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Has anyone considered building bracing to attach two kayaks together to give them more stability for longer journeys? I will eventually finish 2 Mill Creek 13s and I came across this race:
https://r2ak.com/seventy48/
Basically it's 70 miles in 48 hours, no sails, human power.
I doubt my Mill Creek 13 is seaworthy enough to do it but if I strapped two together like a catamaran, could my son and I survive the journey?
Thoughts?
3 replies:
RE: Kayak Catamaran
1. Sure go ahead you might give Team Kayakphd a run for the money. But Team Lubmetender would be stiff competition. See, http://www.seventy48.com/teams/
Not much competition for the skinny boats though.
2. That's a 48 hour race. Your boat (s) aren't designed for racing, cat config or the open water conditions.... But are you up to the task skill and endurance wise?
RE: Kayak Catamaran
Thank you both for the replies.
For the record, this would have been for next year's race. I am a pretty safety concious person and would have done a great deal of testing first.
I was definitely aware of the stress on the "sticks" so I was trying to devise a method of attaching to the monocoque structure rather than just drilling holes in the deck. Mind you I hadn't thought about the two kayaks riding different waves. A very good point.
Also good that you both pointed out how slow we would be. I was only ever in it for the experience. To see if we could finish in with 48 hours. I stopped trying to race 20 year olds a long time ago.
I will be building the Skerry Raid next so I will see if two people can power that in a meaningful way. I'm not sure there is room in it for 2 rowing stations. Maybe we just take turns. 48 hours of rowing is a lot of rowing.
Cheers,
Steven Goodman.
RE: Kayak Catamaran
» Submitted by Laszlo - Mon, 4/9/18 » 6:48 PM
I wouldn't do it in that race. Reasons:
1. MC13s, while very nice boats, are not racers. Tying two of them together would make each drag a slow boat along with it.
2. That's rough water. Catamarans are two boats sailing in close formation connected with by sticks. Each boat will be riding different waves and want to go their own separate way. The sticks (and where the sticks connect to the boats) have to be really strong, otherwise you end up with two boats dragging broken sticks through rough water. That's a major redesign and rebuild.
3. You have two paddlers with a large-ish distance between them, giving you some serious torque. Unless the two are well-matched, the boats will yaw from left to right, making them effectively even slower.
I could see this being fun in calm waters.
Be safe,
Laszlo