First Things

Naming of Parts—Kayaks

By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

It used to be that canoes were far and away the most common type of recreational paddlecraft on the water. In recent years, though, this has started to change. Kayaks—think of them as skinny, shallow canoes with lids—have soared in popularity, and now they're everywhere you look. Maybe that's why you're thinking about getting one.

Kayaks come in a great variety of lengths and widths, but they all share some common characteristics. The accompanying illustration will help you figure out what's what. It's a picture of a solo kayak—that is, a kayak meant to be paddled by one person. If it were a tandem kayak, it would have two seats.

You'll find the seat in a solo boat by looking inside the cockpit, the large hole in the deck. (The bottom half of a kayak is the hull; the top half is the deck.) A kayak's seat can either be suspended from the cockpit rim or set directly on the bottom of the boat. The smaller holes toward the ends of many boats are hatches. They let you stow gear under the bow (front) and stern (rear) deck, and then they let you get it out again without growing five-foot-long arms. Hatches are closed with watertight covers. At least the covers are supposed to be watertight. And some of them are, at least some of the time.

Cockpit shapes and sizes vary. Some Greenland-style sea kayaks have small, nearly circular cockpits. The cockpits in most modern recreational and touring boats, though, are larger ovals. This is a good thing if you're not as slim as you used to be. Folding kayaks—kayaks made with removable fabric covers stretched over hinged wood or metal frames—often have bigger cockpits still. Large or small, however, the cockpits of most kayaks can be covered by a spray skirt, a sort of waterproof kilt that you pull around your waist and then slip over the cockpit rim, or coaming. This keeps the water where it belongs—outside the boat.

Inside your kayak, you'll probably find two footbraces. These are usually screwed or riveted along the seams of the boat, or (in poly boats) in the places where the seams would be, if poly boats had seams. You rest the balls of your feet against the footbraces and nestle your knees against recesses or pads on the underside of the deck. If you've got things adjusted just right, your boat will almost become an extension of your body. Total control! It's a good feeling.

Often there are foam partitions inside a kayak, too. These are called walls or bulkheads. They're glued or otherwise fastened in place, where they act as stiffeners and help to prevent the deck from collapsing. (This is only a problem if a capsized boat is pinned against a rock or other obstacle. It's not something most flatwater paddlers need to worry about.) Bulkheads can also be used to seal off one or both ends of the kayak, forming watertight storage compartments for your gear. You load these compartments through the aforementioned hatches.

If you really get into kayak touring, you'll probably want to outfit your boat with all sorts of gadgets, from a deck compass to a bilge pump. By that time, though, you won't need much help from me. You'll be well on your way to becoming an expert. 'Nuff said.

Copyright © 2001 by Verloren Hoop Productions. All rights reserved.

First Things

Naming of Parts—Canoes

By \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Canoes come in many different shapes and sizes, and they've been made of all kinds of materials, from paper to concrete. No matter how much they differ, though, they all share certain bits and pieces. We're going to look at some of them here.

To begin with, what makes a canoe different from other boats? Good question. But it's not an easy one to answer. In fact, I won't even try. I don't have to. Farwell took a stab at it a while back. If you're curious, check out his article. (See the first entry in Further Reading, below.) For the moment, however, let's just assume that we all know a canoe when we see one. And now let's name some of the parts.

Take a look at the illustration below. It shows a tandem canoe. A tandem canoe is one designed for two paddlers. Solo boats are intended for…well…solo paddlers. Simple, eh?

Surprised? You didn't know that a canoe could have so many parts? Happily, many of them are self-explanatory. How hard is it to recognize a seat when you see one, after all? But look closer. The two seats aren't the same. One is wider than the other, and it's set further back from its end. What's going on?

Here's the skinny. Many—but not all!—canoes are symmetrical: the front end of the canoe is the same shape as the back end. But paddlers aren't symmetrical. Our front ends don't look much like our back ends, do they? And the two paddlers in a tandem canoe have to face the same way. (You can try paddling facing in opposite directions, but I don't recommend it.) When two paddlers are seated in a tandem canoe, therefore, they both face the front end of the boat, or the bow, and the bow paddler has to squeeze his legs into a narrow, tapered space. So his seat has to be pushed back. The paddler in the rear of the boat—that's the stern—has a much easier time of it. She's got all the room in the world for her legs. So her seat can be closer to her end of the boat.

If the seats are placed right, the result is a well-balanced boat. Canoes are usually happiest when they're trimmed, or balanced, more or less level. That makes sense, doesn't it? In a solo canoe, therefore, the single seat is usually placed just aft of midships. Translation: it's just behind the middle of the boat. That makes for good balance and easy paddling.

Take another look at the illustration above. You'll notice that the canoe in the picture has three thwarts. Thwarts stiffen the canoe and prevent the sides from pulling apart under load. Not all canoes have three thwarts. Some canoes have two; others, only one. A few really large canoes have more than three. It doesn't matter how many thwarts your canoe has, though, just as long as it has enough.

Now look at the cross-section—the sketch that shows you what you'd see if you cut a canoe in half. (Don't try this with your boat!) You'll notice the term tumblehome. No, it's not what the jolly voyageurs did when they'd drunk too much double-distilled rum. Tumblehome refers to the inward slope of the sides of the canoe, up near the boat's gunwale, or top rail. The gunwale—it's pronounced "gunnel," by the way—also acts as a structural support, just like the thwarts. It defines the shape of the boat, in other words, and it helps hold that shape under stress.

Not all canoes have tumblehome. Some have sides that slope outward. This is called flare. And some are straight up and down. (A few sophisticated canoes have flare, tumblehome, and straight sides in different places along their hulls. Isn't fiberglass wonderful?)

Now let's get to the bottom of things. The fore-and-aft centerline of the bottom of a canoe is the keel. Some boats have completely flat, or straight, keels, but most lift a bit at the ends. This lift is called rocker, and it makes boats easier to turn. Canoes with straight keels want to go straight. Canoes with a lot of rocker want to turn. Flatwater paddlers like straight keels. Whitewater paddlers like rockered boats. Different strokes….

Take time to get to know your canoe, and to learn the names of its parts. But remember, the most critical part of a canoe is the big hole at the top that lets in all the water. You want to keep that part high and dry! 'Nuff said.

Copyright © 2001 by Verloren Hoop Productions. All rights reserved.