How critical is aka placement?

I have a limited space in which to mount each aka due to the rear hatch on my Lt17, but that won't stop me from over thinking this!

How critical is placement of the aka to performance or management of the rig when sailing? This is for the MK2 with the MK3 mast and sail.

Thanks for the input!


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RE: How critical is aka placement?

At the risk of having the designer counter my thoughts , here goes...

 

Within reason, not much difference. I widened my aka spacing about 8" for a little more paddling room when/if needed.  My akas are fine, infact superb is more like it. You might be messing with the angle of the amas with regard to their attack or inclination to the water, but only in a very minor sense. Im guessing, based on your rear hatch thing youd be lowering the amas rear end a little and slightly raising the bow. This shouldnt bbe bad, but again it works for me.

 

Whats bad?

 

ANYTHING that LOWERS your amas bow. You dont want to err on submarining your amas bow.

 

Whats AWFUL?

 

Using one GIANT aka mounted on the center of the Ama.  It looks beautiful but its a practicality failure. The centralized single aka has to be HUGE and since now all the Amas pitching forces  are localized to the center the mating between aka and ama has to be unusually robust. Its a whole lot of exrtra reinforcement to cover over the fact that structuraly its a bad scenerio.  This adds weight and in the case of the aka - a huge winglike aka nearly the size of a kayak.  I doubt you are going this route but I mention it just in case.  I spoke to a couple owners of a sailrig kayak called the TRIKA and that aka was the bane of the design. The Triak by contrast has smaller more manageable amas that dont impart the same forces as larger and longer ones would.

 

Just talking.

 

Pete

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