: Hi Brian,

: You may be right. When I first come on this board I posted this train of
: thought and most didn't think it was feasible. But I've got to try this,
: and its no extra work since I want the side storage anyway. I believe I
: remember a canoe company that had floatation in its gunnels as a safty
: feature to keep it from rolling when swamped. Also, I saw a story on the
: on the web of a man that thinks the paddle float rescue is dangerous
: because its complicated and the kayak/canoe is unstable after its filled
: with water, especially for children. He said a flooded but stablized boat
: wasn't hard to paddle to shore and that blow up sponsors are much safer
: and children can use this system with very little training and had no
: trouble paddling to shore. According to the book "SEA-KAYAKER,DEEP
: TROUBLE" you have less body heat loss if you are sitting in a flooded
: boat rather then being in the water, even though you may feel colder. The
: bottom line is you may have a half hour to rescue yourself in cold water
: before your body shuts down. The book had many stories of people getting
: back into their flooded unstable kayaks and falling right back into the
: water, mostly because of the rough conditions. Now, I try to visualize my
: kayak sitting in the water not flooded. If I try to get in from the side
: it will roll and flood. But when flooded the floation will take hold and
: the side of the kayak will be buoyant, just as if you grabbed onto a life
: jacket floating in the water. You can hardly sink it. This is how I see
: it, and I will do all of the tests this summer and post pictures on the
: board. I don't have any experience paddling a swamped boat as you do so I
: may be completely WET.

: Take care,
: John

Um..... I'd take the information that you read from the guy who thinks that every form of self rescue except sponsons is too dangerous & difficult with a grain of salt. If you're referring to the person I think you are, his agenda seems to be to discredit every method except for the one that he manufactures and sells... he has posted quite frequently to the newsgroup rec.boats.paddle -- where the majority of folks have filtered him out with their newsreaders so they don't see his posts (and where people who *do* respond to him there are flamed-- so if you want to check things out (both what he says and how people respond to him) I'd suggest that you do so by reading only, because responding will undoubtedly cause you to be flamed).

I, too, would caution against relying on the "paddle to shore in a swamped boat" as a first resort for self-rescue... unless you plan to stay within a stone's throw of the beach. A day at the lake doing some experimenting in safe conditions is a good thing.

Julie Kanarr