Shortening boats? - Is it a good idea to shorten a K1?

G_Man · Post by **G_Man** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:33 pm

I was kindly given a Double Dutch Midas Touch slalom kayak and have competed in a few races with it, with some success.

Does anyone have any experience of shortening a composite boat to take advantage of the newer rules?

Is it worth doing, or will it spoil a good boat? Does the shorter length make a significant improvement to manoeuvrability?

Dutch Geezer · Post by **Dutch Geezer** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:11 pm

Lots of boats have been done.

Speak to Nick Smith at Nottingham, he does an excellent job and its much less scary than cutting bits off the boat yourself.

davebrads · Post by **davebrads** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 10:46 pm

My personal feeling is that it usually isn't worth it. I have seen too many perfectly good boats screwed up by overzealous shortening. The problem seems to come from the big round end that is produced at the stern, it causes the boat to be unstable and unpredictable on bigger water.

Some boats (the Optima is a good example) have tail sections with a concave line along the edge. Some nice jobs have been done on the Optima, with good results, where the line along the stern has been followed to produce a fairly small radius at the end of the boat.

G_Man · Post by **G_Man** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:05 pm

Thanks for your comments, I will bear them in mind.

Train2Win · Post by **Train2Win** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm

If you have a midas and don't want to have flat ends then perhaps shorten to 365 or longer instead of 350, then you can taper the ends. Shortening the boat will make it turn quicker, and in useful in places like Nottingham as you will be less likely to hit the bank with your tail when exiting ups that are near the side.

canoecrazy · Post by **canoecrazy** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:45 pm

In our club we have an unused c2. we was talking to a coach about it and we thought it would be a good/cool idea to shorten in and play about in it on places such as:hpp,tees,hpp....ect is this a good idea or a bad idea??? ??? ???