Builders' Forum Archives

Re: boat choice

Posted by Mike Coughlin on Oct 1, 2007

> There's less difference between different hulls than you might think. <

... interesting that you should say that, Jim. I was beginning to suspect that when I saw a charts describing the "turning circles" of various boats. When I read observations like a 17 footer turns well, but an 18 footer can hardly turn without great effort, it makes me wonder ... ? It occurred to me that the differences in turning circles seem to be FAR greater than the relatively slight speed differences.

That "Fastest Kayak" link is an interesting read - to put things in perspective.

I did a bit of estimating and calculating for my own perspective. Although waterline length is seldom specified, it's "typically" ABOUT 1 foot less than the overall length e.g. an 18 footer might have ABOUT a 17' waterline. So, if we compare a ~17' waterline (say on an 18 footer) with a ~16' waterline (on a 17 footer) and do the math ... we get 5.5 knots vs. 5.36 knots ... or a tenth of a knot per foot of length.

This is all quite rough, of course; I realize that an upturned Greenland style is going to have relatively less waterline for its overall length than, for example, a West River 18 with a straight-down plumb stern.

In Response to: Re: boat choice by Jim E on Sep 30, 2007