my goal is 3.5
i figure ill keep that goal but some day im for sure going to get a faster yak and one with dry storage
Zero
"Unless itās in a pretty good wind. Add in the speed that a person can paddle and it tends to get fasterā¦ 
Absolutely spot on Celia, well said
It really depends on the color
The red ones are fast.
jim
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Speed
I just did a 7.8 mile loop around a lake in my Placid Boat Works Spitfire 12 and averaged 3.6mph according to my Garmin GPS.
About 3 knots
ā Last Updated: Sep-27-10 5:48 PM EST ā
3.6 mph equals about 3 knots which is the most often cited figure I've encountered as average (or normal) cruising speed for a sea kayak. However, for a solo canoe it sounds fast... but then again I can't paddle a canoe straight at any speed ;-)
Celia's response of 'Zero' is my fav on this thread, as a kayak has no inherent speed....
Close to zero
When you average out 70+ miles per hours on the roads, 3 mph on the water for trips, and then all the time they are stored in the garage, itās slightly above zero, but practically zero. The more you drive it around and paddle, the higher the average.
Based on the last month, my kayak went about 200 miles on the roads, 8.5 miles on the river, so 208.5 miles in 720 hours is about .29 miles per hour.
jim
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Flames
ā Last Updated: Sep-27-10 7:02 PM EST ā
I read somewhere that painting flames on the hull will help increase the speed. I think I will give that a try.
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Finally got some rain last night
my Explorer filled up in less than 12 hours - drought is not over but it is a start
avaerage speed
i am sure the question was a serious one.
If you crossed a lake that is 2 NM accross in 2 hours back and forth then you did 4nm in those 2 hours. Or 2 knots. and i am thinking for navigational purposes that maybe a good number.
5mph
ā Last Updated: Oct-03-16 10:41 PM EST ā
7mph.. yeah, either your GPS is broken or you just won the Olympics! :)
In my opinion 3mph cruising is about the average without wind, current for normal human beings in a non-racing kayak. 4mph is pulling hard, 5mph is vigorous and quite an achievement for longer than an hour.
I have a 14" recreational Perception America, it's not a racing one for sure, but I am more athletic than the average. I can cruise with 3-4mph for several hours, 5mph is about the max.
Like some others wrote, don't worry about speed, just enjoy paddling!
I have a 10ā Lifetime Kayak and have been averaging 3.15 mph. However I have encountered some waves and had to work harder and have reached a speed of 5.30 mph. Plus I will admit I do like to see how fast I can go.
Today I did a 5 mile in 01:39:02, but I do make stops in the water, so my splits range anywhere 17:00 min mile to a 25:00 min mile.
FSKAā¦a sea kayak clubā¦depends upon how you measure it. GPS gives us speed , average moving and average trip (includes stops) For club it varies with the paddlers, ie whoose on the trip. Basically the trips, including stops, average in the 3 to 3.5 mph range for planning purposes. Most paddle sessions are more 4 mph moving averages.
Then again I havenāt been there much this summerā¦
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Paddling solo in a Necky Arluk 1.9, 18ā x 22", in calm conditions and no current, 3.7- 4.25 mph normal cruising speed for doing distance measured by GPS. Any faster in this boat Iām getting into sprint mode and cannot maintain this pace for a long period of time.
I used to be a bit faster, but 70+ years takes a toll.
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I like your math. I have a 20 foot expedition canoe that did about 7,000 miles this summer, only about 300 miles of that on rivers. Iād bet my average is like your, 0.19 kph. My truck is an expat Canadian truck, liters and kilometers. Really confuses cops when I tell them I was going 100 !! Their radar only showed me going 62 mph. I like 100 better Itās faster. And fuel mileage pffft. Tank is so big I get like 145 liters in it, and it can travel about 1,000 on a single tank. (F-150ās get a nearly 40 gallon tank for Labrador/Newfoundland, 'cause it can be 125 miles to the nearest gas station. And after 9PM? Just pull over and sleep, wait for morning parked at a dark gas pump.
