Seaworthy Kayak ?????

my opion i have worked for fishing companies and have seen 60 fters go down with more than competent captains at the helm, with kayaks it is also who is paddling the kayak and his or her experience. As far as I am concerned they are just as sea worthy as anything out there if built properly. I also have enuf experience on building kayaks and have had the chance of meeting some of what I concider the best paddlers out there.

 

By that then I suppose a life jacket is seaworthy.

Seaworth is to survive the sea and all that can be expected of her, not just daring to nip out in a coastal gale and come back when you've had enough then say proudly "shes a seaworthy craft".

Storms last days. you gonna paddle for days?



If it blew up and we had 20 footers and I was exhausted ,--I would rather be in the sea in a life jacket than trying to balance and paddle against the wind.

I would put my head back and have a snooze whilst you totally exhausted yourself to death and be blown over the horizon out of all expected range, providing of course you don't drop the paddle.

Geeez I think Ide rather be strapped to a bit of polystyrene out of an old TV box. Certainly more seaworthy.

 

You certainly have a point but... with kayak one can have a steady steering, of course limited when it's heavy seas but it's the same restriction with bigger vessels too. Most motored vessels have quite limited range and in this regard a kayak is no worse..

 

Across the Atlantic

well the south atlantic, not the most windy area, but still...

website: http://aleksanderdoba.pl/

 

Most kayaks will not sink, no matter what. They are inherently buoyant.

A good kayaker can stay in the boat through almost anything, and with the spray skirt in place the hull is pretty much one big bubble.

I've heard of cases where kayakers got stranded off shore by a storm off the Washington coast. Two of them were in long sea kayaks and drown and the third was in a short little whitewater kayak and survived. The reason the latter did better is that he was able to stay in the boat even when it repeatedly rolled over and got buried in waves.

Most of the "sea kayaks" out there are long boats for cruising and living out of for several days or weeks. The boats in the videos are specialized surf and whitewater boats. You'll notice how short they are and how easily the roll.

Here are some videos of kayaks in places no normal boat would attempt...

Note how the kayakers frequently gut buried in the waves, yet pop right back up like the proverbial cork.




This one is whitewater, and NOT how it's supposed to look, but is shows the durability of the boats and the paddlers. Well, the boats anyway. It's not the ocean, but then it is worse than most of us will ever see on the ocean.