Comparisons

Made it BACK to the lake today…. Didn’t push hard, didn’t do much on the miles either.   More a chance to find that ground and center again and think about things.

but the comparison was there to see.   See, Lyssa is fast becoming my goto boat.   But she has a fickle side to her that I only started noting with all the miles I have been putting on her.   Part of it was something that Brudda B mentioned when we had our ‘race notta race’ day. (the race that canceled but we still went out and did a lap ‘justcuz’.)   Lyssa rides bow down when its just me inside.   Her water line is closer to the gunnels at the bow than the stern if I don’t have a load.   The last three or four times I took her to the lake, I was carrying some basic camp stuff, lunch stuff and just in case stuff in the back two hatches and she seemed quite happy with that setup (as indicated by speeds and ease of holding such)

Today, she was plowing water and didn’t like it at all.   Just my fat arse in the cockpit and if I stopped paddling, it FELT like hitting the brakes.   You could feel  her drag down fast.     That explains why she needs that skeg: she tracks straight with a load and no skeg.   Even with that trait showing up, and my not pushing things, I was still holding speeds comparable to Blue Jean when I AM pushing her.   (she is my SUV kayak,  Lyssa is my sportscar kayak)   And I have not found BJ to balk even when loaded: she might wallow a bit, but she is no slower, slightly more stable and I do mean slightly, almost imperceptibly so.   Lyssa gets more stable with a load behind me, and she isn’t exactly unstable to start, but her speeds come on line with that load. 

Things like that are good to know and I found it completely by accident (and a bit of laziness on my part: I didn’t want to lug all that shit to the lake today)

Lyssa is a Tempest 165 pro (meaning she is a composite boat,)  and the Tempest 170’s and 180’s (rarer then hens teeth that last) are the same, everywhere except length, with more volume upfront and the cockpit more aft in ratio than what Lyssa’s is.   And the 170 is what I should be paddling by my weight and height.   That ratio being more aft with more volume where the boat meets water, will raise the bow and make it so the boat doesn’t plow

Not that I am looking,,,, (well, yes, I am, but not seriously, more as pre-emptive for some day in the future,,,,)  

No rush, I have boats I enjoy paddling, for various conditions, and Lyssa would be my summer camper (lakes only) and BJ is my all-arounder (even taking white water rivers,,,,)  Rio is strictly a riverrunner, and the ARC is backup to that,     I have boats.   I have spare boats,,,,  

(UPDATE: Sometimes my posts seem ‘cut off’ and this one was one such. Its a symptom of “Felinus interruptus”,,, a special mental disorder that has no real cure,,,,,)