As to everything being discussed here, the one thing I have not seen, waterline length IS the only determinant of speed of any given craft with a displacement hull. 20 foot canoe is faster than a 17 foot canoe, for the same effort. Thanks for putting up with me, It was fun.
Much like hiking, people over estimate their speed all the time. A GPS is honest if you measure your progress for say an hour or two. All bets are off in the wind, in currents and tides.
Some days you might make 40 miles downstream. Some days you will be lucky to make 6-7 miles on a lake.
Interestingā¦
My American Chevy truck has 80 gallons of fuel and travels 900 miles pulling a 10,000 trailer. But it has no affect on paddling speed of my sea kayak in the water. Waterline length is generally longer equals faster. If all other things equal. If the longer boat has a lower aspect ratio ie wider for the length it might be slower for the same paddler. The real problem is that ātouring kayakā has too many variables. Too many boat, paddle and paddler variables for one classification. Just go paddle and enjoy using your own data for planning purposes.
Isnāt that .118 mph or less than one mile per hour so your 7,000 miles tookā¦ Are you including stops, short and over night, in your average? Otherwise thatās really slow.
80 gallons !! WOW ! My average (guessed not calculated) includes days camped at the side of the river reading cheesy paperbacks, the stop at the Dairy Queen for a break from the road, the day spent at the riverside, 50 miles from anywhere, patching the latest hole from that last rock, Yeah, I included it all. It was a good summer. Bagged three permits for favourite rivers, played in a lot of white water, generally made a nuisance of myself. Two of the days, flat water, I just sat in the boat and read all day, while river did all the work Drove far too many miles A good summer.
Waterline length. Square root of the waterline length X 1.34 for hull speed (some use 1.43). Slender reduces total effort but hull speed does not change. Displacement hull. Planing takes it right out of this math. Some of those 7 foot flat bottom white water boats plane out at 5 mph It is all good fun. I am a 300 pounder, so taking me, water, gear, food for a month, big boat needed. And the 20 footer is sooo easy to paddle
Here is an odd one for youā¦ I think I have a partial explanation,but there are some powerful physics involved.
In a canoe, vs a raft in big white water, when you drop over the edge and head down the tongue into the rapid, a canoe sometimes takes off like a shot. One I am thinking of from last month, I was 150 yards minimum behind the raft ahead, low water Class III, lotsa rocks. I closed that 150 yards to 10 yards in 15 seconds. Yet, the canoe does have a very firm maximum speed. In five seasons now with this boat my GPS has recorded 18.2, or 18.3, or 18.4, but never 18.6. Firstly, that is water speed plus boat speed. Soooo the water must have a maximum speed, and the canoe must have a maximum speed, and that is where it ends low 18ās At those speeds the boat is unturnable, a straight shot. The only way to turn it is dig in with a back paddle, hard, break the paddle hard. So in the big rapids I paddle backwards more than forward.
I was cheating when I gave the tank stats, you figured that outā¦ liters and kilometers Canadian truck, built in Kansas City. Go figure.
With my Tempest 170 Pro fully loaded (130 pounds of gear) I make ~3 knots all day long. If speed fluctuates above or below that I know that my progress is being affected by wind or current. Never being a math major that speed makes it really convenient for me to keep track of where I am and where Iām going.
The Progression has a very different use and is, I suspect, a slower boat. Iāve never used my GPS with it so I really have no clue. I would never load it up or use it for more than 2-3 days and it is primarily my day boat.
One forgotten thing; the paddle.
The other is the fast touring boats, like the Epic 18x, Westside EFT, Seda Glider, or QCC 700x.
A wing paddle will add over 1/2 mph to these boats without working up a sweat.
Average speed is too hypothetical to measure. Mine is over 5, top speed has been over 9, but I was a nine time state marathon champion and I tend not to dawdle.