How fast do you cruise?

2nd that
I occasionally paddle with teenagers and while they are all fairly athletic, they sometimes have a hard time keeping up with those who are “almost 50 and getting old.” Endurance and keeping a steady pace over longer distances is about technique, efficiency, experience; all which they are still developing. Look up Cliff Young, ultramarathon runner.

info requested…

– Last Updated: Mar-20-09 5:03 PM EST –

moparharn,

Right now my qcc700 is in a dead heat with my Prijon Kodiak. Neither have moved an inch all day so I guess they are really slow hulls...LOL

Joking aside,I haven't really compared cruising between the two boats...back in 2005 I did a 11.8 mile race in just a minute or two under 2 hours (up and back on a slow river)in the q700.[trinity river race] The prior year I did the same race in the Kodiak in 2:11 {a week after finishing a 100 mile race in 17:08 hours}

In the Q700 I can hold the 5.5 mph for (at least) 5 hours...which comes to about 26 miles. I can ease up and hold just above 5 mph all day. 6mph for two hours.

Sprinting--After about 6.3mph the Kodiak starts to hit a wall, but in the qcc I'm the one that hits a wall at about 7.4mph. needs a better engine.

I think I could gain just a bit more mph if I lost about 80lbs (currently weigh 280)as that would decrease my draft by almost an inch in the q700

What is a "half-stroke"?

4mph

– Last Updated: Mar-20-09 4:59 PM EST –

Discounting nature breaks and stopping for lunch--last weekend my wife and I paddled 26 miles on a lake at her all day pace of 4 mph. She paddles a Prijon Kodiak. Her 26.2 mile RACE pace is 4.8 mph.

Bill

{keep in mind we paddle a lot of miles and are pretty efficient wiht our forward strokes}

Thanks, I appreciate your response.
I guess I should have chosen my words more carefully. By half stroke I mean a lazy effort that does not result in a full forward stroke whereby I stroke in the 3/4 forward to 1/4 rearward area of the normally full forward stroke area. 4/4 being a full reach and 1/4 being the exit point. The Kapp loses little speed in this lazy semi arm paddle 1/2 stroke. Obviously there is a steepening of the resistance curve with me in the Kapp between 4.2 and 4.8 mph. All this is only relative to last Sunday’s conditions. Sorry for the lazy 1/2 characterizations of the lazy 1/2 stroke:)

Bill

Kayak cruising
The last time I checked my speed was Sep 2006 during a solo trip around a lake with no wind or current. I paddled my Nordkapp using a Lendal paddle with Kinetic blades. I paddled 25.3 miles in 6 hours 17 minutes with a 30-minute food break and a few other short breaks while chatting with fishermen along my route. I averaged 4.8 mph the first hour, 4.5 mph the second hour and 3.95 mph the third hour. After my food break, I averaged 4.8 mph (from mile 14.0 - 18.8) and then averaged 4.29 mph from mile 18.8 - 25.3.

Thanks…
for all the good input. Very interesting to see the wide ranges of numbers and how they correlate to boat and skill level.

“Cruise” and “fast” do not belong in the
same thought, much less the same sentence.

70 miles in 9.2 hours
www.canoeregatta.org It was sort of a cruise becuase I had no pit crew so I had to take my time but current was fast downstream. Did 20 miles of www.blackburnchallenge.com in 3.3 hours out on the ocean. With eft and turbo wing, I often go 7mph downstream and 5mph up. A little faster with mohican ski.

If you are cruising at 3.5 all day

– Last Updated: Apr-08-09 11:12 AM EST –

congratulations.
You are not a braggard. Your are not a BS artist, and you are enjoying the day.

Cheers,
JackL

i’ll bite…
a question was asked and various answers were received…where do you feel “bragging and/or bs” was involved?



ot:



We enjoyed the B&B with you two–too bad it was the last year for it to be held. we had fun and would have made the trip again.



Bill (and Ann)from Texas

So far - only 1 “good” answer

– Last Updated: Mar-27-09 1:33 PM EST –

May be a few more close to good, but only one substantiated the numbers (the poster with the QCC various pace rates).

Most others say they do not count breaks, their GPS stops below 1 mph, unknown currents, etc. That's very misleading. To me cruising speed is the average speed over the entire trip. Obviously, long breaks/overnight stays should be excluded, but short rest stops on the water and bio breaks should be included. If we start including wild life, photography, enjoying the scenery - that's also meaningless.

I think the original question was meant to solicit responses on reasonable top maintainable speed, not about how slow can one go. No offence meant to slow goers, just the question of how slow can you go does not really matter much as there is no constraint - you can always go slower -;)

Also, a day trip pace will likely be different from a multi-day trip. On a one day or a half-day paddle I can exert more effort knowing I would be back and resting in the evening.

