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Subject:  Rudder's have saved lives |
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Author: Pathfinder |
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Date Posted: 15:08:58 08/04/05 Thu Here is a story about an extreme kayaker and his rudder (most extreme kayakers use a rudder, most country club kayakers use a skeg.) From "Sea Kayak Magazine" article about the only person to cross all Great Lakes Solo. He had to use his rudder, see end of second paragraph and third paragraph. Begin Quote A Vision Made Real: Great Lakes Crossings by Don Dimond H u r o n July 20 found me at Alpena, Michigan. I would be crossing eighty-six miles, so I launched at noon to avoid more than one period of darkness on the lake. After two hours of constant motorboat traffic, I finally made my way into deep water. During the third hour of the crossing, I spotted the first and only ship I would see on the lake. Recalling my near miss on Lake Erie, I abandoned my plan to head for the lake's center and continued directly for Tobermory, Ontario. This would be the second geographical center I would miss, but I felt fine about getting within a few miles of it. During most of the twenty-two-hour-and-forty-five-minute crossing, I dealt with the demons I'd picked up from the Lake Erie incident. The additional twenty-six miles of this crossing caused some new physical challenges. I had to stretch my legs out past my rudder foot controls every few hours to alleviate a pre-cramp twinge in my right thigh. The cramp never came but four hours away from the Ontario coast, I experienced my first and only crossing injury. When I saw Tobermory off in the distance, I felt as though I was not making any forward progress, even though the GPS showed exactly how far away the town was each hour. So I proceeded to increase my pace and paddling force. This eventually lead to a searing pain in my left forearm. I found, to my dismay, that I could not pull my paddle shaft with my left arm at all. The only way I could reach town was to modify my paddle stroke: I paddled on my right side using my regular style, but on my left side I only held the paddle with my left hand, letting the right arm provide all the power. This modified stroke slowed me down, but only by twenty-five percent. I was able to compensate for the vastly different forces on each side of my kayak with my rudder. I don't think that I would have made the same progress with a skeg. I have always used a deployed rudder on the lake crossings so that I save energy by not having to make correcting strokes; keep my legs in motion to reduce the chance of cramping; and hold a much straighter course to reduce my on-water time. I rarely use my rudder on trips or when training, but sixty- to one hundred-mile crossings are an entirely different matter. Finally, I arrived in the peninsula town of Tobermory, Ontario. This would be the first crossing that did not spark any media interest. Link to story and all his other crossings. http://www.seakayakermag.com/1997/aug97/huron.htm From the guy who can't tell the difference from JD to Single Malt Scotch. Pathfinder [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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