While I was gone kayaking Humboldt County for a week, Roger Lamb called me up to see if I wanted to go paddling with him. So when I got back I called him to explain why I didn't return his call earlier. Roger often goes for an exercise paddle in Spring Lake near his house so we arranged to meet there Tuesday evening. I had done some work trying to make a fabric footrest for my baidarka and wanted to try it out. I also thought that Spring Lake would wash the salt off my baidarka, so I brought it instead of my fiberglass Coaster. At the lake we serendipitously ran into another BASK member who was practicing in his new boat. I washed the salt off my boat by rolling it a few times then we started paddling up and down the lake. Roger likes to race across the lake every other time for exercise, so he took off at one point without notice. I took off after him to see how my baidarka behaves "at speed". I had made the boat narrow on purpose in the hopes that it would perform like a racing boat. But I was barely able to catch up with Roger in his Coaster, which is not rated as a very fast boat.
One way my baidarka does behave like a racing boat is how tipsy it is. When I first tried it out in the ocean it felt very unstable. When I discovered that it was difficult to roll, I became afraid to paddle the thing. Then I made a foam block to hold my knees in place and started working on a foot brace for it and discovered, at the Fort Ross Living History Day, that I could roll the boat if it was fitted to me better. So now that I'm no longer afraid of the boat tipping over I was willing to lean the boat farther and farther over in Spring Lake. I discovered that it does have some secondary stability: There is a point as you let the boat tip over where it stops wanting to fall over on its own. Leaning the boat like this while paddling also changes the shape of the hull in the water and causes the boat to turn without a rudder. So I'm getting happier and happier with the baidarka.
One thing I am not happy with yet is the footrest. I made a fabric "saddle" that clips onto rings screwed to the gunwale and Velcro's onto a rib on both sides of the keel. The forward pressure of my feet on the strap across the two gunwales is supposed to hold my heels up off the bottom of the boat. It doesn't work well. My heels still press down so hard that Roger could see them distending the hull fabric on the bottom when I rolled over. My toes are still curled back at the top of the boat, perhaps worse than before. After a few laps around the lake my feet hurt so much that I had to quit. Next I'll try making a rigid footrest.