If you can get 6 mph out of a Kestrel 12
just think what you could do in, say, one of Doug Bushnell’s boats. Or in a K-1 at next years Olympics! John
Adding to Chad’s post
– Last Updated: Jun-02-07 1:01 AM EST –
Yes, the hull speed of a boat with a 12-foot waterline length is 5.3 mph. Exceeding that speed would be mighty tough. I posted recently about trying to exceed hull speed in my two row boats, and I won't repeat all the details, but here's some info worth noting. My little packboat is 12 feet long (waterline length is within a couple inches of total length), has a similar in-water profile to a small kayak, and can hit 5.0 mph without a huge amount of effort. I can sprint at steady 5.0 mph for a few miles, and I can, in fact, accelerate from a dead stop up to 5.0 mph in a *single stroke of the oars* if I pull really hard. Going any faster is where it gets interesting. Getting it up to 5.3 mph is tremendously hard, way harder than what "makes any sense" considering how easy it was to get the speed up to 5.0 mph. With exceptional effort, probably at least 10 times the amount of pull needed to reach 5.0 mph, I think I can *briefly* hit 5.5 mph. I can pull the oars even harder than that, but nothing happens to the boat's speed if I do (speed stays the same, at least within the degree of precision that I can measure it with a GPS). If I were strong enough to make the boat actually go any faster than 5.5 mph, something would surely break, either one of the oars, or the rear seat upon which my feet are pushing. The oars bend *a lot* at 5.5 mph.
I agree with Chad. Anyone who can do a steady 6.1 mph in what's basically a short rec kayak, and then do it for 30 miles, is not just world class, but waaay beyond world class. Imagine what such a person could do in a boat that's made to go fast.
I won't try to say that the original poster is not a strong paddler. I bet he is, to go at an appreciable speed for 30 miles (I've met a lot of strong paddlers, but none that can sprint that distance). Do I believe he can do 30 miles in a 12-foot boat in less than 5 hours? No.
complete crap
6 mph average over 30 miles in a 12 ft rec boat? no way, no how. i’m not greg barton, but i’m usually considered a pretty fast paddler, and i do just fine in surfski and unlimited class races. My typical training pace over anywhere between 8 and 15 miles is right around 6.2 mph on either a fast ski or a Tbolt.
I don’t live in GA anymore, so I won’t have the personal pleasure of wakeriding behind GK’s roostertail, but I would be happy to give GK the name of several K1 and surfski paddlers in the Atlanta area who I am sure would love to have such a powerful partner to train with. Perhaps we could then get a second person view of this marvel- with some real numbers.
af
i think he means kph
kilometers per hour maybe. mph, nope.
KPH vs MPH
6.1 kph=3.7903642712 mph. Now the speed in mph is more like it.
Couldn’t you just call that 3.8 mph?
I’m 63 and have been yaking for…
… a little over 2 months now. Went out today on my local flatwater river in my Tempest 165, did an up and back of 7+ miles and averaged 4.7 mph. Felt fine afterwards, good enough to plant the lilac bush my wife and I bought last weekend.
There is no secret there.
anyone who has paddled at 6 mph knows how hard it is with a decent boat. It is harder to take anything else you say seriously.
You truly made me laugh at loud!!!
Hi Andrew
It’s always so nice when you grace the website with your enlightened and tactful views. Don’t hold back. Swing big! Have you noticed, as you walk down the beach with a buddy, an overweight woman walking towards you up the beach in a bikini. You reach over to tap your friend and point her out to him, only to be told, “I already see her”. There are a lot of posts like that on the site. The tap is unnecessary as we already see her.
Hope you are doing well up north in the cold. Hope you’ll come back down south to sunny Florida so I can memorize your back again.
Franklin
franklin
are you saying i was tactless??!!?? heavens to murgatroid- my apologies!!
no immediate plans to be down in FL, but there’s always a good chance, since we have a branch in J’ville. I will certainly look you up.
best,
af
Check your GPS:You are in metric mode
or on a River.
I used to ride bikes with an attorney who bought a cyclometer back in the 80s when the really fancy ones first came out. He was telling me about how fast he was pedaling his new bike. He let me ride it and I discovered he was in Km/hr and Km mode …