West Greenland Kayak Build, fitting and sizing and 3rd on the water test.
I had my friends Jared and Tom over to check the frame fit on a larger body side. At approximately 6 feet and 190 pounds both guys should really be in the stretched version of this boat. Here I was just looking to get a sanity check on the the new frame geometry. I was happy to see that both guys slid into the boat more easily than previous models, but still had the tight fit that is so necessary for good Greenland kayak performance. It looks like the standard geometry here will be a good fit for up to a 33 inch inseam, After that I would recommend the stretched geometry, which increases the spacing of all framing members by 5% and adds a little more volume as well.
I’m extremely happy with the seating system that’s developing here. I have a lot of injuries that generally preclude Greenland paddling but and the comfort of this latest boat is making me rethink that.
In the previous test I added a small secondary chine to the outside of the gunwales to gauge the effect on stability, and it left me wanting either more or less stability, so I increased the height of that stringer by 1/8 inch, which did increase the feedback on edge, but just like before it cost me a little bit of glide. There are no free lunches.
Fascinatingly I noticed a big change in speed and handling by taking out the 1 inch back rest and moving back in the cockpit. This clearly shows that the balance of the boat is teetering on some type of fluid dynamics threshold, and I need to spend more time understanding that because that’s just too little breathing room on the appropriate trim.
Just for the heck of it Tom got in the boat and went for a quick paddle. I was surprised by how well it worked for him considering that he’s overloading the boat, hasn’t paddled in a year, and has never paddled a Greenland kayak, although I doubt he would’ve been comfortable without the secondary stringer modification. This might make a great rolling kayak for him but for general paddling I would put him in the stretched geometry. You can see him compared to me in the last few photos.
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
