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Making the World's Fastest Kayak

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the love-boats dept.

bart_scriv writes "BusinessWeek looks at the world's fastest kayak, which floats over the water rather than nosing through waves like more typical boats. Named 'Little Wing' for the fore and aft wings that add stability, the kayak is the creation of Ted Warren. An MIT-educated engineer, Warren 'played around for three years with 3-D wire mesh designs on his PC, crunching the numbers for speed and stability, then started building actual models to test in the waters near his Massachusetts home.'"

4 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Not even close to the world's fastest by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 4, Informative

    It took this guy 3 hours to cross 13 miles. The world's fastest kayak can do 16.9 mph. http://www.kayakwisconsin.net/2006/01/blur.html

    --
    All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
  2. Nice, but I'd rather have a hydrofoil kayak by PapayaSF · · Score: 5, Informative

    Like this one. And did you all know that Alexander Graham Bell was a pioneer in hydrofoils?

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  3. What? by Red+Flayer · · Score: 4, Informative
    FTS:
    BusinessWeek looks at the world's fastest kayak, which floats over the water rather than nosing through waves like more typical boats.
    Huh? Not remotely -- this is not a hovercraft. This is simply an ultra-light kayak with a differently shaped hull based on racing boat designs.

    Nor is it the world's fastest kayak, at least not according to TFA. The best it's finished in a competitive race is 6 seconds out of 1st place.

    OK, it's pretty cool, and I'd like to take it on the Hudson sometime. But don't overhype it, please.
    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  4. Speed and water resistance by pjunold · · Score: 5, Informative

    The expression 'world fastest kayak' is somewhat like 'world fastest running shoes'. Race kayaking is all about the motor and to a much lesser degree about the kayak.

    It makes much more sense to speak about the water resistance of various kayak designs. For some given athlete(balance skills, strength and technique) racing some given distance in some given conditions one could even speak of an optimal design. As a general example - the kayaks used for sprint racing are different from the kayaks used for marathon racing.

    On a related note genetic algorithms have been applied to the problem of finding an optimal hull given a number of constraints: http://www.cyberiad.net/library/kayaks/racing/raci ng.htm
    Nothing revolutionary turned out though.

    /Peter