To provide another example from my morning paddle today: average 5 mph over 2 hours (including all breaks) and I was pretty tired at the end (not exhausted as I have another 12 hours of work after that, but a good workout). I'll try to beat that when I have my "new" Rapier 18 ready for use -;.

Kocho, are you the Roger Ebert of posts?
My input did not pass muster? I wasn’t even “good”? I have my dagger at my belly and will do the honorable thing unless you give me back my dignity. Wait, this won’t work, I have a 10" dagger for a 40" belly. Hari Kari is off for today so let me leave you with this story in an attempt to characterize “cruising”. Last summer I got a chance to paddle with Greg Stamer on Lake Michigan. We had a few hours to talk about mostly his expeditions when invariably the question of speed came up. “So Greg do you cruise at this speed generally when doing a 50 mile night crossing?”. “No” he said. “I guess you might slow it down to conserve energy for an unexpected event” I said. “No” he said. “Well what is your cruising speed?”. At this point he studies his stroke and speed in a way that made me certain he was “hitting his grove” and pulled away from me like I was caught in a fishing net. “About this I would guess” he said to a paddler that used to be next to him. He was in an Anas and I was in my Naut LV RM. We were cruising around 3.7 to 4.0 in two footers and 15 knots of wind. I would guess his “cruising” pace was closer to 5.0 to 5.5. If he were in the Greenlander Pro he used for Newfoundland it might have been even more. This experience reminded me of when I would play summer hockey with the CCHA college kids after just finishing our winter league. It is not the same game. The speed at which sports are played professionally is the difference between pro and not pro. So why worry about it. Wanna race? Well, do ya punk?

Bill

Convincing arguments -:wink:
You indeed specified the conditions -:wink: And the dagger argument is very convincing, so I give-up counting…

breaks

– Last Updated: Mar-27-09 7:39 PM EST –

I have heard (and also experienced) that an average group pace with breaks etc included tends to be somewhere around 3 to 3.5 mph. no matter what distance is paddled.

When asked for OUR average cruising pace I always express it in terms of 'moving pace'.

I could answer the 'Pace' question by averaging out our paddling log books, including trips with 'lilly dippers' and 'speed demons', long lunch breaks and no lunch breaks, paddling into 20mph winds across 4 miles of fetch or paddling with the current on the Mississippi river...but the number given would be subject to too many variables to make it comparable to someone elses numbers.

Anybody using our paces for comparison should keep in mind that we paddle long boats (a 17.5 ft Prijon Kodiak and an 18 ft Q700.) They should also note the following:

A: A weekly 20+ mile paddle(flatwater, with minimal breaks) is AVERAGE for us. And,

B: Our average pace may be on the higher end of the bell curve(there are still a LOT of paddlers in comparable boats who are faster than us)and,

C: We both participate in long events, ranging from 6 miles (ie. Bogey and Bacall)to 460 miles (Yukon River Quest)

And finally---while paddling her Prijon Kodiak my wife, Ann, could "chick" most of ya'll {grin} in a race.

[she is going to punch me in the shoulder when she reads that last line...LOL]

ouch!

pardon me…
At what SPEED do you cruise. Hope you can sleep now…sheesh!

This week is was 6.02 mph.
We cruised to third place in our first ever canoe race. We started out at “cruise” pace. Maintained cruise pace until last mile. We really didn’t have any sprint left in us. So we picked it up a notch to “hard cruise” pace. But we averaged 6.02 over the thirteen miles and peak speed was 11.5 mph. I am sure that set a personnal record for us both. We stopped paddling only enough to swig some water and fix a glove that would not go back on. Not bad considering we were running against 45 yr old youths. We got punked in the last two miles. Those little babies should have a class of their own.

race boats
I am embarassed to say how much time and money I spend on kayaking, but this is my hobby, and I take it pretty serious. I admire people who can paddle leisurely in social groups in affordable/durable plastic hulls. I think they have the right idea, but for some of us, it does become a competition. Not for a chance to build ones ego, but to enjoy challenging oneself, and competing with friends. I cruise at over 7mph, and can sprint up to 10mph. But, I paddle racing boats with a racing paddle, get coaching, and paddle at least six hours weekly at race pace. There is no way I could get anywhere near that speed in a rec boat, or even a regular sea kayak. I was getting slautered in my Tempest 17 at the races. I bought a Thunderbolt and immediately started seeing 6mph. Don’t let anyone fool you, a true race boat is much,much faster, though it does take a while to learn to keep it upright. I found I was really slow when I was underwater. I presently have 3 surfskis, 4 ICF K1s, and use a Epic mid-wing paddle.

50 is getting old. i like that
i am trying to forget my 50th bday party. i’m having a much better time now, 12 years later, thank you.

Sorry, I was just using the terms losely
since I can usually BS or brag with the best of them.



When the question was asked, I assumed the poster meant cruising at a nature watching pace, and for my money his pace was right on what mine is.

I don’t consider cruising to be racing or even working out.



Cheers,

JackL