Flotsam&Jetsam
Canot-camping
La Vérendrye
SaFEtY By douG alderSon
when
Hatches
Flood
do dry BaGS alone oFFer
enouGh Buoyancy?
WHAT WOULD HAPPeN to a fully
s6ASTWILDERNESSOFSQKM
loaded kayak if the waterproof hatches cata-
s7IDERESERVOIRSANDLAKESTOEXPLORE
strophically failed? We conducted this test to
sKMOFROUTESTOPADDLE
find out.

first we loaded a kayak for a two-week trip
(55 kilograms of gear and a 68 kilogram pad-
sCAMPSITESACCESSIBLEONLYBYWATER
dler). We used eight dry bags very carefully
s2ENTALOFALLCANOE
CAMPINGANDKAYAK
CAM
c
P
lo
I
se
N
d
G
wi

th
G
mo
E
st
A

R
of the air squeezed out—
s'ROUPSANDFAMILIESAREWELCOME some air retained for buoyancy—and the roll-
top closures rolled at least two full rotations.
Then we flooded the day hatch, and pro-
gressively flooded all the other hatches and
eventually the cockpit.
oto: FQCK
With the day hatch flooded, the kayak was
Ph
still stable and manoeuvrable.
With the rear hatch and day hatch flood-
ed, stability became difficult and manoeuvr-
ing became slow and awkward.
-ID
MAYTOMID
SEPTEMBER 

With the cockpit flooded, the kayak be-
-ID
SEPTEMBERTO-ID
MAY 

came unmanageable, with the rear edge of the
WWWCANOT
CAMPINGCAINFO CANOT
CAMPINGCA
cockpit coaming below the surface.
12 aDvENturE KaYaK | Summer/Fall 2009
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