Kayak Hulls

[Peter]

Can anyone explain the relative advantages/disadvantages of the hard chine (greenland style) huls vs the rounder huller kayaks?

[ruge13]

I will give it a shot...
They are similar in that both are built for performance. Hard Chine boats are designed for turning performance where round hulls are for speed. They both should have a similar top end speed but due to the design and a reduced wetted surface on the round hull, that boat should require less energy to maintain a higher cruising speed than the same energy exerted with a hard chine boat. Hard chines are meant for leaned turns and will turn quickly. The hard chine turning ability is very responsive but the trade off is cruising speed. As for stability, Hard chined boats have very low initial stability but increased secondary stability relative to roud hull boats. The oposite is true for round hulls. If I am wrong someone please correct me..

[Wes]

Here's an article with a little additional info. It's abt plywood boats but multi-chined are very similar to rounded chine boats of other construction.

http://www.pygmyboats.com/Comparison.htm

When I had no experience paddling I tried a couple hard chined boats and thought they were too squirrely for fishing. They seemd to have minds of their own if you were distracted for a moment. I may have a different opinion now. it may be an advantage to be able to steer the boat with yr hips once you get used to it.

[adson]

I think the concept that a hard chine may have less initial
stability that a round hull may not always be true.

the differences may blur when you start to change the
hull shapes to meet the limits of either type.

I think that the amount of initial stability of the hard chine
is going to be affected by the amount of deadrise and the
rocker. if you have a flat bottom ( no deadrise) out to the
first chine and no rocker, you will have a very stable boat.
the stability will probably increase if the boat is longer.

personally I paddle a 17ft hard cine boat ( CLC 17LT)
that is 23 inches wide.

I find it very stable and have never had a problem fighting
stripers from any angle.

[Peter]

Thanks for the input. I was looking at a 17' hard chine kayak. Is there really a noticable difference in speed/cruising ease?

[Wes]

I don't think so. The differences in wetted surface area is small vs same boat with soft chines. You would probably see a noticable difference in cruising speed for boats of greatly different of lengths.