Re: Night Heron? Love it

Posted by Mike on Mar 31, 2006

Pete,

My NH weighs in at 36 pounds. It is probably a little lighter than most. The people who have had trouble with it weigh about 145-150 pounds. Not only have I seen people at this weight having difficulties, but I have heard other reviews commenting on weathercocking with this kayak, and they have all been from paddlers weighing 155 or less. Lighter weight paddler love it until the wind and/or waves pich up. Modifying it has helped several lighter paddlers.

If you do a strip-built version if the NH, it would be easy to scale it down for a lighter paddler. Just moving the form spacing a little closer, making a 16 or 17 footer instead of 18 feet, would cause it to sink down on its lines a little better. Another thing that lighter people have done is to firm up the tracking a little bit by enhancing the stern keel with a long low-profile skeg.

The Greenland model would be a sweet kayak, and I would like to have one for myself, but I am quite pleased with the S&G model. The Greenland model would be out of the wind a little more, but it would still get pushed around by the waves more with a lighter paddler, and the wind would still have an effect hitting the paddler.

If the kayak weighed at least 40 pounds and the paddler 160, then it would probably be fine. But when the kayak/paddler combination drops below 200 pounds, I think that is where issues arise, and the kayak needs minor modifications.

Several lighter weight people on the Kayak Building Bulletin Board have built and paddled it. Ask around some on http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/index.cgi

Mike

In Response to: Re: Night Heron? Love it by Louie on Mar 30, 2006

Replies:

• Night Heron Variants by Louie on Mar 31, 2006
  • Re: Night Heron Variants by Mike on Mar 31, 2006
    • Re: Night Heron Variants by Spirts on Mar 31, 2006
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