Sea Kayaker drag estimates for the QCC Q700 and the Nordkapp LV (totally different boats) are as follows:
At 4 kts the drag of the NLV and Q700 is identical.
At 3 kts the NLV has about 10% lower drag than the Q700.
At 4.5 kts the Q700 has about 10% lower drag than the NLV.
At 5.0 kts the Q700 has about 20% lower drag than the NLV.
So on my typical ten mile paddle where my speeds are slightly below 4 kts, a friend’s NLV is the more efficient long distance boat than my ‘faster’ Q700. This is why I think I might be faster on my typical outing in the shorter Q600 at 16.9 ft. In an SK review of my Q700 in the Dec 2013 issue remarks that he can maintain 4.75 kts at an ‘easy’ pace. I wish I were that strong.
So the Q700 has more wetted area
than the NLV, but a better hull for speed because of lower wave drag?
Not sure what you are getting at,
but when you say: “he can maintain 4.75 kts at an ‘easy’ pace”
What is an easy pace? With my QCC-700 to hold that pace for any distance, I would be working.
Naturally I can and do race it faster then that, but that is not a “easy pace”
You can’t compare a Vally LV to a QCC. They are made for completely different things.
I have paddled the Valley and both a QCC-700 and a 600
In my estimation the Valley is made for playing and rolling. The QCC’s are made for cruising and racing
Jack L
comparison
Well, I happened to paddle 10 miles, in calm conditions, with someone in a Nordkapp LV, while I was in the Q700, so a comparison seems apt to me. Without thinking I assumed that with my faster boat I would just be ahead, which turned out not to be the case. So I looked up the drag estimates in SK.
I also note that ‘I’ did not say 4.75 kts could be maintained at an easy pace. I just quoted the reviewer in SK who said it.
One does not think of the NLV as a fast boat, but for a 10 miler at slightly less than 4 kts it is faster, i.e., more efficient, than the Q700. Probably, as mentioned above, due to increased wetted area.
Perhaps more to this?
“I assumed that with my faster boat I would just be ahead”
That almost never happens just in general. I’ve come out ahead of surf skis paddling a sea kayak in races. I’ve waited around for people in boats that I know to be more efficient than the boat I’m in. And I’ve worked hard to keep up with fast paddlers regardless of boat. In addition, the speed of a person’s cadence, and the form that goes with it, is part of the groove that they get into on a long paddle. Dropping someone in a kayak that is easier to paddle at a given cadence doesn’t necessarily mean they increase their cadence proportionally. In other words, a 3 knot paddler is often the same 3 knot paddler in any kayak, even if it is easier in one boat than the other.
The thing about the Nordkapp LV, in the years since it’s been out, on this forum, it has always been described as an efficient kayak. It seems something similar to the P&H Sirius and Bahiya being described as efficient and fast (not saying the boat designs are similar). I know the Sirius and Bahiya to not be great race boats. But for a 10 mile, sub-4 knot pace, whoever feels like being in front is going to be in front.
Based upon what’s given, I wouldn’t assume anything about efficiency at the speed you were traveling, unless I was to base it strictly on the drag figures.
Whatever the result, I don’t think many on this forum would be surprised by the efficiency of the Nordkapp LV at 3.5 to 4 knots. Now put the 2 of you trying to make time getting home against a 2.5 - 3 knot current, knowing that you would come out even in the same boat in a 10 mile race, and then we would get interesting.