MICRONAUTICAL BOAT DESIGN

Rowing allows us to use the larger muscles in our back and legs, and thus we can generate more power with a set of oars than with a paddle. Rowing is a low impact sporting activity, and it’s far less likely to hurt your back and legs than traditional kayaking in the L posture would. Since paddling W kayaks in the Riding posture doesn’t hurt your back, neither does rowing them.
Rowing offers you to exercise your legs, back, arms, abdomen and chest.
Despite the mechanical advantage of rowing, it is not popular for recreational touring and for propelling small, recreational fishing boats such as canoes and kayaks.
This can be attributed to rowing requiring a better technique, to the fact that in most cases rowing implies that you face the direction from which you came rather than the direction to which you’re going, and to the fact that rowing boats need to be bigger and often heavier than kayaks.
But rowing has its fans among people who fish from small boats such as canoes and dinghies, and even from kayaks.

The W kayak naturally lends itself to rowing, due to its unrivaled stability, and its high saddle that allows for the effective use of the passengers’ legs.

Paddle / Rowing Oars System For Quick Kayak Position Adjustments For Fishing Fast Species, By Brandon Cutter

Here is an example of a rowing setup for a W300 kayak used for offshore fishing in Cape Cod, Massachusetts: The oars are made from a two-piece, extra long, double-blade canoe paddle. When the angler wants to paddle, all he has to do is assemble the paddle. Town people can paddle this kayak using the two pieces of this paddle separately, as single-blade (canoe) paddles.  More about this fishing kayak rowing system >>

Rowing Oars For W Fishing Kayak, by Jim Luckett, SailBoatsToGo

Jim Luckett is a professional designer who offers an out of the box rowing oars kit for the W500 fishing kayak.
Jim’s product is lightweight, efficient, and easy to install. More about this W fishing kayak rowing oars setup >

W500 Fishing Kayak Rigged With Rowing Oars, by Dave Baumbaugh, Pennsylvania

Dave Baumbaugh tried paddling his W500, and even stood up and paddled, but he also a set of oar locks on it, and was amazed by how fast and effortless rowing it was:

More about Dave’s fishing kayak with rowing oars >>

Bass Fishing Kayak With Rowing Oars and Outriggers, by Wayne Taylor, Florida

Due to his advanced age and balance impairment, Wayne needed a fishing platform that’s both extremely stable as well as comfortable. Back in 2006, when he purchased his W300, the W500 series wasn’t available, which is why Wayne added a pair of DIY outriggers to his kayak. Here is a movie showing Wayne’s rowing fishing kayak in action:

Interestingly, Wayne uses the oars to row ‘forward’ –

More about this fishing kayak with rowing oars >

It’s really bad!

Rudders have become a necessity in modern SOT, sit-in, and hybrid fishing kayaks, simply because most of these kayaks have become so wide and hard to paddle (I.E. ‘barges’) that they lost the ability to track properly, which is and essential requirement from any boat.

Kayak manufacturers have constantly increased the width of the fishing kayaks they offer, as a response to the demand for more stability. But this change comes at a price of a decrease in speed, control, and tracking capability that’s often coupled with lackluster performance in maneuverability.

In comparison, no W-kayak paddler or angler has ever felt the need for a rudder for paddling. This is a particularly interesting fact, considering the W-kayak is shorter than most kayaks out there, and considering the fact it’s used for a multitude of applications in a wide range of aquatic environments, including long trips in the ocean, big lakes and wide rivers, where a kayak is required to perform well in tracking terms.

What’s wrong with rudders?

Well, to begin with, they cost extra money, and better rudders are very expensive.

More importantly, they slow down your kayak by 10% in average, according to serious speed research performed on kayaks in tow-tanks.

And most importantly, rudders are  often cumbersome and difficult to handle. Handling them requires your attention and the use of one of your hands, or of both your feet, and that’s when there are other things you’d like to do when you’re in your kayak, such as paddling or fishing, rather than steering.

On top of these issues, and that’s really too bad for paddlers and fishermen who go in shallow water, rudders tend to get stuck in the bottom, bump into rocks or branches down there, and get entangled in sea weed, so they limit your range of paddling and fishing in areas that are considered promising for both these activities.

Besides, like any mechanical device, rudder systems can break, and their cables can get jammed or torn.  If such a problem occurs, it can become anywhere between unpleasant and hazardous, especially if you find yourself far from shore, and if weather is getting nasty, the wind is picking up, it’s getting dark, the tide is getting strong etc.  -Sounds too scary? Remember rule number one in kayaking is ‘Stuff Happens’… and it can happen to you!

In sum, rudders are yet another necessary evil imposed on the sit-in, hybrid and SOT kayak anglers, while W-kayakers and kayak anglers should be thankful they need neither purchase nor use such awkward devices.

