Matching Kayak Volume to Paddler/Use

[EEL]

Following up on the recent threads about ballast and such, I ran across a suggestion on a German kayak site for sizing a kayak to the paddler and wondering if it seems to make sense. They suggest that the total weight of the kayak, paddler, and gear carried should be between 30% and 60% of the kayak's volume. Since a liter equals a kilogram the matching would go like this:

If an NDK Explorer has a total volume of @345 liters, then the total load including boat weight for a reasonably "spirited" ride would be say 40% of 345 or 138Kg which is @304# while for a fully loaded "touring" ride the total load is 60% of 345 or 207Kg which is @455# So assuming a 60# boat and 30# of kit, the "right" day paddler weight would be 214# while the same boat with a touring load of 80# on top of the 90# would suggest a touring paddler weight of a little more actually. If an Anas Acuta has a volume of 288 liters, the using the same estimates for boat and kit, the day paddler weight would be 163# and a touring load paddler weight again of more.

It would be interesting to compare the numbers derived using this method with the suggested load ranges published by P&H and Valley. I guess a spreadsheet is waiting to be written.

Curious if the suggestion of 30% to 60% of volume to determine total load makes sense to those so inclined to ruminate on techy issues.

If it is basically valid, then it does point to why light paddlers have a hard time fining a boat that works for them, some have boats considered demanding, but they mellow them out well, and some may have boats that are really too big to work as designed without a fair bit of weight added.

Just thoughts for a rainy day.

Ed Lawson

[chetpk]

'EEL' date='Sep 14 2007, 03:38 PM'

Following up on the recent threads about ballast and such, I ran across a suggestion on a German kayak site for sizing a kayak to the paddler and wondering if it seems to make sense. They suggest that the total weight of the kayak, paddler, and gear carried should be between 30% and 60% of the kayak's volume. "

Considering that the Inuits sized all aspects of their kayaks (length, width, depth) that they built to correspond directly to different proportions of their body I imagine they were thinking exactly the same on the importance of the weight to volume ratio.