Help Repair the MCA Big Boat
by Adrienne Madson

Cruisin’
by Shirley Kysilko, Cruise Director

One of the factors that can affect the performance of our boats on cruises is the manner in which we load our gear. This may be obvious to many of you, but for some paddlers, it is not something they have thought about. One consideration is the initial stability of the boat. The lower the center of gravity, the greater the initial stability (which is why some paddlers lower their seats as well). Gear should be kept low in the boat with the heaviest gear on the bottom. Another consideration is wind. T he more things sticking up above the gunwales, the greater the wind resistance. Again, keeping things low helps, and many paddlers install spray covers that help even more.

Another major consideration is the trim of the boat, both side to side and fore and aft. If a boat is weighted so it lists to one side, it will be difficult to steer since it will tend to veer off to one side. Paddlers can compensate for this by moving to one side or the other on bench seats, but this gets tiresome. Trim can be checked before setting out by floating the boat with the gear in it. Trim fore and aft is more variable. In general, it is best to have the boat level. Seats can be moved if t hey are adjustable, or a couple of small packs can be used for making adjustments and taking into consideration any difference in the sizes of the paddlers. Sometimes it is useful to not be exactly level. Going upstream or upwind, it can help to have the bow slightly lower. In general, in thinking about the trim of the boat, it helps to think about what kind of profile we are presenting to wind or current and how we can use those forces to help us travel more easily. How we load our gear can be a big facto r in our traveling comfort.

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