a  
> simple equation that will give some kind of handicap? I don`t think  
> there would be time to make hull measurements before the race to run  
> the drag programs.
>
> Last year Jon Brindle suggested me to separate the categories  
> according to http://www.soundrowers.org/yakclass.htm and I am  
> submitting this possibility, but that would spread to categories by  
> age and by boat, and that means few competitors in each and many  
> medals.
>
> I was thinking something like that but penalizing with something  
> like 5% of time for longer boats (9.25 to 10.99 l/w ratio) and  
> another 5% for extra fast boats (above 10.99). Runners can work  
> their numbers and decide which boat to use if the 5% is too little  
> or too much.
>
> Any help will be appreciated here.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Rafael.
> Mexico
> www.mayanseas.com
>
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