3-6-04: Made a few improvements on the X-boat this
weekend. Removed about 3/4 inch of weld on the rudder so it will now
flip up completely out of the water. I can now use a line alongside
the cockpit to pull the rudder up and out of the water when getting in or
out of the boat in the shallows where backing up is sometimes convenient.
3-7-04: Finished sculpting the streamlined floats. Now have
two. Also drilled vertical hole and used half inch fiberglass rod the
help secure the floats to the outrigger arms. This will prevent them
from rotating on the arm.
Weighed the outrigger with floats: 7 lbs. Weighed the sliding seat:
7 lbs. Added flotation to the boat and to the sliding
seat. Weighed the boat with flotation and without the outrigger
and seat: 45 lbs.
Plan is to paddled the boat with the sliding seat as much as possible
this year to give it a fair chance at success. I think a longer paddle
will help. I have a 54" wood bent shaft paddle I won at race
which will be three inches longer than what I tried last year. Based
on last year's experience paddling the sliding seat setup, I'm optimistic
that the sliding seat will be an efficient way to paddle. I'm thinking
about the ColoradoRiver100
race, but the time of the year couldn't worse for me as far as getting off
work.
Marci and I paddled C-2 at the lake and I brought along a streamlined
float to get an idea of how much resistance it offered. Holding a
three foot section of the arm with the float on the end, the resistance
seemed to be imperceptible at 4 miles per hour. When I pushed he float
down, all I could detect was my downward force. The waves and
turbulence from the float going through the water appeared to be
miniscule. I am satisfied with the design of the streamlined
floats. To fiberglass them or not to fiberglass them is the
question. The weight versus the coefficient of friction is the
question. I think the additional weight would hurt the most.
5-11-04: Paddled the x-boat kayak yesterday at a very
relaxed pace. Never was even close to breathing hard. Got 26:20
which is equal to out best C-2 time last season. This season our
C-2 is running around 28:00 which is normal for this early in the
season. Problem is that my tennis elbow which I developed last winter
while using bad poling technique while XC skiing began to hurt more the
further I paddled. I'm afraid I'll have to skip kayak paddling and go
single blade for the rest of the season. Too bad because the x-boat is
an excellent kayak. Marci can't paddle C-2 with me for awhile because
she has a sore shoulder.
5-13-04: Paddled the x-boat with single blade. This
time put a boat cushion on the kayak seat and adjusted floats as high as
they can go. Used shorter paddle (Marci's 48"). This
combination worked great. Got a 28:20 in windy conditions.
(Yesterday, 5-12-04, I paddled the OCWW C-1 in calm conditions in 29:02.)
5-24-04
:
X-boat turned in 26:38
in windy conditions, wind let up for the second lap and got 25:48. Numerous
slowdowns because I’m not in good kayak shape.
Sore elbow forced me to use good technique, lift with elbow like
swimmer to get paddle out of water. Boat
was very comfortable. What an
excellent kayak!
6-2-04
: X-boat three laps in
1:23:30
that’s about 27:40 per lap. Relaxed
pace, never breathed hard or strained a muscle.
6-3-04
:
X-boat three laps non-stop in
1:16:39
with lap1 26:16
lap 2 24:55 lap 3 25:38 for avg
25:31 Conditions calm. Getting
the paddle high with good elbow lift and jamming it vertically hard in water
produces better speed. Paddle
does splash when it impacts the water but still goes in well because I’m
sitting so high and I’m using good elbow lift. I experimented with
sitting at different heights and it seems that getting exactly the right
height is critical for efficient technique. Good technique makes a big
difference in speed as shown on the GPS and overall efficiency.
If you click on the picture below, a 12MB video will
download.
Click for movie of X-boat cruising as
kayak (6.5MB download, Windows Media Player compatible)
6-15-04: Since we now have GPS to tell
us our speed and we usually prefer miles per hour over km/hr I did some
arithmetic. Those of us with experience in sprint racing know
that a common standard is to be able to do 1000 meters in 4 minutes or
less. How fast is this in mph?
To go 1000meters in 4 minutes you must avg 9.27mph over
the whole 1000m.
(1000m = .62137 mile) (5/8=.625)
4 minutes requires 9.3 mph
5 minutes requires 7.5 mph
6 minutes requires 6.2 mph
Winning times at 2004 Olympics for 1000meters:
C-1 = 3:41 K-1 =
3:25 K-2 = 3:18
K-4 = 2:56
I also did some calculations to determine how fast the
fast guys are going at local races. After looking through all the data
available at the Sound Rowers Web Site,
I selected the American Lake Classic, 5.5 mile course because it
appears that the distance is accurately measured, probably with GPS, and
conditions for the 2003 race were calm with flat water. The course is
a triangular out and back with two turns. Fastest K-1 for 2003 was
Joost Zeegers with a time of 49:42 minutes. I'll use 50 minutes for my
calculations
R*50min=5.5miles
R=0.11*60
R=6.6mph
My Knotsofast X-boat seems to be able to fast cruise (1
hour pace) at
about 6.0 mph on a straight flat course with no wind, no current, and a 60
year old worn-out motor.
7-14-04: Training is going well in
the X-boat kayak. Paddling on lake water for 2 to 4 hours getting an
average speed of 5.4 mph including stops to eat and drink. One hour
race pace is now likely to be a little better than 6.0 due to training
effect. Over 6.0 (6.3 or 6.4) commonly seen on the straight away, but
drops to under 6.0 on the turns.
