Establish a Cheek to Seat Ratio and Keep $$ in Your Walletby Erin Magee
Many designs have emerged in the last few years in our Texas paddling community. We’ve also hit a recession. I started out my paddling career in a personal economic crisis, so I wanted to share some of the information and experiences to eliminate others learning the hard and expensive way.
When I expressed a desire for a fast hull, tactful mention was made I was not a fast paddler. Those people also kept asking that pesky question of “which race are you wanting the boat for?” The powers that be explained that fast meant tippy. The faster the design, the higher the cruising and top end speed and until the boat is moving at that cruising speed it is tippy. Given I had few river skills, no good technique and very little confidence, being in a fast hull on flat water would have allowed me some small gains in technique/speed over a long period of time. But a fast hull on the river would mean potential breakage or injury, and definitely slow times. Fast hulls produce slow splits for the technically inefficient or unskilled paddler. Fast hulls are not ideal for ultra-distance.
I started out thinking there was one universally great, right boat for all venues and distances and it was my goal in life to find it. I clung to that hope until math, science, physics, logic, and reality were in my face…and then I lost that delusion.
The expert advice I had regarding safari hulls is what I still use as a #1 guideline when choosing a design. I had a few starter/interim safari style beater training boats, and the one I ended up with and kept for 12 years of TWS racing is the one that fit the initial criteria of choose a hull that limits the impact of your lesser skills on your overall time. What you do well in terms of paddling, portaging or skills in those areas you’ll do well in any hull you’re in. But what causes you energy loss or concern is going to slow down your finish time or might eliminate a finish altogether.
A few people to keep on your Christmas card list are a good mechanic, lawyer, hairdresser……and a highly qualified boat designer/builder.
Design starts out simple. The wider it is=the more stable it is/lower in cruising/top end speed, the more power to forward vs. energy to upright you can put on the paddle. Rocker allows sharper turns, but it can cause slight or temporary instability in moving water if you’re using current offset position vs. in-line/parallel. Round bottom hulls sit inside the water and are more affected by water motion but are harder to flip in moving water. Flat spot hulls plane the water and are a lesser resistance footprint but are more unstable in sweepers and strainers longer as they’re on the waters surface and doing the sideways slide. V-bottom hulls slice the water, they have tracking as a feature, but it can mean a slightly different set up of angles and approach on the river to accommodate for the tracking. Design becomes more complicated when attempting to install glide in a design, an excellent feature for any design in ultra-distance.
The builders using CAD programs, blueprints and precise equations and measurements are going to produce the best designs. Be it for the recreational paddler or the most elite ICF or USCA racer. Designs for the TWS are NOT basic. Canoeing demands a higher sitting position for more power on the paddle. Kayaking requires a lower sitting position for using the abs and obliques. A TWS hull is designed to allow both with some percentage of optimum power. It’s got to have a large weight variant range and still handle optimally with speed. In allowing all the options, the design has to be carefully measured and tweaked to ensure it has speed and glide. Only in forming a team and building a hull based on that particular team, would any team find themselves in the 'ultimate' hull for them. That hull would be hard to resell, as subsequent teams may not possess those strengths to lesser skills ratio that the hull was designed for.
The building process is something for a craftsman and artisan. It’s engineering, some chemical and materials knowledge, along with an artistic eye and attention to detail skill. It’s definitely not a Tim the Toolman Taylor project! Rigging hulls is another skill set. Designing rigging that works well, can be quickly and easily repaired, along with precise installation so that you’re not always sitting at an angle, or your feet are not precariously placed takes experience and diligent workmanship.
As the people I looked to initially for advice so generously pointed out when I was paddling a 70 pound solo unlimited boat and a 40 pound ICF K1, the weight of the boat affects you on portages where I am slow anyway, but speed is in the design and it’s able to be reached by the paddler with technical efficiency and fitness. In these advising sessions, recommendations always included buying the lightest weight paddle that was manufactured for the venue, as that would allow for stroke rate variances and stroke style differences with the least energy expended. The hull is the car but the paddler is the engine. The paddler swinging the lightest weight but built for the element paddle is the one that is going to have more energy to put to good technique for a longer period of time.
Two paddle features to look for are diameter of shaft and the foam core placement in the blade. You can make a smaller shaft larger with hand grip options, but you can’t make a large shaft smaller. Over distance, account for cramps and a lesser ability to grasp the paddle firmly, and you want a shaft size that accommodates your hand while you’re fresh and when you’re fatigued. Hand size determines an ideal shaft size. Blade shape, everybody has their own preference. But about durability of the blade, the closer the foam core is to the tip, the more risk the paddle is at of being destroyed in a low water or obstructed course. The foam core is like a sponge and if penetrated will absorb the water.
My guestimate is that taking all this advice and applying it intelligently, I’ve spent on gear approximately $8k in 13 years and only had to purchase two solo hulls and two K1's and 2 wings and 2 singles. That's my cheek to seat inventory - never own more seats than you have buttcheeks! It's been the only way to stay in the sport for me, because entry fees and racing expenses are always going up.
Many thanks are owed to Jerry Cochran, Richard Steppe, and Phil Bowden. I’d have never paddled any of the hulls I’ve been in and had such a great time in the last 13 years without your advice, assistance, and encouragement! |