[jyl]

My kayak is 17 ft long. I've carried enough in it for five nights camping - including tent, cooking stuff, food and water - about 100 lb. It has to be packed in drybags and stuffed into the ends of the boat. Not as convenient as loading a canoe.

Loaded down like that, the kayak still paddled fine. I made a mistake landing on a beach during that trip. Wave picked the boat up, we surfed onto the beach, but there was a rock outcropping there that I didn't see, and the bow of the boat went straight into the rock, nose-on, while the rest of the boat was lifted up and then crashed back down into the water after the wave broke. Paddled the rest of the way to the sand, no fuss, just cosmetic damage to the nose of the boat. A canoe - well, you wouldn't paddle a canoe ten miles in open ocean anyway, or land through surf, but anyway it would have been ugly.

Quote de jyl

Sounds scary, and yet those two situations would have been nothing special in an ocean kayak.



It isn't just that canoes are usually open while kayaks are usually closed.



In a kayak, your center of gravity (hips, basically) is very low, maybe 6" above the bottom of the hull. Even if you kneel in a canoe, your CG will be much higher. In a kayak your knees are locked under the cockpit coaming so that you can be rigid with the boat, or torque it with your hips. In a canoe you are flopping loosely around, unless you're strapped down like for competition. In a kayak you have a long double ended paddle, in addition to the advantages in power and efficiency - both from the paddle and from your ability to lock your knees to the boat and use your lower body strength to paddle - the paddle lets you instantly and reflexively brace, whether against a poweboat bow wave or for surfing swells and breaking waves. The canoe paddle is short and has to be lifted and moved from side to side. In a kayak you sit in the center of the boat, regardless of wind, and that long paddle allows you to reach back to steer or correct a broach, reach out to brace, without moving your body. In a canoe, if you're sitting in front to deal with the wind, then have to surf down a big swell, good luck controlling the stern if it starts broaching. In an ocean kayak, you have a long keel that tracks straight, and pedal operated rudder for easy steering and cross wind correction, you just focus your power on forward propulsion. In a canoe, you waste power on steering strokes. I could go on . . .



I see the charm of canoes. If I lived on a lake I'd have a canoe. For calm days. I just think they are to ocean kayaks as a Model T is to a 911.



Anyway, vash, that is why I linked to the second Feathercraft kayak, that can be configured as a double or a single or an open boat ready to load the cooler of beer. Even set up as an open boat, it will run rings around a canoe, especially paddled solo, and especially in more difficult conditions. Then attach the spray deck and you can launch that boat into breaking ocean surf.



The one disadvantage of a kayak is initial stability. They are narrower than canoes, with more rounded bottoms. So they feel more tippy If you're just sitting there, not actively paddling. Like if you're holding a fishing rod instead of a paddle . . . So attach some foam or inflatable sponsons for those situations.

Oh yes the beer. I have never operated a kayak but I would think that the amount of stuff you can carry is limited. In our 14 foot canoe we carried wine, beer, groceries basically enough provisions for several days. I would surmise that the kayak is way safer. To add to the woes of a canoe I noticed that some of the modern ones mentioned above are made of very light materials. The effect of the wind and waves I would think would make them less stable.

Guy