More about kayak speed >>

When rigging your W fishing kayak with an electric trolling motor, you face the choice of attaching the motor in the front of the kayak, in the rear, or on the side – next to you.
Each of these locations offers certain advantages, and presents disadvantages as well.

The motor’s location can affect safety, stability, speed, steering, tracking, entry and exit, reentering, as well as fishability, since the location of the motor and steering handle could limit your range of motion when casting baits and lures, reeling in the fish, and landing them. This is why you’d better study whatever information is available on these subjects, and see what configuration best fits your personal transportation and fishing requirements.

Front Motor and Steering

Having the motor in the front can produce a fun, ‘scooter’ feel, as you can see in this video of Dan Carroll’s motorized W300 – one of the first projects in this field:

More info about this W300 kayak outfitted with with an electric trolling motor >

Having the electric motor in the front can produce a ‘chopper’ motorcycle effect as well, as Richard Dion’s motorized W500 has:

 

This ‘road bike’ look and feel is partly due to the lowered seat and generous cushioning.
See more about this motorized offshore fishing kayak >

It’s possible to install the motor in the front and steer by means other than a handle.
In any case, attaching the motor in the front of the kayak can create a safety issue when navigating in shallow water, as the motor won’t bounce up if it hits bottom, or a submerged obstacle. In such case, the motor could be damaged, as well as its mount, and even the kayak itself.
As far as steering is concerned, the driver being located away from the motor limits their effective range of turning. This is not necessarily a problem, unless you want to make sharp turns, or in case you need to navigate through fasts streams and turbulent waters.

More info about motorizing your fishing kayak >

England was the cradle of many inventions, including the motorized W fishing kayak, and by that we mean outboard gas engine, and not electric trolling motor  🙂

It was Jim McGilvray, from Wroxham, UK, who had the idea of outfitting a 2007 W300 fishing kayak with a 2.5 hp Suzuki outboard motor. He realized his idea, and this is how it looked:

The 2007 W300 was a small, narrow W kayak, and Jim needed to add a pair of outriggers to his motor-kayak, since that thing was going a bit too fast for its size, or one may argue that it was flying too low… 😀
Safety first!

More about this DIY kayak motorizing project project >>

More about motorizing fishing kayaks >>

Jim’s kayak outriggers are his own design, and he made them all by himself.

Ergonomics has to do with comfort, and ergonomic kayak design implies that the person using the kayak should be comfortable being in it, and using it.
But Ergonomics is also about bio mechanics, or more specifically bio mechanical engineering, which has to do with how the user operates the kayak, their effective range of motion, and how effectively they can propel the kayak without getting injured or tired doing so.
When fishing kayaks are concerned, ergonomics and bio mechanics are related to questions such as how hard it is for an angler to cast from the kayak, is it possible for them to fish from it for more than a short time without feeling back pain, tingling and numbness in their legs.

Other questions may be how hard it is to enter the kayak when launching it, and hard it is to get out when beaching, how difficult is it to balance the kayak in case you’re standing on it and attempting to fish, and more.

The best reference related to the fundamental issue of back pain is an article called Lumbar Spine and Kayak Back Pain, from which we brought this excerpt:

 

As you can see, the lumbar spine consists of rigid vertebrae and more flexible cartilage between them. This part of the spine supports the combined weight of the upper part of the body, including the torso, head and arms, and it is normally supported by the massive structure of the hip bones below.
In other words, in its natural state, there is nothing that pushes, holds, or supports the lumbar spine from any direction except from its top and bottom, and what holds it in this normal position are the muscles around it.

How Did the Lumbar Spine Become a Problem for Kayak Fishermen and Paddlers?

The native people of the arctic, who originally created the first kayaks were used to sit down on the floor with their legs stretched forward, and therefore didn’t have any use for additional support for their lumbar spine. This is why native kayaks did not feature a backrest, or any other ‘lumbar support’.
When Westerners began paddling those aboriginal kayaks they noticed they had problems staying upright with their legs stretched forward, in the posture known as the L position. This is because they were not used to sitting in this position in everyday life, and the muscles in their body weren’t adjusted to it. Rather than adjusting the paddler to the kayak, designers and manufacturers decided it would be easier to try and adapt the kayak to the paddler, and introduced a combination of backrest and footrests designed to lock the kayakers in the L position, and prevent their upper body from ‘falling’ backward or sliding forward (‘slouching’).
The kayak paddler, or fisherman is effectively ‘supported’ by three rigid points anchored in the kayak: two footrests and one back rest. By continuously pushing against those three points, the kayak fisherman’s legs provide the power necessary to maintain his body in its place, and in the required posture.