Sea kayak

A Sea kayak is a kayak developed for the sport of paddling on open waters of lakes, bays, and the ocean. Sea kayaks are seaworthy small boats with a covered deck and the ability to incorporate a spraydeck. They trade off the extreme manueverability of whitewater kayaks for cargo capacity, ease of straight-line paddling, and comfort for long journeys.

Sea kayaks are now used around the world for marine journeys from a few hours to many weeks, as they can accommodate one or two (occasionally three) paddlers together with room for camping gear, food, water, and other supplies. The sport of sea kayaking (sometimes called ocean kayaking) combines much of the appeal of hill-walking with a maritime aspect, few access issues and an almost infinite area to enjoy.

History

Archaeologists have found evidence indicating kayaks to be at least 4000 years old.

The word "kayak" comes from a native word meaning "hunter's boat", and native Aleuts and Inuit used them to hunt on inland lakes, rivers and the sea, and were made of seal skins and frames from collected driftwood, as the areas where kayaks originated are treeless. Though the term "kayak" is now used broadly for this class of boat, native people made many different types of boat for different purposes. The baidarka is a double or triple kayak developed by the Alaskan Aleut, used for hunting and transporting passengers or goods. An "umiak" is an open decked boat ranging from 17 feet to 60 feet, made with seal skins and wood. It was paddled with single bladed paddles and typically had more than one paddler. It is thought the kayak originally started out as a decked over umiak and evolved into its traditional form.

Contemporary sea kayaks trace their origins primarily to the native boats of Alaska, northern Canada, and Southwest Greenland. Wooden kayaks and fabric kayaks on wooden frames (such as the Klepper) were dominating the market up until 1950s, when fiberglass boats were first introduced. Rotomolded plastic kayaks first appeared in 1984.

Design

Modern sea kayaks come in a wide array of materials, designs, and sizes to suit a variety of intended uses. The primary distinction is between rigid kayaks and folding (skin-on-frame) kayaks. While many modern kayaks carry the design features of traditional craft, recent design innovation includes:

Recreational kayaks, small sea kayaks with wide beams and large cockpits;
Sit-on-top kayaks, rotomolded boats without an enclosed cockpit, but with other sea kayak features;
Inflatable kayaks, employing a rigid frame with inflatable sponsons; and
Surf skis, long, narrow boats intended for use in breaking waves.

Size

Most production sea kayaks are between 12 feet and 24 feet in length, the larger kayaks often built for two (or in rare cases, three) paddlers. The width (beam) of typical kayaks varies from 18 inches to 28 inches, though specialized boats such as surf skis may be narrower. The length of a kayak affects not only its cargo capacity (for both gear and paddlers) but also its "tracking" ability -- the ease with which the boat travels in a straight line. While other design features also impact tracking, long kayaks are easier to paddle straight (and harder to turn). The width of a kayak impacts the cargo capacity, the maximum size of the cockpit (and thus the size of the paddler in that cockpit), and (to a degree that depends on the design of the hull) the stability.

Material

Most rigid production kayaks are now made from fiberglass, rotomolded polyethylene, and kevlar, though there are more exotic materials, such as carbon fiber and Royalex, and hand-built systems, such as "stressed skin" plywood. Skin kayaks are built on wood or aluminum frame covered in canvas, dacron or other fabrics, and may include inflatable tubes called sponsons.

Bow, stern, and deck

There are many design approaches for the bow, stern, and deck of kayaks. Some kayaks have upturned bows, with the intention of better performance into wave and better wave-shedding ability, while others aim to achieve this through increase bouyancy in the bow. Kayaks with unobstructed stern decks may ease certain types of self-rescue. Sea kayak decks typically include one or more hatches for easy access to the interior storage space of the boat. Kayak decks often include attachment points for deck lines of various kinds, which are aids in self-rescue and attachment points for above-deck equipment and storage.

Other

Many sea kayaks have steering gear or tracking aids in the form of rudders or skegs. In most cases rudders are attached at the stern and operated, via wires, from foot peddles in the cockpit. Rudders are typically retractable for beach landings. Skegs are straight blades that drop from a well in the stern of the boat to assist in straight-line paddling against adverse wind or current.

Paddles

Sea-kayak paddles, and the associated paddling styles, fall into two basic classifications:

European: two roughly spoon-shaped blades at either end of a cylindrical shaft. This paddle style was developed for fast acceleration and sudden maneuvering in Whitewater kayaking, and then back-ported to sea-kayaking. Euro paddles can be made of aluminum, plastic or even wood, but the best are usually formed of more expensive materials like carbon-fiber for lightness. Often the two blades are feathered, or set at an angle relative to each other (both for ergonomic efficiency, and so that as one blade moves backwards through the water, the opposite blade moving forward through the air presents its edge, rather than its face).

Greenland: a long, narrow, flattened wooden plank with a cylindrical grip only in the center, something like two elongated cricket bats joined at the base of their handles. This is the traditional paddle style of Inuit kayak hunters, originally owing mainly to constraints of their materials (primarily driftwood). Greenland paddle blades are usually not feathered. Greenland paddling technique involves more movement of the paddle in the paddler's hands, and a much larger variety of techniques for righting a capsized kayak using combinations of body and paddle movements, several of which rely on the added buoyancy of the wooden paddle. Some Greenland paddling techniques are also intimately linked with Greenland kayak designs and other elements of Greenland-style equipment and conditions, but Greenland-style paddles are also sometimes used by paddlers in otherwise modern kayaks.

Trips

Weekend trips with overnight camping are popular amongst recreational kayakers, and many people combine kayaking with watching wildlife. Modern sea kayaks are designed to carry large amounts of equipment, and unsupported expeditions of two weeks or more are conducted in environments from the tropics to the arctic. Expedition kayaks are designed to handle best when loaded, so it may be necessary to ballast a boat on shorter trips.

Notable Expeditions

In November 2005 the first kayak circumnavigation of South Georgia in the Southern Atlantic was completed in 18 days, a distance of 600 km^*.
In 1977, Paul Caffyn was the first person to circumnavigate the South Island of New Zealand. He describes it in his book Obscured by Waves.
In his book Cold Oceans (1999), Jon Turk describes his solo circumnavigation of Cape Horn.
Adventurer Chris Duff has circumnavigated both Ireland and New Zealand.
Eric Stiller and Tony Brown attempted circumnavigation of Australia. Described in the book Keep Australia on your left.

Safety

A sea kayak's primary safety device is its paddler. Most modern kayakers consider a well-practiced self-righting move called an Eskimo roll to be essential to safe open-water kayaking, though this move can be difficult or impossible in a heavily-laden boat. While there are a number of technique for unassisted righting and re-entry of a kayak after a capsize, most paddlers consider it safest to paddle with one or more others, as assisted rescues are more likely to succeed. Nonetheless, experienced paddlers do attempt open water crossings unaccompanied, and several major long-distance kayak expeditions have been carried out "solo". There is a strong culture of self-sufficiency amongst sea kayakers and extensive safety equipment such as towing lines, repair kits and survival gear is routinely carried.

External links

Boat types | Canoeing | Kayaks | Kayaking

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