Re: fastest kayak?

Posted by craig on Nov 8, 2006

I'll weigh in a little more. I race a Westside boar shops EFT, and have previously raced Olympic boats and a Pax 20 (currently being modified in the cockpit placement area). Shear muscle does not a fast kayak make. If you build too much muscle, you will release too much lactic acid and lock up. You cannot go fast by burning 340 calories an hour. Last year several of us wore heart rate monitors (for a thesis). In one race the top 10 finishers burned over 1500 caories per hour. Speed is actually more dependent on wetted surface, this is why skinny boats are considered fast. 17 foot Olympic boats are at least as fast as 22 foot Surfskis or OC-1's. All are displacement boats, so , they do not plane. A fast displacement boat will be seriously hindered in shallow water, due to a foreshortening of the bow wave. This will seriously cause the "Hull Speed" coefficient to be cancelled and wetted surface becomes dominant.

In Response to: Re: fastest kayak? by Charlie on Nov 7, 2006

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