Re: padlers weight

Posted by Howard on Dec 7, 2005

Moe,

perhaps the approach you should take would be to consider the chesapeake 17 with a slight adjustment of the position of the bulkhead. the 17 and 18 share the same maximum foot size. the 17 is clearly, however, more square in your weight range. if that doesn't work consider some other design that fits you and paddles correctly.

for whatever its worth, you really have not indicated in your note why you think you needed to reach up into the clc18. if its leg length, it is fairly easy to move the bulkhead forward several inches and to re-center the foot rails. I have a friend who paddles my 17 lt...he is about 6 feet and 180 pounds...and this boat works fine for him.

i am simply not a fan of ballasting a kayak as a requirement to get it to paddle properly for you. its just too much of a hassle and complexity for a boat, that if well executed, should express itself through simplicity and elegance. my vote is that if it does not paddle properly or feel well with just you paddling it...then its not the right boat. ballasting is a fix...and not a standard design element of a kayak. so why begin fixing something that you haven't even started? i suspect the folks at clc would swap you plans for the right boat if you picked the wrong one.

my conclusion: buy a keelboat if you want to monkey around with ballast.

In Response to: padlers weight by Moe on Dec 6, 2005

Replies:

• Re: padlers weight by Moe on Dec 8, 2005
  • Re: padlers weight by Howard on Dec 9, 2005
    • Re: padlers weight by Moe on Dec 9, 2005
      • Re: padlers weight by Mac on Dec 9, 2005