: When I first came onto this board more then two years ago someone recommended
: that I read "Sea Kayaker-Deep Trouble by Matt Broze and George
: Gronseth." It was pretty scary and it seemed most kayakers died from
: hypothermia. Even experienced one in groups and in site of land that would
: get into trouble because of wind and waves. Some could even re-inter their
: kayak only to fall back out because the kayak was full of water and
: unstable in high seas, Hypothermia would go to work on them. Even when
: they didn’t die they had close calls of dying. So on my first kayak, which
: was 28" wide I put two side water tight storage compartment in that
: made it possible to craw over the side and into the boat when it was
: flooded and the boat didn’t spin over like a barrel tossing me back out.
: Then I could paddle to shore in a very stable flooded yak. That worked so
: well that I am thinking of doing something like that on my Shooting Star.
: I picture a one inch thick by six inch wide foam running the whole length
: of the yak from the gunnel down and on both sides and sandwiched in
: fiberglass. This would stabilize the yak when filled with water and keep
: it from rolling so easily. I think...

I don't think it will keep it from rolling so easily, but it will help.

In your 28" wide boat, you had a lot more width beside your hips. This area, when filled with your watertight compartment, minimized the "slosh" effect. The "Free Surface Effect", more technically...is limited to the middle 18" or so of your boat, so a big slosh of water isn't allowed to go as far past your center of buoyancy and tend to tip you over.

An inch of foam isn't going to have near the same effect.

However, water displaced is water displaced, and you will get less water in your cockpit when it's upside down (or on its side--where it picks up the most water). If one edge of your coaming is under water, and the foam is filling all the space below that, not much water can or will get in (unless a breaking wave does it).

So...you'll minimize the amount of water in the boat, minimizing instability from the free surface effect. Water that does get in the cockpit will still cause problems...but you can always pump that out.

The best thing to do, is, as you've shown in your photo--practice, practice, practice!!

Shawn