Has anybody tried to tow a canoe or kayak using inline skates?
I am working on my towing rig for Florida Ultimate Challenge which includes 40 mile highway portage:
http://race.fit2paddle.com/C741445042/E20060103184610/index.html
It works great for walking (I can even push my Sea Wind), but skating is a different story.
A thought:
– Last Updated: Jan-05-06 9:52 AM EST –
Two years ago, I made a portage cart for my canoe (it will work just as well for a kayak) out of a old baby jogger for the Adirondack Classic. It looks exactly like the one in the picture on your site.
With the precision ball bearing sixteen inch wheels and the thing perfectly balanced, it will just about glide by itself.
My wife who is an in-line skater said that if you had something similar you could just skate behind it and keep just a hand on it for balance, or attach some sort of pole with a harness or one of those rigid harnesses like they do for the x-country skiers to pull kids with and pull it from the front.
Are there any overpasses on the route? I know Florida is flat, but I can visualize you coming down a steep over pass screaming at the top of your lungs to clear the way!
Cheers,
JackL
I don’t in-line
but my experience in ice skating suggests that you would have to deal with the lateral movement of the skating stride. Wouldn’t that waste energy?
Jim
40 mile portage
straight, flat highway, no overpasses, no shoulders, heavy log trucks traffic
some pictures on SandyBottom’s web page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dawn_stewart/race.htm
It was done in the Water Tribe race
– Last Updated: Jan-06-06 1:51 PM EST –
the first one where they portaged a great distance across the top 'O Florida. Mark of Kruger biked the portage, but he could probably tell you who skated.
Probably reading the logs of the event would tell you as well.
Think biking was a whole lot more successful. Ask Mark.
Good luck!
>:^)
Mick
Have 12 pages of design notes in one
of my notebooks … much of it concerning the harness and various joints + placement to prevent sea saw movement and runaway train syndrome. Try not to think about it this much LOL : 0
Skates
I saw a video link 2-3 months ago where inline skates were used on the 40 mile portage. He towed a covered C1 with boat wheels and skates. While winning the event, the video showed he paid a terrible toll in time, blisters, and energy expended for the weight savings of skates vs bike. The race is about speed and energy management. He was not exactly zooming by the camera in the video, don’t remember his 40 mile time. Here’s the math: skating at 6 mph takes 7 hours supporting your own weight. Compact bike at 12 mph (easy pace) is 3.5 hours, sitting on seat and moving legs only, no blisters. IMO, skates or running work for up to 10 miles, bike anything more.
skates, bikes, wheelchair, …
Certainly, I am familiar with portaging methods used in the previous Cross Florida Challenges and what some racers are planning for this year.
Here is a link to portage movies:
http://race.fit2paddle.com/C741445042/E20051215213514/index.html
I believe that inline skates do not need to be so disastrous as in the case of Devo. The other team did pretty well on skates.
One important thing: whatever rig you choose for the portage you need to carry it in your boat for the entire race, i.e, about 1160 miles.
So, a bike is not necessary the best solution for this portage, certainly, not for kayakers.
A Google Earth map of the portage:
http://race.fit2paddle.com/C741445042/E20060107185806/index.html
it is not the towing rig …
Finally, I’ve figured out: no connection between a boat (at least my heavy Sea Wind) and a body, rigid or flexible, would work smoothly when towing with inline skates. My setup is not a towing rig. It’s a pushing rig!
http://race.fit2paddle.com/
I will post a short video clip as soon as I have time to edit it.