On flatwater no wind, no current, just over 10km/h - downwind 15km/h is record average speeds - downwind they hit 30km/h + max speeds

gregc said..

Mate of mine was saying the other day that apparently a 14ft race board starts to plain at 9.2km per hour, so to add to the question (and seeing I will never achieve those sorts of speeds) when a race board is planning does it become easier to paddle or harder??

I thought a race board would never get to plaining speed unless on a downwinder.On flat water the faster you go the more drag you create due to a larger stern and bow wave , so the board becomes harder to paddle not easier.Probably a different story for a needle like hull , but then you couldnt stand on itIm always envious of skis like the epic design when they fly past me with little effort and then i start thinking , thats bad

The top 11 men in the distance race at BOP averaged 9.9 km/hr over 16 km!

NoogaSUP said..

First post here...

So, my understanding is that all water craft have a maximum hull speed. That speed can be exceeded, but for every increment over that theoretical hull speed it takes exponentially more effort. Longer and skinnier is better, but then (as someone else pointed out) you still have to be able to balance the craft. There's a set of laws in physics having to do with Froude Numbers that I wouldn't pretend to understand, but here's one article that might shed a little light on the question: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed

Anyways, here is the board I've been playing around with lately. This was built by John Diller of Savage River (he calls it the Needle). It is 18'-6" long, and is 27" max at the water line:

Ok - that looks mighty fine - how fast does that thing go???

The top paddlers can exceed the theoretical max hull speed for shorter distances - Connor did 13km/h-ish(?) over the 200m sprint for instance. The top guys hit 14km/h+ off the starts

Petehoppo said..

Come on Nooga, give us some idea of how fast you can paddle that needle and what it's like to stand on. Is it like balancing on a needle or quite stable?

Sorry- was tied up in meetings. So far Ben Friberg (the fellow who set the 238 mile record on the Yukon last year and who just paddled from Cuba to Key West) got it up to 9.8 MPH, so that's what, nearly 16 km/h? That was top speed on a sprint, not sustained. Ben had just gotten on it to try it out for a few minutes, he wasn't warmed up or anything.

I normally paddle a 2012 model 14' Carbon Fanatic Fly Flatwater Race, and my normal average speeds are in the mid to upper 5 MPH range (maybe 9 km/h). I've been trying to work through some sort of muscle problem in my back / right side, so I have not been running up to par since I've had this board here (about one week now). Even so, I am already faster on it than I am my Fanatic.

It is not stable at all in my experience. It is purely a flatwater board. I can balance it, but I do spend more energy doing balance checks than I should. I would think my skill would improve with more time on the board and would hope to see average speeds in the low 6 MPH range (around 10 km/h). Understand that this paddling is all occurring on the Tennessee River. We have variable current and wind, as well as some boat wakes, barge traffic, etc. Most of the mornings I have been out on this board have been glassy, with only the occasional boat wake or moderate breeze.

The salesman in me says the way to work this out is to all register for the GPS Challenge :).

But I would never use a seabreeze post to further a project :)

I had a look at those Sunnits they are more expensive then I would have thought. I saw so many GPS devices on the weekend seems everyone is making them now. I love my Garmin but there is so much choice now.