Best sea kayak for racing
Scott J. Szczepaniak
I have been paddling a VCP Anas Acuta for over a year, and I love the
boat. I do feel that it is not the fastest boat for racing. What do
you think is a good conventional sea kayak for racing? I have raced on
tidal rivers, bay, and open ocean.
Thanks, Scott
Bill Faus
: I have been paddling a VCP Anas Acuta for over a year, and I love the
: Thanks, Scott
'Not fast' is a bit polite.
The Anas Acuta and the Pintail are heavy and slow, and track
poorly at high speeds. I find that racing benefits from
a rudder, in that you can concentrate on paddling and not
worry about corrective strokes for turning.
On my list of fast sea kayaks are: the Necky Phantom, Lancer I,
Lancer II; Doug Bushnell's boats: Wave XL, X-Par Missle,
X-Par EFT; and maybe the Vyneck. Some of these are suitable
for competition only.
For racing, weight is a big factor, so expect to pay a premium
for a kevlar or carbon fibre boat weighing 30 lbs. The VCP
kayaks weigh in at 60 lbs!
The Nordkapp would be a better choice than the Pintail/Anas Acuta,
but is considered a dated design.
On the other hand, Greg Barton in a Nordkapp could handily beat
all but a handful of the very best racers, so conditioning is
obviously important.
By the way, my PinTail is for sale. I find it too heavy (have
been spoiled by paddling some 30 lbs kayaks), tracks poorly
at 7+ mph racing speeds. And as a play boat it is too long
for the big surf we are having now in Oregon. So I am replacing
it with two more specific boats: 1) a racing sea kayak for speed,
and 2) a shorter plastic kayak for surf bashing, cave exploring,
rock garden mayhem.
If there are other fast sea kayaks out there winning races,
I'd like to hear about them as well. But I expect, the ones
I'm interested are really competition only designs, and not
touring boats that happen to be faster than other touring boats.
-bill
ralph diaz
: I have been paddling a VCP Anas Acuta for over a year, and I love the
: boat. I do feel that it is not the fastest boat for racing. What do
: you think is a good conventional sea kayak for racing? I have raced
on
: tidal rivers, bay, and open ocean.
: Thanks, Scott
Somebody else on this string mentioned several racing boats, which are
just too specialized for what you want.
The fastest conventional sea kayak, based on race results in lots of
mixed competition, consistently is the Seda Glider. It has the virtue
of not being a very costly boat, in the $1,400 range if that. Another
excellent choice in a conventional sea kayak would be the Necky Arluk
1.8; it is however something that will set you back about $2400 new.
Another choice (I have to say this given my pedigree) would be the
Khats-S from Feathercraft. There has been plenty of discussion
regarding it on this newsgroup in the last week. Set your news reader
for its maximum retrogression to pick up the string of discussion. It
is slightly slower than the two above mentioned boat but has all the
superb sea handling virtues of a skin boat and the performance feature
lacking in the others of being able to be folded down for storage and
travel when you need to. Other times it could be just left assembled
for cartopping etc.. Also its looks are guaranteed to draw even the
attention of the most blase racer, who normally would seem to be immune
because of all the great boats he or she may be accustomed to. It
would however set you back about $3,500.
ralph
--
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rd...@ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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Peter Kalajian
I have a nordkapp HM which is with the fixed skeg. It's a pretty fast
boat and would be even faster in the HS model which can be ordered
with a retractable skeg. There is a kevlar version which is very
light, but I don't recommend it as it isn't very strong.
By the way, I was the Captain of the WESTWARD when Elaine was onboard
last summer. Please give her my warmest regards and pass on happy new
year.
Pete.
Janne Lehtinen
Scott J. Szczepaniak <sz...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>I have been paddling a VCP Anas Acuta for over a year, and I love the
>boat. I do feel that it is not the fastest boat for racing. What do
>you think is a good conventional sea kayak for racing? I have raced on
>tidal rivers, bay, and open ocean.
>
I participated last summer Arctic Sea Kayak Race in Norway. Many competitors
used U.K. made Kirton Inuk. Also I tested it and it was a very nice boat.
I usually use Nordkapp, which is clearly slower compared to Inuk. Inuk
is fast but quite stable and confortable to sit.
Janne Lehtinen
Finland
Kirk Olsen
: I have been paddling a VCP Anas Acuta for over a year, and I love the
: boat. I do feel that it is not the fastest boat for racing. What do
: you think is a good conventional sea kayak for racing? I have raced on
: tidal rivers, bay, and open ocean.
Someone faxed me a copy of the following information. It was
used to determine sea kayak classes at a race. The aspect ratio listed is the
waterline length: width ratio.
Classes were SK - recreational sea kayak WL ratio < 9.25:1
FSK - fast sea kayak WL ratio 9.25:1 to 10.99:1
HPK - high performance kayak or surf ski WL ratio 11:1 or greater
Westside Boat XPar Missile 18.90
Westside Boat Wave XL/Ultra 15.70
(skipped some, surfskis)
Necky Phantom 13.00
(skipped some, surfskis)
Necky Arluk I 11.50
PWS Seal 10.80
Seda Glider 10.80
Eddyline Heron 10.70
Mariner Mariner 10.70
Easy Rider Harpoon 19 10.53
Nimbus Sprint 10.30
Seda Impulse 10.30
Mariner Mariner II 10.20
Necky Arluk II/1.8/1.9 9.90
Seavivor Folding Greenland Solo 9.80
Current Designs Expedition 9.70
Eddyline Sea Star 9.70
Wilderness Sys Arctic Hawk 9.40
Seward Quest 9.40
VCP Nordkapp 9.40
(skipped lots)
Current Designs Pachena 6.90
unfortunately the VCP Anas Acuta wasn't listed.
If someone has a scanner, that converts to text, I will fax them the
document so they can post it. I don't have time to retype the whole thing.
kirk
Chris Kulczycki
>
>Scott J. Szczepaniak (sz...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
>
>: I have been paddling a VCP Anas Acuta for over a year, and I love the
>: boat. I do feel that it is not the fastest boat for racing. What do
>: you think is a good conventional sea kayak for racing? I have raced on
>: tidal rivers, bay, and open ocean.
>
We at Chesapeake Light Craft have just launched a new kit boat, the Patuxent
19.5, length 19'6", lwl 19', beam overall 21' beam @ wl 19" weight 34 pounds.
We'd like to see some racers try it, everyone who's paddled it so far thinks
it's the fastest boat they've been in.
Chris
PEGGY SHAW
I am trying to find out if/when there is a seakayak symposium (or
whatever event would offer the opportunity) to see/try the various
boats, isnt it spring each year, on the Chesapeake? I am interested.
Peggy...@neteast.com
(or post here, thanks!) PS have certainly heard the Chespeake boats are
nice and fast.