New paddler question

I come from a surfing background and picked up a V-12 this past Feb. for a new excercise toy. After laughing myself (and anybody else watching) silly the first day just trying to stay upright I got serious about mastering the beast. Now paddle 3-5 miles several times a week with relative ease and absolutely love it. Until this morning. Instead of our usual wind chop, tide and current (ICW) mixture it was oil slick glass. "Fantastic" I thought, but instead of a secure seat my ski felt skittery and slippery and I found myself wishing for more "life" from the water. Why was the "perfect" water so much more difficult?

I have noticed the same thing many times. The v12 has very little primary stability (what you feel when the boat is flat on calm water) but rock solid secondary stability (what you feel when you lean the boat onto its edge). On flat water the boat is riding entirely on its primary stability. Paddling in waves, on the other hand, there are often "walls" of water pushing against the higher flared out parts of the hull, supporting it from both sides. Water pushing against these sections of the hull brings into play the boats secondary stability. It makes the boat feel much more planted. I think you just have to get used to that "free" feeling of the boat on the flat and then you will be flying. Sounds like you have made awesome progress in very little time!

zachhandler wrote: The v12 has very little primary stability (what you feel when the boat is flat on calm water) but rock solid secondary stability (what you feel when you lean the boat onto its edge). On flat water the boat is riding entirely on its primary stability. Paddling in waves, on the other hand, there are often "walls" of water pushing against the higher flared out parts of the hull, supporting it from both sides. Water pushing against these sections of the hull brings into play the boats secondary stability. It makes the boat feel much more planted. I think you just have to get used to that "free" feeling of the boat on the flat and then you will be flying.

Thank you ZH. This is the best explanation yet of why glassy water feels uncomfortable on a surf ski.

Same deal in a K1. Today in Sydney it was dead calm and glassy. The river I paddle on has many sections where the tide rips through and you get thrown about by all the eddies. paddling into the tide today felt like someone was grabbing the nose of my boat every couple of strokes and pulling it from side to side. It was a pretty good core workout but not a comfortable paddle!

Thanks ZH. That makes perfect sense and helps me understand the hull design much better. Looking forward to flat water flying!

Thanks for the props,too. The V12 has quite a steep and unforgiving learning curve
(IMHO) yet the rewards even in the beginning are totally worth it. She provides a real feeling of accomplishment every time I take her out. Dubbed her "Sophia Dragon Heart".

CM, it sounds like our paddling conditions are quite similar to yours. The river here develops tons of chutes and eddies as the tide fills and empties around many spoil islands and mangrove hammocks. It makes for great paddling fun.

CM, also meant to ask what is the difference between a K1 and a ski?

K1 stands for "kayak - 1 person". The K1 I'm referring to are the kayaks you see being paddled over 200 or 1000m at the Olympics. They are 5.2m long and around 40-43cm at their widest point. Hope that helps.
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Cometa wrote: CM, it sounds like our paddling conditions are quite similar to yours. The river here develops tons of chutes and eddies as the tide fills and empties around many spoil islands and mangrove hammocks. It makes for great paddling fun.

I'm on the Georges river (Sydney South West). Can be fun at times especially on a run out King tide... 10kph against the tide, 14-15kph with the tide!

Thanks for the K1 info. Hats off to you, they look very fast and quite tippy. Yes, I remember the Olympic races now. I bet turbulent water could get interesting fast in one.

I paddle E Florida, Halifax River/Ponce Inlet. I need to purchase a GPS as I have no clue as to speed and quite honestly speed is still second to stability by a fair margin. But my paddling pals are on race sups and I was "Captain Slow" at first, now I am waiting for them to catch up about half the time, so speed is increasing.