Anyone seen or paddled this kayak:
http://www.warrenlightcraft.com/
http://www.wavelengthmagazine.com/2005/on05adam.php
No, but I’m skeptical about its claims
to have racing boat speed. It doesn’t seem to me that it matters much how narrow the beam is in the middle (except perhaps for paddling technique). It STILL has a 24 inch beam at its widest point, and seems to me to be more important in determining its speed.
maybe it is like a ski
remember when skis were longer to be faster? Now days they are short and flare in front and back. You may be plowing that 24 inch beam in at first, but you can keep your stroke close and straight. and the total surface that touches the water isn’t like having a wide beam all the way down, so it could be less surface dragging.
I of course am not a pro, a physicistt or anything like that, I am just a devil’s advocate.
Liveoutside
Waterline Beam
It’s the waterline beam that makes the difference with speed and if you look at the spec’s it has a waterline beam of 17.8". The wide bits must be above the waterline.
Haven’t paddled one but I think the wide front deck might interfere with an efficient wing paddle stroke. Does anyone know?
I’m skeptical too
The narrow waterline beam claims go right out the window in even VERY small chop (like the Heritage integrated sponson designs x 2). Flat water claims like that are not too impressive for a “sea kayak”
To me, it looks about as efficient as welding two rec boats together. Probably fine for casual cruising, but anything paddles OK at 3 mph on a quiet lake. When they start placing well in races and/or logging some decent open water trips/expeditions I’ll rethink my impressions on performance potential.
When they
"wasp waisted" jet fighters in the early 60’s, it only helped at supersonic speeds 
Nothing new under the sun
With regards to displacement hulls, the physics is not all that complex, at least in the world we occupy with kayaks, different in large sailboat world of course.
So these claims are either just ignorant or self serving or somewhere in between. Water is slow above 6 mph and we humans are not strong enough to use a planing hull, save the hydroplane type rigs, and they can only be paddled by strong folks for short distances.
Move on to a surfski if you want some real speed.