7-17-04: Got on the
Colorado River (2600 cfs) at 6:38 AM at Redlands Parkway Boat Ramp in Grand
Junction. Passed Fruita State Park in 1 hr 14 min. Passed Loma boat launch 1
hr 45 min. Arrived at Westwater boat ramp in 5 hr 14 min. Note: Drank a 350
calorie chocolate Ensure at 2 hr and it made me a little sick and had to go
slow for awhile. After sickness I made up lost time for an overall average
of 7.5 mph. Drank a 250 calorie vanilla Ensure at 4 hr and felt fine.
Consumed 3 quarts Gatorade and 1 quart water. At the end I weighed 190 lbs
which is right where I should be. The boat handled beautifully although it
was taking on a little water in the waves between boat and splash cover.
Handled some zigzag maneuvers perfectly. Used zigzag maneuvers to avoid
waves. Very comfortable in the boat, could have kept going with no problem
except for the heavy whitewater in Westwater canyon and no permit.
Marek Uliasz and me on the Colorado River
August 7, 2004
8-8-04: Redlands
Parkway Boat ramp to Westwater Ranger station in 5 hrs 9 min with 2600 cfs.
39.22 miles.
8-22-04: The X-boat
was paid the highest compliment while sitting on the ground waiting to race
in the Dotsero to Hanging Lake Race on the Colorado River. After
looking the boat over one bystander said it looked like something from
Lockheed-Martin. That made my day! But as luck would have it,
Mike Lesnik of Montana was at the race with his X-Par Missile. The X-Par Missile is
a 26 ft long solo racing kayak. There is a
nice picture of both boats on Marek
Uliasz's web page
During the race both the X-Par Missile and the X-Boat stopped at
the bottom of the first rapid to retrieve lost paddles from the capsized canoes
that had started ten minutes earlier and tipped over in the rapids.
The rest of the field still hadn't caught up when he missile race was
resumed. Again the Montana Missile proved faster, but it was an honorable first race for the X-boat.
The X-Par Missile won the race and the
X-boat was second.
9-23-04:
The X-boat, my wife Marci, and I made the trip to Texas to
try the CR100 race outside of Austin on the "Colorado
River". Texas
doesn't have rivers to
compare with ours. The
river was the same flat, slow river through tree lined banks for
100 miles. Most
interesting to me is how a whole new sub-culture has developed in
Texas
around the Texas Water
Safari due to their unlimited classes.
The X-boat
certainly turned a few heads and it was the right boat for the
race, but the wrong paddler.
If I use trunk rotation when paddling I aggravate an old
injury. I've been
paddling the X-boat using only shoulders, no trunk rotation or
trunk flexion. This is admittedly not a fast way to paddle
with a double-bladed paddle but I felt I had to do this to prevent
a nasty back spasm.
At the Glenwood Canyon race I accidently used trunk
rotation in the heat of competition and my back was sore and on
the verge of spasm from that point on.
Tried some short runs after Glenwood but it was still sore.
I then took complete rest until the
Texas
race but to no avail.
At 25 miles into the race my back was too sore and ready to
go into spasm so I had to DNF.
But
all was not lost because I had an opportunity to watch the fastest
paddlers and they made a believer out of me that trunk flexion,
which is stronger than rotation and does not bother my old injury,
can be used with a double-bladed paddle.
Never
too old to learn.
Let me start of by telling you that when I
got home from the Texas CR100 I tried incorporating the technique
of winners Fred Mynar and Erin Magee into my stroke.
I spent one session on the lake teaching myself the
technique. I then made
two timed runs down the river and both runs were faster than any
of my previous runs. Okay,
maybe the river was a little higher, so I went to the lake and
tried a five mile time trial.
At the lake I got a 49:28 which was a record for me.
I believe this stroke is more powerful and faster.
I also believe it will require greater cardio fitness.
So what is this stroke?
I like to think of the source of power for any decent
paddle stroke as coming from three potential sources: 1. shoulders
2. trunk rotation 3.
trunk flexion. Single-blade
paddling depends primarily on shoulders* and trunk flexion.
Double-blade paddling depends primarily on shoulders and
trunk rotation. I have
always contended that shoulder and trunk flexion (canoe stroke) is
more powerful than shoulder and trunk rotation (kayak stroke).
Kayaks are generally faster because the kayak hull is
faster and the stroke rate is faster.
Canoe hulls are slower because the paddler must sit higher
to be effective with the single blade and pronounced trunk
flexion. Sitting
higher raises the center of gravity which requires a more stable,
albeit slower, hull.
I love the unlimited classes as they have in
the Texas Water Safari.
An unlimited class with serious competition breeds
creativity. No
where else in the world will you see the boats used in
Texas's
unlimited classes. Also
I’ve never seen the paddling technique used by their fastest
paddlers. They have
developed boats where the height of the seat is somewhere between
kayak and canoe, presumably so they can switch between
single-blade and double-blade on Texas ’s long races.
With their mid-height seat they have successfully combined
the power of the single-blade stroke and the high stroke rating of
the double-blade paddle. They
use trunk flexion and shoulders with the double-blade paddle.
This technique was most obvious to me while watching Fred
Mynar. But I was even
more amazed to see Erin MaGee using the stroke successfully in a
standard sprint kayak. In
sprint kayak it has always been accepted practice to come off the
line using trunk flexion then switch to rotation as to boat gets
up to speed. This is
the way we were coached. Somehow
Erin MaGee didn’t get this coaching and instead imitated the
fastest
Texas
ultra-marathon paddlers and made it work in long distance racing.
I wonder if it would work in a 500 meter race.
But then again, maybe I’ve been away from kayak racing
too long.
*shoulders - uses the trapezes and latisimus for primary power to
move the shoulder and arm from front to back. Teres
major and deltoid also used to move and control the arm.
This can be done without trunk rotation which requires the lower
back
