A bit of wind blowing you the way you want to go more or less - what could be better?
In very light winds nobody really notices the wind direction, but as the wind strength increases and usually somewhere between a Beaufort 2 and a 3 we enter the world of skegs. With a typical group there will be some paddlers with rudders, some with skegs and some with neither. A few years ago, everyone wanted a boat with a rudder, but two years ago this changed to everyone wanting a boat with a skeg. Basically 'I don't care what the boat is as long as it has a skeg'. As we all know, most sea kayaks are designed to weathercock - that is turn so that it heads into the wind, and accurate deployment of the skeg will counteract this tendency and balance the boat on the required heading.
So what's the problem?
First we have the skegs themselves - when the skegbox is not jammed with small stones (remember we just left the beach) and the control wire is not kinked (someone tried to force the skeg to deploy) and there is not too much sand in the wire's sleeve it is usually possible to put the skeg up and down and sometimes even points in between.
Next we have the paddler who asked for the boat with the skeg but has no concept of what it does and often little idea of where the wind is coming from. There is nothing wrong with this of course - we all started out in the same ignorance, and many of the visitors and keen to improve their skills.
On a crossing of maybe one or two kilometres there is time to help each paddler get their skeg adjusted correctly and maybe encourage them to learn a bit about how the boat reacts to different amounts of skeg. Following a typical bit of coast with frequent changes of direction and apparent wind ....
As our following wind (or at least a wind from somewhere behind the paddler) increases we begin to get significant wave action and maybe some swell from further afield. This tends to divide the group, with the more experienced paddlers revelling in the chance to let the boat zing along - just as the less experienced are struggling with directional control even if they have rudders, frequently having to use a backward stroke and feeling vulnerable to capsize.
In even stronger winds, broaching can become common and seriously hamper the groups progress - so what do we do?
Raft up and get the sail out of course.
In very light winds nobody really notices the wind direction, but as the wind strength increases and usually somewhere between a Beaufort 2 and a 3 we enter the world of skegs. With a typical group there will be some paddlers with rudders, some with skegs and some with neither. A few years ago, everyone wanted a boat with a rudder, but two years ago this changed to everyone wanting a boat with a skeg. Basically 'I don't care what the boat is as long as it has a skeg'. As we all know, most sea kayaks are designed to weathercock - that is turn so that it heads into the wind, and accurate deployment of the skeg will counteract this tendency and balance the boat on the required heading.
So what's the problem?
First we have the skegs themselves - when the skegbox is not jammed with small stones (remember we just left the beach) and the control wire is not kinked (someone tried to force the skeg to deploy) and there is not too much sand in the wire's sleeve it is usually possible to put the skeg up and down and sometimes even points in between.
Next we have the paddler who asked for the boat with the skeg but has no concept of what it does and often little idea of where the wind is coming from. There is nothing wrong with this of course - we all started out in the same ignorance, and many of the visitors and keen to improve their skills.
On a crossing of maybe one or two kilometres there is time to help each paddler get their skeg adjusted correctly and maybe encourage them to learn a bit about how the boat reacts to different amounts of skeg. Following a typical bit of coast with frequent changes of direction and apparent wind ....
As our following wind (or at least a wind from somewhere behind the paddler) increases we begin to get significant wave action and maybe some swell from further afield. This tends to divide the group, with the more experienced paddlers revelling in the chance to let the boat zing along - just as the less experienced are struggling with directional control even if they have rudders, frequently having to use a backward stroke and feeling vulnerable to capsize.
In even stronger winds, broaching can become common and seriously hamper the groups progress - so what do we do?
Raft up and get the sail out of course.
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